Chapter V
The infinity of grace and condescension in God, the high and lofty One, to ordain such an union and communion with himself of us his creatures, who
are at such a distance from him as we are creatures; and more than doubly
infinite grace, in that we are also sinners.
Use. You have, then, great reason to adore our holy, and "great, and blessed God for this his original and foundation grace of ordaining this high and
supercreation union of and communication with himself, and of yourselves thereunto. My exhortation is, that under the contemplation of God s height and greatness, you would especially adore his grace, according to the tenor
of the angels song, Glory be to God on high, goodwill to men, &c., Luke
ii. 14. My intent is not upon this occasion to magnify this benefit itself, and shew how great this union in itself is ; but to magnify the grace of God s
heart himself in ordaining it, and us thereunto.
Only touching the union itself, I shall say but two things at the present, that shew the greatness of this our union.
1. First, That bate but two things, which you that are mere creatures are
eternally incapable of. 1. Never think to become God himself; I will not
again say not only bate, but abhor, that thought. First, you must be so
united to him as God and you may still remain distinct beings for ever. And indeed this were not union, but sameness and identity ; but yet so near
will this oneness be, as God will be all in all to you, and
* all the fulness
of God shall fill you, as Eph. iii. 1 9 ; and so fill you, as the fire of an hot
furnace doth a small piece of iron cast into it (when yet not dissolving it, or
converting it into fire itself), that you see not, or discern not the iron, but
it appears to be altogether fire ; it so fills, penetrates, and throughout possesseth it. So in glory, yourselves will not mind or think of your own selves, or of your glory as yours, through your being swallowed up into the thoughts and enjoyments of his glory shining in and through you. 2. Bate you also
that union which the man Jesus hath with God (God s first fellow), which
is to be one person with him that is God, and so by inheritance to have the
name, and be styled, Son of God, yea, God, &c., though his creature frame remains distinct from God eternally, in Col. ii. 9, The fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, that is, personally, in him, as bodily notes (which I cannot stand to shew) in our and other languages. When you would sig
nify and denote a person, you use the denomination of a body; such a body did this, you use to say, and somebody ; yea, and nobody, that is, no person. As body signifies person, so bodily personally; and thus the Godhead dwells
bodily in Christ by his union with the person of the Son of God. But this
is his transcendent privilege alone. Would you be all Christ s ? I pray, content yourselves ; there is but one Lord Jesus Christ, and we by him, 1 Cor. viii. 6.
But, excepting these two, call all the angels and spirits of men made
perfect, and let them imagine for you the sublimest, highest, nearest union with God else, and communication of God himself accordingly, and you shall have them, and be perfect in one, as Christ says, as we are one, John xvii. 11.
2. The second thing I say of this union, it is indissoluble : Who shall
116 OF ELECTION. [BOOK II.
separate us from the love of God ? Kom. viii. 35. And if not from his love, then not from himself; for his love made the union, and will never suffer
a separation. Neither his height, who is the high and lofty One, shall work
in his heart, the looseness of his heart towards you, nor any, nor all, of that
depth of sin and misery; for his love hath an height, and depth, and breadth, and length in it passeth yours. And in this our union (as in other things) transcends that of Adam s by the law of his creation ; the least sin dissolved
it, it was but a running knot ; and how slight and slender an union and
friendship must that be founded upon, quamdiu bene se gesserit, and which the least wry, unwary thought may unknit ! And so the creature could look at the love of God with it, but as might be turned away. And to love, or apprehend one s love to me as one that may perhaps one day hate me, this
is venmum amicitia, the poison of friendship.
This for the union itself; now for the greatening of the grace thereof
(which is my proper scope). I shall only refer you to God himself; hear what himself speaks of it, and what he sets it forth by; how he himself values the favour of it who best knows how to value it, that is, best
acquainted with himself, and knows what he bestows on us, when he unites himself.
The scriptures I refer you to for this are, Isa. Ivii. 15, Tor 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 con
trite ones; parallel with Isa. Ixvi. 1, 2, Thus saith the Lord, The heaven
is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build to 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 that trembleth at my word.
1. It is union with his poor creatures which he here indigitates, and holds up to their view, as the great benefit bestowed. With him will I dwell ; by which phrase, in the New Testament, union with God and Christ are still expressed, as also in the Old : 1 John iv. 15, 16, Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love ; and he that loveth, dwelleth in God, and God in him. And the highest union of the Son of God, in and with the human nature, is termed the dwell ing of the Godhead bodily or personally, Col. ii. 9. Now, the course God takes to magnify this his grace of union, or indwell ing in us, is, by setting forth the greatness of himself in a comparative with our meanness and lowriess.
I shall not here at large or industriously set forth his height or loftiness, that is not my main design at present, though that was elsewhere my argu ment upon the same text, which I opened then, to shew the distance of God from the creature ; but at present my single intent and purpose is to glorify this grace of union.
Brethren, God here appears in and puts on as great a glory as anywhere else the Scriptures do express, and he doth it to endear the condescension of his love in uniting himself unto us. I shall make instance of it in each par ticular, whereby he sets forth his greatness.
(1.) The high and lofty One : high, for the transcendency and excellency t his being; lofty, for his sovereignty and dominion. To speak to each.
[l.J The high One, or Most High, a title frequently given him in Scrip ture, and even by the devil himself:
< God most high, Luke viii. 28. And
CHAP. V.J OF ELECTION. 117
it notes out his divine being and essence to be of another kind than his
creatures are of ; yea, and infinitely surpassing theirs in that respect ; as in
Eph. iv. 5, 6, One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of
all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 1. He is said to be above all, denoting the sublimity of his Godhead and being; and in an higher kind excelling theirs. And, 2dly, he is through all, in respect of the im
mensity of his being, that extendeth to and pierceth through all. Or if you look that other parallel place, Isa. Ixvi. 1, 2,
* 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 ; where God, comparing himself in like manner with
his creatures, speaks thus slightly of them and their existence. These ! why, these have my hands made, and made out of nothing
! which expresseth their
utter difference in kind from him, as well as his efficiency; for what are the
artificial works of any man s hands unto what himself is that made them ? and bespeaks of their existence. Those words all these have been Pareus renders per eum existunt.
Now stand aghast, my brethren, to think that infinite pure being of his
(which runs through all immixed with his creatures ; and that, in the kind
of it, doth transcend and differ, as a man doth from a picture he hath drawn ; or as the rational soul or an intelligent spirit doth from the body of a man, or the sensitive soul in him, or in a brute) should contract so near an one ness with us his poor saints. When Adam was to have a companion, God
brought all sorts of earthly creatures to him for him to choose one out of ; but they being none of them of his kind, he refused them all. And shall God vouchsafe to mingle himself with us, and dwell in us, as the soul doth
in the body, be one with us, and make us companions with himself, yea, and reckon us as himself. It is spoken of as a debasement of our souls that
their condition should be to dwell in houses of clay, Job iv. 19, and their foundation to be in the dust ; and will he that is the potter dwell in his earthen pots he makes, and become one with them ; for him that is above all and through all, as you have it in Eph. iv. 6. It is the immensity of his
being that he fills heaven and earth, and he were not God if he were not so immense. For this God to be in you all (which is spoken of the saints with a discriminating difference from all else, and to enhance the grace of which he had rehearsed those other) is grace indeed, and a presence infinitely be
yond that common to them with all things, of being through them.
Put together these two ; that he that is above all in the eminency of his
being, and but through all things else, should further be in you all. And
there is the grace.
[2.] The lofty One ; which imports, 1, that, according unto that height of
his being, he might, in a grandeur answerable thereunto, carry it towards
his creature loftily and aloof ; and might, out of a due and just valuation of
himself, so keep off from any communion with them. Sure I am the Scrip ture speaks at this rate of him as of what he might do, and that out of lofti
ness, when it says that it is an humbling of him to cast an eye, or so much
as a thought, upon any of his creatures ; not on earth only, but in heaven. This is expressly spoken of him : Ps. cxiii. 5, 6, Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high ; who humbleth himself to behold the
things that are in heaven and in the earth. It is as if he had said, It is a condescension or stooping, a coming down from his loftiness, to cast a
thought or look upon any of them under any consideration ; to take them
OF ELECTION. [BOOK II.
so much as to be the object of his cogitation. And in this sense we use the
phrase of one who, knowing his own worth and height, and rating himself
proportionably, that he is too lofty to deign to do such or such a thing, that
is far below him. Oh, therefore, how far must he be from deigning to have
any such a thought or inclination as to be one with us, and to dwell in us,
and exchange thoughts, affections, and joys with us in so near a manner!
yea, bestow even himself upon us ! I had almost said, to cast himself away
! I will make this supposition (if it could be
upon such worthless things
supposed), that if any creature should ever have so presumed and aspired as
to have made such a but far-off motion to him, how would he, put of
^his loftiness, have with indignation rejected it, and them that made it ! Well,
but this grace within himself made the motion for us, and caused this lofty One to think of it.
It is said in Scripture that he purposed all things within himself, Eph.
i. 11 ; and to be sure this, of all others, must have been purposed within
himself, and have come from himself, and that makes the grace of it.
2c%. The lofty One ; that is, in respect of absolute sovereignty, as in
1 Tim. vi. 15 he is described, Who is the blessed and only potentate, the
King of kings, and Lord of lords. And further, to make it appear he is so, he hath a Son that is lesser than himself, considered as God-man, namely,
Christ, and who is accordingly styled the Prince of the kings of the earth, Rev. i. 5 (even as the king s son "hath the title of prince under the king his
father), whom he will, in his times, one day shew, and cause to appear in
glory, as it is in the same place of Timothy. And this his Prince or Son,
* the King of
less than himself, is yet under him as God-man, styled also
kings and Lord of lords.
Think with yourselves, then, but of a great and lofty spirited prince, that
is Lord of all, that he should deign to unite to himself the lowest beggar, and take her into his bosom, and bestow his son or prince upon her in mar
riage, and unite himself therewith in the nearest tie and bond of union. And yet earthly kings are but kings by birth, and in their essence or nature
but of the same kind as other men ; and yet this doth God. To conclude
* neither height, nor depths, shall
this : in Rom. viii. 39 you read that
separate from this love of God in Christ Jesus. Shall not separate implies an union made ; heights are those heights of God s loftiness, in being so
infinitely above us ; the depths are your depths of lowness, miseries, and sins. Now these hindered not his conjunction with us at first, nor shall they ever
separate or work off his heart from us. In marriages of persons mean by
birth, though perhaps rich, with or into the nobility, it is often seen that
their height and loftiness makes them in time despise those they have mar
ried, and to have their hearts taken off from them for the disproportion in
respect of meanness, so that it proveth in the long-run an uncomfortable union. But it is not thus with the lofty heart of our God. His loftiness and your lowness, his heights and your depths, make the happiest union that ever was, because it is his grace makes it and brings it about, and holds us together.
2. Who inhabiteth eternity; that is, 1, when none of these his creatures bad a being, but made in the beginning of time, Gen. i. 1; whereas he, for an eternity of time past, when there was no creature with him, as Prov. viii., ver. 23-32, dwelt alone in himself, who is his own eternity, and is an house to himself, completely furnished within himself, and hath no need of us or anything, nor would not have had unto all eternity to come : Acts xvii. 24, 25,
< God, that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands :
CHAP. V.J OF ELECTION. 119
neither is worshipped with men s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things. They thought their
gods such (as Paul s speech implies), that they contributed a glory unto them
to build them temples, to invite them to come and dwell and receive worship and sacrifices from them offered therein.
And the vulgar Jews had some like narrow conceits of our great God, as that our parallel place, Isaiah Ixvi. 1, insinuates ; for what doth God say there to them ?
* 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 ? Which is as if he had said, This temple, nor all these things, are neither worthy of me, to be a place or dwelling to me, nor have they all room enough to hold me, that they should be my rest, to take contentment in.
Solomon himself, after he had built that stately temple (the wonder of the world whilst it stood), when he came to dedicate it by that solemn
prayer, 1 Kings, chap, viii., that God would dwell in it, and hear all sorts of
petitions made in it, or towards it, as the throne of his presence, doth, in the midst and full career of his prayer, make a stand, and puts a strange check or correction to himself, and a stop to his petitioning any further : ver. 27, But will God indeed dwell on the earth ? Behold the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have builded ! Whereas God s promise to dwell therein was the very corner stone of his prayer, laid at the entrance of it: ver. 12, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness, which he builds all his petitions upon. This so abrupt a clause and parenthesis to a prayer that had run on so smoothly for so long a series of such petitions for God s presence, seems
at first blush to have been a recalling or calling into question that his foun
dation. But it was either a divine rapture, an ecstasy, swallowing up his soul into an adoration of God s infinite graciousness so to descend, or that
his faith took breath a little, by a brief query made unto God, seeking to draw and suck in from him a confirmation and strengthening of his faith
therein, that so immense a God should thus dwell, &c., was a thing became too big for his narrow faith to retain, without some new impression from God to enlarge and widen it. And truly, by such free queries made in
prayer, the saints often draw from God manifestations and impressions of
his love ; as to say, But wilt thou indeed pardon, and yet love me, or the
like. For that this should have been vox dubitantis, the voice of unbelief or of doubting, I cannot well suppose, although the thing was, but that God had said it, in itself utterly incredible, because that, ere he began his prayer, he saw with his eyes the presence of God filling this temple, ver. 11. And
having his faith fully confirmed there, he at the beginning of his prayer rehearsed the promise God had long before made of dwelling in it, ver. 12, which the dark cloud was the testimony of. I understand it, therefore, to have been vox admirantis, the voice of admiration and astonishment, pro ceeding from a strong faith of it. His spirit was stounded at the thoughts of it, whilst he was carrying it all along in his prayer, and was indeed the main petition in and of his prayer ; and therefore when he had recovered
himself, or came, as it were, to himself again, having uttered this, he goes on in the next verse, 28, as he had done before, Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, Lord my God, and so on ; so as this, bat will God indeed dwell on earth, and in a temple made by me ? This was but a stounding parenthesis, that so immense a God, whom the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain, should vouchsafe to dwell, &c., and it is as if he had said with wonderment, But is this true,
120 OF ELECTION. [BOOK II.
! A
and true indeed ? Oh, infinitely strange, and beyond all imagination
condescension that would never have entered into the heart of man, and
never enough to be admired at. Thus this proceeded not out of doubting
of the thing, though thus great, but from an adoration of God that he should
vouchsafe it, considering his infmiteness and immensity, thus to lower him
self to dwell under so unworthy a roof ; as that centurion also spake of Christ, whom this temple of Solomon s did typify. However it was, whether the
one or the other, or both, either serves as a great step to my purpose, which
is to greaten the grace of God in dwelling on earth ; and withal, take this
along with you, that the prophet Isaiah his grand wondering, and this of
Solomon s, was, that he that inhabiteth eternity before heaven or the heaven
of heavens were built, or a stone thereof laid, should thus do.
But will you have me unfold the mystery of all this admiration of Solo mon s, and bring it down more home to my scope in hand ? For God to
have dwelt thus in that outward pile of building, the stone, gold, and furni
ture of Solomon s temple, as understood in the outward letter, was not the
great object that Solomon s faith or wonderment was exercised about ; yea, that simply or abstractly, or alone considered, if no mystery had been in it, was not at all to have been believed. For, if so, then it had been contra
* God that made
dictory to that we heard from the apostle, Acts xvii. 24,
the world dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
Solomon s temple, indeed, was God s ordinance, having the promise of
his presence ; but there was this further deep and great mystery intended
by it, which Solomon s faith and the believing Jew had in their eye, and
that we must understand to have been the subject of his admiration as well
as of his faith.
This temple, and the ark in the holy of holies thereof, in which God
dwelt between the cherubims, was his Christ that was to come in the flesh, God s Immanuel, or God with us, even the fulness of the Godhead dwelling
bodily and substantially in an human nature, whereof this temple and ark were but the shadow (which opposition of shadow and body is another inter
pretation we may take in, to make that phrase of dwelling bodily complete). It is Christ who is that true tabernacle to be in heaven, which not man but God pitched, and was to be the ark of his testament, as Christ under the new testament is called. And Christ not being then to come, there was
nothing extant on the earth visibly to signify that presence and union of God with man by, as this of Solomon s did ; so as this of Solomon s was in a shadow ordained to be, and hud promises belonging to it, and a reverence
peculiar to it, though it was but a dwelling in darkness, as ver. 12 of
1 Kings viii., and in a shadow. This temple likewise signified God s church and saints on earth, and in heaven likewise, as those in whom God dwells by so intimate a presence ; which inhabitation of his in them, is by derivation from and in the virtue of that personal union that the man Jesus (typed by the ark) had with the Son of God, and dwelling in him therewith.
By these things forelaid, the subject-matter of Solomon s wonderment,
1 Will God indeed dwell on earth ? doth prove to be really and indeed intended (though thus veiled under the temple, and Solomon s admiration so immense a God should dwell in it) of a wonderment that this God should vouchsafe to dwell in the temple of Christ s human nature, as Christ himself calls his body, John ii. 19, and the fulness of the Godhead bodily fill and possess it ; and that then, through him, in the hearts of all his saints, his
mystical body, whether in earth or heaven, united unto him as the head. And we that live under the new testament, and understand the mystery of
CHAP. Y.] OF ELECTION. 121
all these things, should therefore fall into a far deeper astonishing admira
tion, with ravishment, at the thoughts of this, as Solomon did at God s
dwelling in his temple, and this when we shall further consider that Solo
mon, in this his prayer of consecration of his temple, did therein sustain the
type of our Jesus, consecrating his flesh and human nature, by strong cries, and tears, and humblings of himself to his Father, whereof the 16th Psalm and 22d Psalm (made for him), are evidences, as also his story and the
epistle to the Hebrews shew. So that, indeed, this argument in hand will
rise in this : that the man Jesus wondered as much at his own advance ment unto this honour, that God should vouchsafe to dwell personally in so
sorry and poor a man as himself (considered as a creature) was ; and that he says as well as Solomon, for Solomon doth it as representing him, And
will God indeed dwell in a tabernacle of flesh, and by virtue of that union
take me up into glory ? So near himself that I should be able to say, I in my Father, and my Father in me ? Oh, wonderful ! And if all this will not make an impression hereof on you, that even this done to Christ (who
is that holy Thing, that holy One, &c.) is matter of such astonishment. Then add to this of Solomon s, that other more clear testimony of David his
father in Ps. viii., wherein, whether you understand David himself as a pro phet taking up the like aghastment to speak in his own person, or whether in
the name and person of Christ, he utters it as that which the man Jesus as man should take up
* What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man, that thou visitest him ? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, arid hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet. And
: his words of him are these, ver. 4, 5, 6,
that he speaks these things of Jesus as he is man, the application the apostle makes of these words, as properly intended of Christ, so as of no man else, in the 2d chapter to the Hebrews, ver. 6-9, do directly shew : But one in
a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him ?
or the son of man, that thou visitest him ? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels ; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet
all things put under him : but we see Jesus, that was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour. Yea, and it may well be thought that David uttered this as in the name and person of the man Jesus himself ; for he had the fullest experi ence, and knew best what these high and glorious visitations of grace, or
dealings of God, proper and peculiar to himself, were, and which were such
as were vouchsafed to none else of the sons of men. He therefore had the
greatest cause to speak these things himself unto his Father, who, though a
Son, learned obedience, and to know what a man he was in distance from God. And surely if David spake these things of him by way of wonder
ment, and they therefore being true of him, he therefore did frequently in
his soliloquies with his father utter the same, or what were equivalent thereto, so as to meditate and say to God, Oh what was I, and what am I, the son of man, so sorry a man, that thou shouldst thus visit me, or that thou shouldst be thus mindful of me ! that is, set thy heart so on me, to visit me in my incarnation at first, when thou tookest my frail flesh into union with thy eternal Word and Son ; and that I should be called the Son of God, and bear the name of thy Immanuel, God with us, by virtue of that union ; and that thou shouldst then make this flesh or manhood of mine, by being
122 OF ELECTION. [BOOK II.
through death made lower than the angels, the means and instruments of so
great a service to thee as to save by my death thine elect of the sons of
men; and then, after that work performed, I should be crowned with glory
and honour, far above all principalities and powers, and have dominion over
all the works of thy hands, and have all things put under my feet. My
brethren, you may extract much of the substance of this language out of
many passages in John xvii., and his prayer in the garden ; as to which
latter, tbe 7th and 8th verses of the 5th chapter to the Hebrews, I take to
be a comment upon it, Who in the days of his flesh, when he had ottered
Tip prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that
was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared ; though
he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
And now when thou hast seen Solomon, David, and Christ himself, won
dering at this, then return to thyself and fall down afore this God, and
wonder at thyself and the rest of thy fellow-sinners, that God should deign
thus to visit and mind thee and them, and say, Oh what is man, that thou
art mindful of him, that we, such worms and wretches, should be thus and
in this manner so highly honoured as for the high God to dwell in us ; and
will God indeed dwell in such houses of clay, mingled with sin, and make
us his temple ? Thus, 2 Cor. vi. 16, You are the temple of the livin
God ; and Rev. xxi. 2, 3, And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them,
and be their God. Where the church is described, 1, by her union with
Christ, ver. 2, as being his bride ; and then by their union with God, and
his dwelling in them, ver. 3. And if Solomon wondered God should dwell
in that his temple, made of the best and gloriousest of inanimate creatures
the world affords, but such as never had displeased him, and if David and the man Jesus wonder that God should so dwell in him who was the holy One of
God, how much more that he should dwell in us, who were once temples of
Satan, and in whom at present sin dwells, as Rom. vii. 20. Oh infinite
grace
And having thus led you along through these windings, and landed you at
the same point we began with, let your thoughts thus possessed return again
to our prophet Isaiah, who raiseth this wonder far higher than Solomon did, and reflect with yourselves and say
: Oh, that ever that God that hath not
the heaven of heavens only to dwell in, which yet cannot contain him , but
that hath had eternity to dwell in still, should ever ordain to dwell in a
cottage that was built but yesterday, and take that up for his eternal habi
tation, cages of sin and uncleanness, and bring eternity down with him, the
fulness of God into so narrow a heart, yea, and to fill them, in the end, with
all the fulness of God, as in that 3d to the Ephesians, ver. 19, ye have it ; that the whole blessedness of God should come down into thy heart, who
extendeth himself to fill all eternity, both past and to come, in one instant. And because thou wert not extant then with him, during his eternity, nor knewest none of what his thoughts were then, for him to bring with him down into thy soul all the thoughts of love and affection, and all his dearest
delights he had then of thee and in thee, during that eternity, whereof you
read, Prov. viii., when he was alone. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost together; and so possess thee of his eternity past, as far as it is possible for thee to be possessed of it ; and to gratify thee so far as to open the full mystery of
his will, the intimacies of his counsels so far as they do concern thee ; to
discover the manifold contrivements of his wisdom impregnated of love, in-
CHAP. V.] OF ELECTION. 123
tended aforehand ; and forecast how to shew his love in the most ample and graceful way to thee, thereby to take thy heart. He will bring down, I
say, with him into thy heart, all those everlasting transactions he had with
Christ about thee ; all the promises he made to him for thee, as Titus i. 2 ;
all the blessings which in his own gracious purposes he had continually a
design of blessing thee with in Christ. That these and all other the deep
things of God, the bottom of his heart, as the apostle styles them, which
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, but which God then was a-preparing for them that were to love him, these he will reveal ; whereof some, and in part, his Spirit, who searcheth the deep things of God, doth now in this life upon sense of union, begin to make known, as things freely given us of God. And the whole that remains, will God himself, in that other world, fully unfold and relate unto thee, for the space of another eternity yet to come, as being time little enough to do it in ; for, oh, how many are thy thoughts to us-ward ! If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered, says he, that was our friend and his counsellor, Ps. xl. 5 ; and that that psalm was penned for him the next verse shews.
3. Again, thirdly, in Isa. Ixvi. 1, you have this also mentioned: Thus
saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool ; and where is the house ye build me, and where is my rest ? And in Isa. Ivii.
15, I that dwell in the high and holy place ; it is I that dwell with you and in you ; that is, that he, who hath built himself a throne for himself, which is in heaven, an high and holy place (as Nebuchadnezzar, forsooth,
says, he built himself a palace, for the glory of his majesty, so he foolishly
boasted) ; that this God should choose to build another throne for himself to
dwell in, in a poor and broken spirit ; and therein by grace to reign, as Rom. v. 21, as being a spirit, of all other, so disposed and framed as to give
grace the honour and dominio/ti of all. Kings use to say, that the hearts of
their subjects are their surest and best throne, and to sit in which they most
delight ; and be assured of it, that God accounts your hearts a greater throne than what that high and holy place, the local heavens, is to him, which is
called holy, because the glory of the holy God doth so appear there, as no unclean thing did ever enter it, or can abide in it ; and that God magnifies this place so much that he hath holy spirits with him there, and none other, whose holy hearts, and the glory they give him therein, he accounts a far more
glorious throne than the place ; for it was for them he did build and prepare the place, as Christ speaks, John xiv. 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 you may be also ; and Heb. xi. 16,
* But now they desire a better
: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called
country, that is, an heavenly
their God : for he hath prepared for them a city. And thus much is in
sinuated in Isa. Ixvi. 1, where God first asketh them the question, where is
the place of my rest, and abode ? He speaks it to these templers, as I may call those Jews that cried, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord ! Where is it, can you imagine, says God, I should have room or rest
in ? a sufficient dwelling, wherein I may dwell like myself; dwell like a God, so great a God as I am ? What ! will you confine me to your temple, and think that house good enough for me, that have heaven for my throne ? When he had thus confuted them, he answers it himself: I have spied out a place for my rest, you little think of; yea, which you generally despise, even a poor broken spirit ; and I will rest in my love there, as Zeph. iii.
17, for ever, and seek no further ; and not rest only, but sit down therein with the greatest joy and full contentment. The Lord thy God will rejoice over thee with joy ; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with sing-
124 OF ELECTION. [B OK IL
ing. It is his love canseth him to do it ; and they are a poor people, ver.
12, even as here in Isaiah he also characters them.
4 The earth is my footstool ; and I could kick it, or tread it to dust
and nothingness, if I pleased, as well as I trample upon it now as my foot
stool. Well, but these poor contrite souls, whom I looked at, ver 2, and
have looked at, and had in my eye from everlasting, these clods ol ear
and dust, these worms creeping on this earth (yea these small pieces,
and small motes and atoms of this earth, compared to the whole ot it), these
I have taken into my everlasting aims, and taken up into my bosom
^to dwell in them, even whilst I make the whole earth my footstool ; and they
shall sit on my Son s throne, as a queen doth with her lord, and he sits on
my throne, as Kev. iii. 21 : To him that overcometh will I give to sit with
me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my lather
in his throne. ... , . ,
5. Whose name is Holy. And so holy as the heavens I dwell in, which
I call my high ,and holy place, are not pure in my sight ; that is, do not
come up to that holiness which I am fully delighted m ; and yet I, this
highly holy One, will be one with these sinners ; and that they are sinners,
and their sins is that that humbles them, and breaks their hearts, and doth
it whilst they look upon me in my holiness, who am so holy, as I cannot
endure to behold any iniquity ; and who, if I had chosen for holiness, would
have chosen the angels that fell, whom I made excelling in holiness, as well
as strength ; I chose the humble, poor, and contrite spirits, broken lor their
sins, and the miserablest and remotest in their condition, from any such a
preferment and favour as this, to be vouchsafed them ; yea, and in their
own thoughts, the farthest off of all the rest of my creation, looking with
trembling at my word, fearing the shaking of every leaf therein ; at every
example of my wrath upon others, at every threatening ; yea, lest I should
in wrath swear against them as I have done against others ; lest I should
tread on them, as men use to do on worms, whilst they lie crawling with
their mouths in the dust, if there may be hope. But what is the reason he should affect thus to unite with such to choose,
and so should ordain them to be such then when he chose them ? That
whereas he had respect in his choice to nothing in the creature to move him,
for which he should first choose them, he would shew he had not, by this,
that those he chose, he ordained withal to be such as should neither really
have anything to respect, and in their own apprehensions of themselves,
utterly without anything in themselves he should regard. But the clean
contrary, which their being termed the poor, and humble, and contrite, do
both here in the prophet, and up and down in Christ s speeches, import ; he decreed them therefore to be such, and to work these apprehensions and
dispositions of spirit in them, to prepare them for this union, and to accom
pany it when it should come to be actually bestowed on them. The pure
creatures, had they stood without his election grace, had been too full, too
rich, and apt to reign, in some respect, without him ; and all the rest of
mankind that fell, are full of themselves, of their own righteousness, and
their bellies are filled with his hid treasure of outward comforts, privileges,
&c., and they are all, whilst remaining such, too full for God to dwell in ;
intus existens prohibet alienum, there is no room for him, as of Christ it was
said at his birth, in the inns. There is not a creature emptiness in them,
to take me in to the full of my goodness, that so I alone might fill them ;
and, says God, I bring fulness enough with me where I come ; the fulness
of my Godhead, which filleth all in all ; and I need no addition from what
is in my creature ; and the emptier my creatures are, the more receptivity
CHAP. VI. J OF ELECTION. 125
and capacity there is of me, to take up my dwelling in, and whole posses sion of them. And therefore their poverty, vacuity, and brokenness of
heart, not only as sinners, but as creatures, and their becoming in their own
eyes stripped and divested of all their excellencies they had, or might imagine
to have, as such, even to be brought to nought in whatever they may think
they are, as the apostle s word is, this makes them fit for my Godhead to
fill. And these are the meet matches for him with all readiness to close
with ; then, when they can no way subsist in themselves ; nor have comfort
in their own being any longer without him ; nor in anything else besides him ; nor bear up their own souls from sinking, even to nothing, and worse
than nothing ; and are become actually, and in their desires, nothing in com
forts, nothing in their own righteousness, nothing in their own ends and
aims, nothing in their own abilities to any good, nothing in any creature
privilege ; and that when they look back unto their best estate by creation,
they see their subjectness to vanity, and continually to have fallen and lost
all (as they did) when the soul is thus humble under its creatureship, and
the vanity of that ; and likewise of sin, and its sinful condition. Now, says God, looking at the disposition of such a soul, now shall I be God alone in
the heart of this man ; here I see a seat to erect a throne to myself in ; when
I come to join with this man, I alone shall be exalted in that day ; and he
that glorieth will glory in the Lord ; and my design in my election is, that no flesh should glory in my presence, or where I come to dwell and reside, and manifest my presence in: 1 Cor. i. 28, 29, 81, And base things of
the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are : that no flesh should
: that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
glory in his presence
Again, If God would have the whole of glory entirely to and for him
self, these empty nothingnesses are fully fitted to give it all wholly to him, and to entertain him upon his own terms of being glorified as himself can of
creatures. But above all, these are prepared to give him the glory of his
grace, which in this condition will be sure to be acknowledged, and to be
adored as the donor and founder of all unto them.
To conclude ; there is not, nor could there have been, a greater demon
stration given, that God had no respect to what is in us, for which he chose
us, than that he should design, together with his choosing us, to bring us (in the deepest sense of our own hearts) unto this utter emptiness of all respect for which God should regard us ; and choose out this as the highest and most pleasing frame or qualification of heart in us, upon which he should
promise to come and dwell in us, or rather declare that he doth dwell in us.