Rom. 1:7 and 1 Cor. 1:2 and elsewhere, called to be saints, implies (continued)
said more. See Eph. 2:1-10. 57. In Eph. 3 it is spoken of as a glorious mystery of God's will, contrived of old, and determined from the foundation of the world, and his eternal purpose, etc. that God would bring in the Gentiles as fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Which confirms the promises of the Old Testament; shows that they were not foretold only as foreseen, but foredetermined, as what God would bring to pass. This is also spoken of elsewhere, as the fruit of God's eternal purpose, his election, etc. as our adversaries acknowledge. 58. Sincerity itself is spoken of as coming from God. Phil. 1:10, "That ye may approve the things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence in the day of Christ." And elsewhere God is represented as "creating a clean heart, renewing a right spirit, giving a heart of flesh," etc. The apostle "gives thanks for the faith and love of the Colossians, their being delivered from the power of darkness, etc. and prays that they may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and might, agreeable to their knowledge, being fruitful in every good work; and for their perseverance, and that they might be made meet for the reward of the saints." Col. 1:3, 4, 9-13. This argues all to flow from God as the giver. Their first faith and their love that their faith was attended with, and their knowledge and spiritual wisdom and prudence, and walking worthy of the Lord, and universal obedience, and doing every good work, and increasing in grace and being strengthened in it, and their perseverance and cheerfulness in their obedience, and being made meet for their reward, all are from God. They are from God as the determining cause; else, why does the apostle pray that God would bestow or effect these things, it they be not at his determination whether they shall have them or not? He speaks of God's glorious power as manifested in the bestowment of these things. Col. 2:13, "And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him." Col. 3:10, "Have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." See how many things the apostle gives thanks to God for in the Thessalonians, and prays for them. 2 Thes. 1:3, 4, 11, 12; 1 Thes. 1:2 to the end, and chap. 2:13, 14, and chap. 3:9-13; chap. 5:23, 24; 1 Thes. 3:12, "The Lord make you to increase and abound in love," etc. 1 Thes. 4:9-10, "But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I should write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it towards all brethren." 1 Thes. 5:23-24, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, by preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that hath called you, who also will do it." 2 Thes. 1:3-4, "We are bound to thank God always for you, because your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we glory in you, for your faith and patience in all your persecutions and tribulations."…. The apostle thanks God for his own prayers, and for others, 2 Tim. 1:3. If they are from God, then doubtless our prayers for ourselves, our very prayers for the Spirit, are from him. The prophet ascribes persons' prayers to their having the spirit of grace and supplication. True acceptable prayer is spoken of, Rom. 8, as being the language of the Spirit: not that I suppose that the very words are indited, but the disposition is given. 2 Tim. 1:7, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Tim. 1:9, "Who hath saved us and called us with a 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."…. Heb. 13:20-21, "Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, and to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen." See Eph. 1:19, 20, and 1 Cor. 1, latter end. Heb. 12:2, "Jesus the author and finisher of our faith," compared with Phil. 1:5. Jam. 1:5-8, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God, that giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering; for he that wavereth, is like a wave of the sea, driven of the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he shall obtain anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." So that in order to a man's having any reason to expect to be heard, he must first have faith, and a sincere heart. And what that is which the apostle calls wisdom, may be learnt from Jam. 3:17, 18, "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to them that make peace." In Jam. 1:5, etc. above cited, God is spoken of as the giver of this wisdom, and in the following part of the chapter, he is spoken of as the giver of this and every benefit of that kind, everything that contains anything of the nature of light or wisdom, or moral good, and this is represented as the fruit of his mere will and pleasure. Jam. 1:16-18, "Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." See
John 1:13, and 3:8. The scope of the apostle, and connection of his discourse, plainly show that the apostle means to assert that all moral good is from God. In the preceding verses, he was warning those he wrote to, not to lay their sins, or pride, or lusts, to the charge of God. And on that occasion he would have them be sensible that every good gift is from God, and no evil, and that God is the Father of light and only of light and that no darkness is from him, because there is no darkness in him; no change from light to darkness; no, not the least shadow. What he says is plainly parallel to what the apostle John says, when he would signify God's perfect holiness without any sin; 1 John 1:5, 6, "This, then, is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." But if all moral good is from God, cometh down from him, and is his gift; then the very first good determination of the will, and every good improvement of assistance, is so. 1 Pet. 1:2-5, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope," (or a living hope, i.e. from the dead; to be begotten from the dead, in the phrase of the New Testament, is the same as to be raised from the dead. See Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5) "by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation." See Eph. 1:18-20 and Eph. 2 at the beginning. Phil. 2:13, "It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The plain meaning of this text is that it is God by his operation and efficiency who gives the will, and also