Chapter V
The reasons of the three persons making such a distinct discovery of themselves
in this work of our salvation, rather tlian in any other.
I come now to assign the reasons why the three persons chose this work of our salvation above all their other works, wherein to make such a dis
tinct discovery of themselves.
1. Because as the mystery of the Trinity is that great mystery of all
other, the mystery of God, and the Father, and of Christ, Col. ii. 2, the
highest of all things to be known of God, so this of man s salvation was the chiefest of all his ways and works, and the greatest and utmost stage to display his glory on.
2. In this channel the love of God did run most strongly, as being that wherein God would shew his love and grace, which is the intimacy of his heart most; it is therefore eminently called love to mankind.
3. God s love is herein shewed to his own, and therefore each person was
desirous, yea, zealous, to appear, that the love of each might be discerned and acknowledged, and that we in a special and peculiar respect might be
obliged unto each person, and bound to praise and glorify them accordingly ; to honour the Son and the Holy Ghost as well as the Father. In giving proofs from Scriptures of this partition, I shall not allege all such as
scatteredly attribute election to the Father, redemption to the Son, sanc-
tification to the Spirit, for such proofs would be inefficacious in this respect, that we find such works wherein they have a common hand scatteredly attributed unto each. When we are converted, we are said to hear the voice of the Son of God, John v. 25, 26; to be begotten of the Father, James i. 17; and born of the Spirit, John iii. 6. So creation is
scatteredly attributed to them all, and therefore to allege any one place
CHAP. V.] MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE. 535
singly for any such work, should but prove that that person is supposed to have had an hand therein, such as the rest have ; but if we find any
scriptures at once and together distinctly mentioning all three persons, and withal mentioning these three works, and then withal attributing one work
to the one, another to another person, in this case we may conclude, that
comparatively among themselves, one work is more eminently and properly to be ascribed to that person it is given to rather than the other, and that
they have sorted and distributed these three among them. Now for scrip tures I shall name but two.
In the first chapter to the Ephesians, election is attributed to the Father of Jesus Christ, who hath chosen us in him before the world was, ver. 4 ; and who hath set forth all those spiritual blessings we are blessed
withal, ver. 8.
2. In the 7th verse redemption is attributed to Christ as the author
thereof, whereas in election he was made as the subject in whom we were
chosen; but ver. 7, In whom we have redemption through his blood, as shed by him, and so the principal author and efficient of it. Then the ap
plication and sealing up of all is attributed to the Spirit: ver. 13, 14, In whom, after ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance, &c. The next scripture is 1 Pet. i. ver. 2, Elect according to the foreknow
ledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ.
The apostle Peter, to endear the hearts of all saints he wrote to unto
these three persons, singly shuts up their distinct agencies in our great and common salvation in as few words as possible to utter them in. Sal
vation was the subject he was to write them about, he in the front placeth and sets up the coat of arms of these three blessed ones as the joint foun
ders of our salvation, emblazoning what each did contribute thereunto.
1. Here are the three persons by name mentioned, Father, Spirit, Christ.
2. Here are three works mentioned, election, sanctification, blood, both shed and sprinkled.
3. And here is election attributed to the Father, elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father ; sanctification to the Spirit, and the blood said to be of Jesus Christ, which is the foundation of redemption, which is his work, as you heard, Eph. i. 7, In whom we have redemp tion through his blood, &c.
I observe that in mentioning election here, he doth not (as elsewhere) make mention of salvation as the end or designed scope of it, which yet is usual everywhere else. Salvation, which is the ultimate end or terminus of all (as verse 9 he terms the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls ) is in common the result of the work of all three, and in the verses
* begotten to an inhe
following he speaks of it as such again and again,
ritance, ver. 4, kept to salvation, ver. 5, and so ver. ), 10 , this is
the end of ends. But he mentions such intermediate works between elec
tion and salvation as are necessary and preparatory thereunto, as those which the persons undertook amongst them, as means through which sal
vation is to be obtained, as, 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14, the words evidently
import, that whereas God s ordination was, that without holiness no man should see God, Heb. xii., and without shedding blood there should be no remission, Heb. ix. 22, these persons among them took upon them
those works : the Father he electeth, and electing ordained holiness and
536 MAN S EESTORATION BY GRACE. [CHAP. V.
blood as the means through and by which we are to obtain salvation ; elect in or through, or unto sanctification, &c. The Spirit undertaketh sancti
fication, called therefore sanctification of the Spirit. You shall sanctify, said the Father to the Spirit ; and to the Son concerning his blood, It
shall be your blood that shall redeem them, said the Father, in electing of us. To clear and open these things a little as they are set down :
1. Election, which is there said to be according to foreknowledge, is not vocation in time, but that choice made from everlasting, as those two
< Whom he foreknew, he predestinated, Rom. viii. 29, which is all one as here, he elected according to foreknowledge, and toge ther here with that other, 2 Thes. ii. 13, He hath chosen you from the
parallel places shew :
beginning, that is, from everlasting ; according to foreknowledge is
added, to shew the moving cause of election, to exclude all other according of works, not according to works, as elsewhere, 2 Tim. i. 9, nor of holi
ness, or faith foreseen ; for he hath chosen us that we might be holy, Eph.
i. 3, 4, not because we were holy ; in holiness, or through holiness, to obtain salvation, 2 Thes. ii. 13, 14, as a means requisite to it. And so here it is not according to foreknowledge of our sanctification, but accord
ing to foreknowledge in and through sanctification, it is then the foreknow
ledge simply of our persons, abstracted from all condition, joined .with and
importing special love and dearest affection ; for words of knowledge import and declare affections in Scripture phrase
: Depart from me (says Christ), ye workers of iniquity, I know you not ; that is, I regard you not.
Answerably it is attributed to express God s knowledge of us with special love and regard
: Rom. xi. 2, God hath cast away his people whom he foreknew ; that is, loved and out of love chose them.
2. For those other that follow, for the order of them as they are here
ranged there is a seeming difficulty. Some understand them as set in
order, as they succeed one another in the execution of the electing decree, namely, that sanctification, whereby is meant the working all the
principles of habitual grace (which we call regeneration) by the Spirit, should be the first and immediate medium of election, according to that order or chain, Rom. viii., Whom he predestinated he called, under which
: and so
sanctification is intended as the first and next to predestination
then, unto obedience and sprinkling of Christ s blood comes in as the immediate consequents of that sanctification first wrought ; and so sancti
fication is the first most immediate designed fruit of election, though as a medium God hath elected or ordained us unto obedience and sprinkling of Christ s blood. Now, how obedience should follow upon sanctification
habitual, so as it might be said we are elected through habitual sanctifica tion unto obedience, understanding it of obedience in our whole course to the whole will of God, is easily understood, and granted by all to be the end of habitual grace, as operations are of their proper habits. But then how the sprinkling of the blood of Christ should be the consequent of sanc
tification, so as we should in like manner be said to be elected through sanctification unto this sprinkling of Christ s blood, this contradicts the received opinion, i. e., that justification should rather be the medium of sanc
tification, and in order to go afore it. And that by the sprinkling of Christ s blood here, the application of his blood to us for the forgiveness of sins should be meant, is evident, for as shedding of his blood was the work of
redemption, as performed by him on the cross, so the sprinkling of his blood is a work done upon us when we actually come to believe, and is the actual application of it.
CKAP. V.] MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE. 537
Now yet this might stand, if as learned Mr Pemble and others assert, sanctification doth, in order of nature, precede justification, and which to me seems not remote from truth, or prejudicial to the grace of justifica tion at all, and withal consonant to right reason, for if (as all grant) justifi
cation be upon an act of faith on Christ for justification, and that not until then we are justified, as all do and must acknowledge that hold justifica tion by faith, according to the Scriptures, and that an act of faith must
proceed from a principle of faith habitually wrought, then necessarily sanc-
tification, taking it for the principles of habitual sanctification, must be in
order of nature afore justification ; for the seed and principle of faith is a
part, and a principal part, of regeneration or sanctification, as taken in that
sense, for the working the principles of all grace, and so is agreeable to
that order and chain, Rom. viii. 29, where called is put before being
justified, as predestination is put before being called, understanding call
ing, of the working the principles of regeneration.
But for the agreeing of this dispute as from this place, we may easily accord it, if (as Paroeus) we say that all these three, sanctification, obe
dience, and sprinkling of Christ s blood, are not mentioned here in any subordination of the one to the other, as a precedent and medium there
unto, but all of them alike directly and equally to relate to election as
the immediate thing designed, and so these two particles ev ayiac/AZ and
eig viraxoqv, come both to one, as in Scripture they are used to do, and so
they should be read, as also the vulgar reads them in sanctijicationem et
obedientiam, elect unto sanctification unto obedience and sprinkling of the
blood of Christ. Thus much as to the order of the things here men
tioned, supposing by obedience here to be meant the whole course of a
Christian s life in holiness.
But, secondly ; for the things themselves. I prefer another interpreta
tion, above all other, which doth give this account of the apostle s scope to
be to enumerate two more eminent effects of election, namely, sanctifica
tion and justification, whereof the first is attributed more specially to the
Spirit, the other to faith and the blood of Christ ; as, in like manner, Bom.
viii. 29, calling and justification are only enumerated of the benefits in this
life that follow predestination ; whom he hath predestinated, them he hath
called, them he hath justified. But then, how should obedience be inter
preted, so as to appertain unto justification, which if meant of actual holi
ness of life, it is opposed rather thereunto, according to the protestants doctrine. The papists, that close with this interpretation of justification to be intended in the yoking obedience and Christ s blood together,
greedily catch hold of it,* that therefore our good works and actual obe
dience is an ingredient matter of our justification, as well as the blood of
Christ. And you all know they make our obedience to halve it and bear a
share of that glory with the blood of Christ, but they fall short of their aim
in it, in this, that according; to their doctrine habitual sanctification is to come in also as an ingredient with it, as that which helps to constitute us
righteous ; whereas in the apostle s speech, obedience and the sprinkling of
Christ s blood, as they are linked one to another, so they are separated both from the sanctification of the Spirit.
Others of our protestant divines do therefore refer these things to
justification as the two parts thereof, the imputation of the active and
passive obedience of Christ; and so as that part of justification, the
sprinkling of Christ s blood, which is the imputation of it to us, is * See 2Estius in locum.
MAN S EESTOEATION BY GRACE. [CHAP. V.
expressly mentioned, so that by obedience should be intended, by an
ellipsis, the imputation of the obedience of Christ, namely, the active obedience coupled with his blood. This interpretation (as I remember) Bishop Downam glanceth at in his Treatise of Justification, where I first met with it ; but I meet with it hinted also in commentators : In obedientiam Jesu Christi et aspersionem sanguinis ejusdem Jesu, says ^Estius,* unto the obedience of Jesus Christ, and sprinkling of the blood of Christ; his meaning is, that the first branch is to be made out and supplied by the analogy of the latter, -as is often in Scripture, that as therefore it is
expressly said to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, so it should be in like manner supplied to the imputation or benefit of the obedience of Jesus Christ imputed. This, if there be not harshness or violence in it, I should wish might stand, because it helps out the active obedience to be the matter of our justification. And truly the argument of some against it, that we are not said to be elected unto Christ s obedience so understood, but rather by it, or through it, moves me not, because Christ s merits were not the foundation or motive to election, nor are we anywhere said to be elected through Christ, or for Christ ; so as notwithstanding that interposed scruple, this might well stand.
But there is another reason which is more plausible, and which gives as
just an account why obedience is cast into and linked thus with Christ s
blood, as appertaining unto justification, and as requisite to it as Christ s blood is, and that is that Peter understood obedience of justifying faith as
it embraceth, receives, and submits unto Christ s blood, and the imputation of it for justification before God; and so this act of faith, as it is abstracted from sanctification and works, as viewing, and eyeing, and submitting unto Christ s blood and obedience only for justification, is therefore joined therewith in the work of justification here intended ; and truly the reasons on this hand rise up to a great evidence, if not certainty, that Peter should so mean.
< obedience to the faith, Wffrti, as Acts vi. 7, in the dative case, as noting out obedience to the doctrine of
1. For, first, it is not only called
faith, but it is expressly termed foraxojg xiffrtuz, the obedience of faith, in the genitive case, as noting out the act of faith, its being termed by way of eminency, obedience. So Kom. i. 5. and chap. xvi. 26. Yea, in
chap. x. 16, obedience to the gospel is interpretatively and exegetically made all one as to believe, in these words, They have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who hath believed our report? where he interprets our report to be the gospel, or glad tidings, and believing to be all one with obedience to it. And indeed, for men to renounce their own righteousness past, present, and to come, and betake themselves
* submit themselves to the righteousness of God, this is the greatest and highest obedience, and deserves the name KUT s%o%qv; and the apostle having deciphered it forth as so great a submission in the beginning of that
wholly unto, or (as the apostle s word in the same chapter is) to
chapter, under those terms, might well call it obedience in the following part; and he evidently speaks of justifying faith in opposition unto works, as is evident by the 5th and 6th verses; and so in like manner, when in
chapter i. he calls it obedience, he means that faith by which the just do
live, ver 17, of which he treats in the whole Epistle.
2. That which confirms this interpretation, that by obedience should be * JEstius was a papist, and intended not our justification by either ; yet if ia this his reading the words he gives us light therein, we may receive it.
CHAP. V.] MAN S RESTOKATION BY GKACE. 539
meant the act of justifying faith, is that in that parallel place, 2 Thes. ii. 13, we are said to be elected through sanctification, or in or unto sanctification,
* and belief of the truth. Faith is joined with sanctification there when election to the medium of salvation is spoken of.
3. And thirdly, as Paul, so Peter himself also in this chapter termeth
* You have purified your souls by obeying the truth jj* and so look as Paul calls it belief of the truth, Peter terms it obeying the truth ; and as Paul calls it obedience simply, so Peter here also. And that in this
faith obedience :
speech, Ye have purified your hearts by obeying the truth, he means
faith, as eyeing justification or Christ s blood in the gospel, for cleansing and purifying the conscience from the guilt of sin, is evident by Peter s own
speech elsewhere, in that great synod, Acts xv. 9, God hath purified their hearts by faith, which he by the coherence evidently speaks of, viz.,
justification by faith ; for whether we were justified by faith only, or by observing the law, was the point in question there, as in like manner in the Epistle to the Galatians, which also that of Heb. ix. 10, 13, 14, 15, &c., confirms.
4. Fourthly, Faith as justifying is eminently called obedience in the
point of justification coupled with Christ s blood here, and the imputation of it, as the proper object of that act, and the true effect or consequent of that act, according as you have it, Rom. iii. 25, God hath set forth Christ as a propitiation, through faith in his blood. And thus understanding these words, we may by sanctification of the
Spirit understand, habitual sanctification in the heart, and take in actual
sanctification in the life as included therein, as it is usually taken, and in
that 2 Thes. ii. 13, forecited, and then faith justifying as the act, under the name of obedience and Christ s blood as the object thereof, and the
sprinkling or application of it by the Spirit upon that act of obedience.
And thus all three persons come in, in their proper work for us (which is the thing I aim at)
: 1, the Father in election; 2, the Son, as shedding whose blood it is, The blood of Jesus Christ, and that first shed for our
* in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin, as Eph. i. 7, and who by his own blood obtained eternal redemption for us, Heb. ix. 12 ; and although the
redemption or justification from sin,
sprinkling of this blood to the purifying of our hearts by faith is a work of the Spirit, as well as sanctification is said to be, and this in Peter s intentment, for, ver. 22, he says, having purified your souls to the obedience of the truth by the Spirit, yet the first shedding of that blood (which sprink
ling thereof necessarily supposeth) was by Christ himself; and by his blood, as shed by him, it is we are justified when it comes to be sprinkled on us or applied unto us. The efficacy and the virtue of it, lay in that it was his
blood, and shed by him to that end; therefore, Heb. ix., where this matter
is handled and opened out of the type, having, ver. 24, said he sprinkled the blood, in the 22d verse he adds, Without shedding blood there is no remission ; so as the emphasis here lies in the blood of Christ even as shed, but now applied and eyed by faith ; and so the proper eminent work of the second person, the Son, is held forth, as well as of the Spirit, and thus all here falls in with what you have, 1 Cor. vi. 8, But now you are washed, which is the general to the two parts of purification that follow, But ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, where justification follows after sanctifi
cation here. And here he attributeth these two works unto these two
persons, the Son and the Spirit, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and sanctified by the Spirit our God ; sanctification being by the Spirit,
54:0 MAN S RESTORATION BY GRACE. [CHAP. VI.
as justification in the name of Jesus Christ ; or by the Spirit as the author of both, but by Christ as the purchaser and meritorious cause of either ; in the name or virtue of Christ. And of our God comes in as having an hand in both. And thus much for the confirmation of this great point, which withal hath took in the opening of this obscure and difficult place.