Chapter VII (continued, part 2)
: ver. 21, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. And as his love passeth knowledge, so, for our comfort, his power doth. The like to both you have, Rom. xvi. 25, Now to him that is of power to establish you, be glory for ever : ver. 27, To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
2. But particularly, bless his power for two things.
* keep you from falling in this life ; that is, both from apostasy, which you have seen others run into, and in this life from falling into gross sins, which is Peter s sense of falling
(1.) For that it engaged to
: 2 Pet. i. 10, If you do these things., you shall never fall ; that is, into any foul, scan dalous miscarriage. As also Paul to the Galatians, chap. v. 16, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. And
for that also, secondly, that if they do fall, they shall rise again, and by repentance shew themselves clear in that matter. as if they had never sinned. This is to keep you so, as in the end and issue of all to be blame
less : and to carry us in this manner through all rocks, hazards, and dangers, as in respect of sinnings, is a far greater miracle than to steer a ship through the most dangerous seas that are known to be in the world, or to carry a candle through a vast heath in the midst of winds and storms, and to pre serve it from being extinguished.
(2.) The second thing is at your deaths, and at the day of judgment to
present you faultless ; which faultlessness must needs be understood of
perfect holiness : for it is that faultlessness which is at your coming to glory, and is a further degree than that of being kept from falling, or a being reduced again in this life ; for this faultlessness at death is to be without all
sin, made perfect. Is it possible, says the guilty and defiled soul, that ever I should be presented faultless, especially on such a sudden as the
instant of death ? Yes ; God hath power in him to do it : Eph. v. 27,
1 That he might present you to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy, and without
blemish. And there needs no purgatory for it, but Christ s blood, and the
efficacy thereof (so in the words afore), who gave himself for his church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.
glorify his love that this is, and hath been, the design thereof: Eph. i. 4, According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Ye see that
214 OF ELECTION. [BoOK III.
was the first of his thoughts, as the order of its placing there shews ; and indeed it is a greater benefit, and more than glory. And again, glorify his power that is able to effect this in you, when you look upon your
* vile
bodies, now vile or base ; or if your souls would cast an eye into their
graves, and see how they lie in dust and rottenness, and then consider that
God s power is able, and will present them to himself as glorious as Christ s body now is ; the shine that came from which is, and was, more glorious than the sun in its strength, as Paul testifies, Acts xxvi., who himself saw
it. And yet be assured his power will effect this for you: Philip, iii. 21,
* Who shall change our vi^e body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself. And now from off the present condition of your bodies cast youi eyes upon your souls, with all the more abominable filth and rottenness in them, and believe that that power that subdues all things [to] itself will change them into so glorious souls in holiness, as they shall be able to bear the presence of God s own glory without dazzling or winking. bless io God his power
< To him that is able thus to present you, to him be
glory, &c. Amen. This the first main head, to present you faultless in the other life.
The second thing proposed was the presenting of you before the presence of his glory, and your enjoyment of it, which is the ultimate end that God aimed at to bring us unto in his first loving us, calling us, and preserving us ; the end, as it is called, which he made with our Lord Christ : James v. 11, You have seen the end of the Lord, says he, as if it had been spoken in reference there unto that which Paul says, Heb. ii. 9, We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour ; that was the end God made of him. And this end of Christ is the enjoyment of the presence of God s glory; as Christ says of himself, Ps. xvi. 10, 11,
< Thou wilt shew me the path of life : in thy presence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. There is an enjoyment of God in and by effects of his, and means
that^ manifest him, whether of his law, our graces, or creatures. And there is an enjoyment of his immediate presence. And thus Hales, that ancient schoolman (whom Aquinas and Bonaventure were scholars to), did clearly, and with evidence, long since state and difference it.* There is a twofold knowledge of God, says he, one by his effects, the other by his presence to and with the soul. And he is present, says he, to the soul, in that he presents or makes present that blessedness which is in himself (which are the very words of our text here). And the one,f the first, he says, is not of grace, but nature ; but the other of grace. That is, say I, the one was by the knowledge of God, which by creation Adam was made for; the other is by Christ and grace only in glory: Ps. xvi. 11, Thou wilt shew me the path of life ; and is termed in Scripture the glory of God, which Christ receives us unto. Now this glory of ours is not the issue, or event, or close which God s love brings us unto, but it was the original design of all at first ; both unto which he hath subordinated all things ( All things are yours, and you are Christ s, and Christ is God s, 1 Cor. iii. 22, JMty as that which above all things his heart hath been in ; this is the tu*o*/n, or the good pleasure of his will. Now, therefore, that whereby I would provoke you to bless God for is this, that if our glory (as it is ours) be not only the issue of his election, * Duplex est cognitio Dei, una per effectus suos, alia per prsesentiam sui amid am. PKeseus autem est in quantum praesentat seu pnesentem facit beatudinem qua3 est in ipso. Alexander de Hales, par. 3, quest. 61. T Una est sine gratia ; altera per gratiam. Ibid.
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 215
but a primary intended end, and the direct ultimate end taken in for itself, out of pure and mere love intended, then there is all reason and obligation on our part that we should give all glory unto God for this, not only that
himself intended it should be for his glory, but that he in such a manner
also intended it as your glory, yea, and his own glory to be the immediate
cause of yours ; and this end of all out of grace to be the close and last
scene of this continued plot and story. There is all reason, I say, for this, &c. ; for nothing can be more proper or suitable than that for glory thus
intended and designed to us we return glory unto God again, especially when God s glory is the principal and immediate cause of ours, as here in the
text you see it is made to be. And therefore no wonder if in heaven the whole of their time runs out, and is spent in glorifying God. For why ? Their glory riseth immediately from the glory of God communicated unto them as the cause. And his being glorified in us ariseth not from the glory which he hath bestowed upon us, but from our being presented afore the
presence of his glory ; and so it is but the return or the reflection of that
to him and upon him which they receive from him, glory for glory, not only
given and received, but for glory given, as the immediate cause of that glory
received; and therefore be provoked to give glory to God, as ver. 25, for
his presenting you to the presence of his glory, the fountain of them and
all, as the design of his pure love and heart towards you, as out of verse 1
I shewed.
The third thing to bless God for is, that himself will present you to him
self with exceeding great joy ; which joy is mutual, not on your parts only, but on his also. (What joy will be on your parts, I handled in the use of
* Enter into thy Mas
direction.) For as it is his joy he admits you into,
ter s joy, so it is the joy of his heart to admit you into it, as well as yours to be admitted. And to testify this, he presents you to himself, and rejoiceth with infinite joy (when that time comes) in doing of it.
You may measure what this joy on God s part will then be.
1. By what joy is in his heart at their conversion, which is indeed the first
calling of you into glory, as Peter hath it, 1 Pet. v. 10. There is one whole
chapter* on purpose spent upon it, to declare the joy that is in God s heart
at that time.
Both in the parallelf of the lost sheep and groat, which is spoken of the Lord himself, and shepherd of that lost sheep, who also, ver. 6, says unto
his friends, Rejoice with me, so as it is God and Christ himself that are
the great rejoicers, for he calls upon his friends to rejoice with him. The
bridegroom that hath the bride rejoiceth more than the friends of the bride
groom.
Secondly, In the parable of the lost son, ver. 22, the father said to his
* let us eat and be merry. It is the father says it, ver. 23 ; and
servants,
these parables are applied unto what joy is in heaven upon the conversion of a sinner here in this world, ver. 7. Thus in that parable, I say unto you, that joy is likewise in heaven, and the scope in both is therefore chiefly to
set forth what is the heart of God the Father, under the representation of
the father of a prodigal. Now, if this joy be at the initiation and birth of an heir of glory, how much more is there in the heart of God and Christ
upon his coronation, and upon his first arrival in heaven, afore the presence of God s glory, to be for ever made partaker of it.
Thirdly, There is this further manifest reason for it, because the fulness
of time, so long afore designed and waited for, is now come, and also the consummation of that which all his decrees about us from everlasting had
* Luke xv. ED. f Qu - parable ? ED.
216 <w ELECTION. [BooK III.
centred in, and primarily pitched upon, as that which was the end of all
aimed at, and that which he had from before the world so much pleased himself in with the thoughts of that day ; for his delights aforehand were in
them, as Prov. viii., even so long ago, and still continued ; and to delight so
long beforehand, must needs produce full and complete joy, when the thing
delighted in is accomplished, and did begin the first consummation of all
them delights, as this first presenting us afore him is. Moreover, between his
electing of them and this consummation, he had called them, which is indeed
a kind of new election, and the first beginning of the execution of the first
election, and bears the image of it. Look as a merchant having launched a
ship to sea (and such our calling is), for a great, long, and dangerous voyage, with certain hopes of great returns of profit if he come home safe in her, and proves also a ship that hath run through many hazards and dangers of
shipwreck and piracies (as we through manifold temptations, &c.) ; and look
as the merchant or owner rejoiceth when his ship doth come home so rich
laden, through such great adventures, so doth God at our safe arrival in the
haven, to which metaphor the Scripture once and twice alludes.
Now that God will entertain you with such an exceeding joy and triumph too (as the word here imports), affords the highest ground unto you to bless
him, and give glory unto him in the faith and confidence hereof beforehand. For nothing can more argue that this glory was the design and longing desire
of his heart, and delight of his soul from eternity, than that he so exceed
ingly rejoieeth when it is perfected ; and it is a true and certain measure we may make hereof, that so much joy as ariseth in any one s heart, in such a
case there was so much love, for these affections are commensurable. And
therefore if God aforehand tells us he will present every particular person of
us afore his own glory with so great joy as to himself, this infallibly argues the like proportion of an infinite love to have been borne by him towards us
in his heart. Let us therefore, first casting our eyes backward unto his eternal
love that designed all to us, and then turning and setting our eyes forward unto that joy that will be at the accomplishment, retire in the view of both
to bless and adore him for all, arid sanctify him in our hearts ; and this for
that third and last thing in ver. 4.
SECTION II.
The discriminating grace of election, as it appears in the difference God puts betu een temporaries, and those u hom he finally preserves, further illustrated in an exposition of the other part of Judes epistle ; wherein are discovered
the different fountains and causes in Gvd s heart oj our salvation, both original and continued.
You have in ver. 1, 2. of this epistle of Jude, the causes of salvation, and of our being kept, held up unto our view.
Then, secondly, The eminency of that grace and favour illustrated by the
opposite thereof, viz. the condemnation and apostasy of others, ordained of old to this condemnation.
Then, thirdly, A provocation of these saved and preserved ones, to give glory unto God for all his discriminating grace towards them, ver. 24, 25. . And that we all should adore and bless this God for all these, is my second use which I intend to prosecute at this time, founding all I shall urge upon you therein, upon what Jude hath spoke before me.
In the doing of which I shall but open the remaining passages in Jude, not
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 217
spoken to the last time, and which, added to the former, will prove as some
brief exposition upon the rest of the epistle.
* To them that are the beloved of God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.
You have the causes of salvation and our preservation in Jude, ver. 1,
: God
In this first verse you have the original causes, both of the persons
the Father, and Jesus Christ ; as also of the acts in both which are the foundation of our salvation, &c.
1. Love in God the Father, which speaks his electing of us. Beloved in God the Father, for which reading I shall give an account.
2. Preserved in Christ ; which speaks his having given us unto Christ, out
of that love, for him to keep and preserve us.
8. That third, of being called, is brought in as the first breaking forth
of that love of God upon us, at and from which Christ s actual perform ance in keeping of us, commenceth, and from thence is continued to the end.
Ver. 2, Mercy unto you, and peace, and love be multiplied. In this verse you have the continuing and continued causes of our sal vation (as in the former the original), by the multiplication of which, with their
proper effects upon us, it is that we are preserved to salvation, which yet for substance are no other than the former, in ver. 1, and these are three affec
tions and dispositions in God s heart and Christ s.
1. Mercy or grace in Christ s heart, who undertook the preservation of us.
2. Peace in God s heart towards us, wrought and purchased by Christ. He is our peace, Eph. ii. 14.
3. The love of God the Father at first set on us. These being continued and multiplied in effects suitable to each, I call the continuing causes of our
salvation.
As 1, The mercy and grace in Christ multiplying the attributes of mercy on us.
2. Peace from God, being at peace with us through Christ, and multi
plying the sense of that peace in our hearts with joy, &c.
8. The love in the heart of God the Father, multiplied in all spiritual
blessings, as Eph, i. 2, by which we are carried on unto salvation. And although these come in as a prayer or wish, such as is used afore
epistles, yet that here they are brought in with a pertinent connection with
ver. 1, and the general scope of the whole epistle, as the causes of the pre servation there specified, I shall after shew.
1. As for the original causes of our salvation and preservation. Ver. 1, Beloved in God the Father, &c. Three things are to be performed for the explication of this :
1. Some reasons why I so read the words.
2. To explain what the import of that phrase should be, In God.
3. To prove that by that expression, Beloved in God the Father, is connotated that God the Father chose and elected us.
You have it indeed here read, and translated, Sanctified by God the
Father; but if we consult both commentators and Greek original copies, as
they are also cited by interpreters, we shall find that diverse, as authentic
copies, as those that read it sanctified, &c., do write it beloved, in, or of, or by God the Father, qyaKvipwoig, beloved, instead of s)y*a0/.vwg ; and the phrase
f soD irargi, is all one, say some, with a-rro gu zxarebs, Beloved of God the
Father, or did, by God the Father, which reading Pareus justifies, and com mentators generally do willingly agree to take either.
Now where there are found two such readings in so many copies ancient,
218 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
and but a small difference in the Greek words themselves, which might
easily occasion a mistake in the writers ; in this case, that which must cast
it is, unto whether of the two, the scope, series, and order of the matter afore
or after, rationally considered and compared with other Scriptures, do most
incline ; and therein (I take it) JiyaKripsvoig, Beloved, in and of God the
Father, hath far the advantage and appearance for it, to have originally fallen rather from our apostle s pen.
For which there are these reasons unto me of weight.
1. Their being sanctified is apparently mentioned, and comes in afterwards, included under and in the word called, as in like manner often our sanctifi-
cation doth ; as in Rom. viii. 80, and saints by calling, 1 Cor. i. And I
confess the reading as here it stands, sanctified first, then preserved, and
after both of them, then called ; this did always in former times in the read
ing of it breed some jar in my thoughts, as if the words had not been, at
least, rightly and orderly placed ; but when I met with this other, beloved
of God the Father, it reconciled all to me.
2. I consider that the act or work of grace here intended is that which is
properly God the Father s, and so is to speak what his special hand is in our
salvation and preservation. Now, to say, Beloved of God the Father, speaks what is most proper unto God our Father, and what his hand and original act in our salvation is, and is that which is more generally proclaimed throughout the New Testament, everywhere almost where he is spoken of in
distinction from Christ.
For both, 1, love is in a way of eminency attributed to the Father, the
love of the Father, when the work of the three persons are distinguished, 2 Cor. xiii. 14, 2 Thes. ii. 13, 16, and up and down everywhere. Also, 2. Election is peculiarly attributed to him as his eminent work ; and
to be beloved of the Father and to be elected are equivalent, and are put for each other, or are often joined together, love being the first and chief mov
* Beloved according to election; that is, therein and thereby they are the beloved of God indeed. And 2 Thes.
ing cause of election. Thus, Rom. xi. 28,
* We give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath chosen you, &c., and so therein and thereby hath mani
ii. 13,
fested you to be his dearest beloved, and for that, and in that respeet bearing the title of beloved; and join thereto ver. 16, where his having
* chosen us, that went afore, in ver. 13 is here, who hath loved us.
3. By this reading the series and order of the three things in verse 1 is
set right, and rendered more clear at least : 1, beloved of God the Father, who is the first person, as that of election is the original act ; 2, preserved in
Christ, which is the second person s part ; 3, called, which is the Holy Ghost s. Beza s gloss and interposition is very observable upon that second,
preserved in Christ ; that is, says he,* having been set apart, or chosen in and by God s eternal counsel, they who should be given to Christ to be kept by him. So as he, though he inclines rather to the other reading of sancti
fied, and makes a difficulty of our reading it beloved of God the Father, and
is against it ; yet he take in the sense thereof, as touched in the other word, preserved in Christ. He discerned both from the scope of the epistle, and the great emphaticalness of that expression,
< preserved in Christ. So that election by the Father must be supposed first, and necessarily taken in, and a giving us to Christ (which accompanied that election) to be the proper cause of our being preserved in and by that Christ ; and so that preserved in Christ referred unto the Father s act of giving, and therefore he would
Tfnjgjj/*gWMg (i e ) seposifcis seterno Dei consilio, qui Christo traderentur custodiencli.
CHAP. VII. J OF ELECTION. 219
have it to be brought in somewhere, though but implicitly aimed at in that
* preserved in Christ. But why then should we avoid this
expression,
other reading of beloved of God the Father, which more plainly and
expressly denotes that act of God s, out of which and together with which God did give us to Christ ; and gave us thereby with this commendamus and
declaration of his will, that he the Father, having loved them first, and
thereby made them his, and had now given them to him, and that therefore out of all that love to him, and between them, he would preserve them (which I shall by and by again speak to) ; so then, that beloved of God the Father, that is, elected by him, should be said first to hold the most fair coherence
of all other with preserved in Christ, as that which follows next, declaring therein the very ground and foundation of that our preservation, and that as in
Christ, and so shewing the true order of causes; God the Father s love first, in choosing, &c., and Christ s next, to whom they were given, and is
answerably in order here first placed, it having been the fountain and original of all, the source and beginning of our salvation, as the Father is of the
persons.
4. The parallel of other Scriptures does favour this our reading of the words ; the apostle Peter in like manner annexing this benefit of preserva
tion, as Jude here, unto election ; for whereas, 1 Peter i. 5, he says, Who
are kept by the power of God unto salvation, he had first entitled his epistle, as Jude doth to the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, ver. 1 ; and then, who are kept by the power of God, ver. 5, and the word
is the same that here.
5. The opposite mention of God s rejecting and ordaining those apostates to that judgment, ver. 4, as the original of their condemnation ; this casts
backward, and refers unto what he had said of these other, their having been ordained unto salvation and preservation. And therefore this reading, beloved of God the Father, is rather to be supposed to have been his mean
ing. For, 1, the apostle s scope being to comfort and instruct the saints in
this epistle, much more than to set out the fate of these apostates, and the
narration thereof being but to illustrate that state and grace to those saints,
surely of the two he would to that purpose rather make mention of their
election than of the other s reprobation. Especially, 2dly, seeing acts of
grace do more readily proceed from God than acts of avenging justice, therefore if the one s reprobation be mentioned (as it is) much rather the
others election.
i Beloved in God
2. What the import of the phrase should be in God.
the Father.
Beza indeed sticks at the phrase Beloved in God the Father, as the Greek ordinarily hath it. This is an unusual phrase to be used of the act
of the Father s election, but it ordinarily runs, and much oftener, chosen and beloved in Christ, but in the Father, we nowhere read. But this is so far from being an objection, as it turns to be a reason to confirm our interpretation.
For, besides what was said, that sv is put for a^o, dia, or u^, and so it
is all one to have said, Beloved of, or by the Father, the phrase in the Father aptly notes out the eminency of that act in God himself, rising up and abiding within himself, in his own heart and breast, in himself alone, as from himself. And such acts, his loving us and choosing us from ever
lasting, were and must be acknowledged purely to have been, and thus in
( good pleasure which he purposed in himself, Eph. i. 9. Nor is it an objection of weight enough, that it is said, Beloved and*
like manner it is termed, his
220 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
chosen in Christ, to exclude this of ours, as if therefore beloved in God the Father should be improper, no more than because in that place last cited it is said, which he purposed in himself, speaking of the Father, that therefore it should be improper to say the same of Christ, which yet we find, Eph. iii. 11,
* According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. For that phrase, in the Father, denotes the sub
ject and efficient cause, and that of in Christ, the medium or instrumental cause. Yea, according to this rule, their reading, sanctified in God the Father, should be excluded also, because it is more often said, and in use, sanctified in Jesus Christ, than
< in God the Father. 3. The third thing for explaining this of beloved in God the Father is, that thereby is imported and connotated, that God the Father chose and
p]pr>f>r3 no
Yea, these two are mutually put each for other. The very act of election is expressed by God s loving us : Jacob have I loved, Rom. ix. 13, which is alleged as a proof of Jacob s being elected, spoken of afore, ver. 11, and is there termed the purpose of God according to election, towards him. Thus God s election of Christ (whose election is the pattern of ours) as he is God-man, is expressed by his having loved him : John xvii. 24, Thou lovedst me afore the foundation of the world ; that is, thou lovedst me, and out of love chosest me. And he speaks not of that love he bare to him, purely considered as second person, but that of him as God-man and mediator ; whilst Christ speaks it, he also says, that God had loved us as he had loved him. Now, between the love which God bare him as second person simply considered, there ought not to have been any such comparison made of what his love is to us, so as to say that he loved us as he loved him as second person ; but as mediator it might be said ; and therefore it was all one as to say he chose him ; so that here for God the Father to be said to love us, is equivalent to say he chose us. 2. Preserved in Christ. Between these two, beloved in God the Fatlur, and then preserved in Christ, doth rise up, as couched in each of them, and as the result of both in this connection,
Our having been given by the Father out of his love to Jesus Christ for him to preserve, and that Christ undertook so to do.
This is strongly implied here, if withal we bring those other scriptures which Estius and divers others* (having observed this as connotated here) have sent us unto to explain this passage, in which is set forth the original me, the descent, and story of our being preserved in Christ: 1, love in the ather made us to be his ; thereupon, secondly, proceeded a giving us to
ist, that as he loved him, he would keep us as the end of his giving us ; which, thirdly, Christ willingly undertook and performs. All these you have fully expressed by Christ in his last public prayer, John xvii.
1, That they had been given him by his Father as his own ; so the second verse begins, that
< he should give eternal life to as many as God had given turn. He pursuing this again says, ver. 6, I have manifested thy name
* Gerard upon both the epistles of Peter, in which
< grace and peace be multiplied are wished (even as here), interpreted there grace to be meant as I did here, and love ami mercy not to be meant chiefly of the effects of grace, but of the fountain of all, the free grace of God : Per gratiam quidam psruvvpijtSis, intelligent beneficia gratia e ree grace o o : Per gratiam quidam psruvvpijtSis, intelligent beneficia gratia coiiata: sed rectius mtelligitur fons illorum bemficiorum omnium, viz. favor Dei gratuitm. And for the proof of this sense in Peter, allegeth this parallel in Jude, Nam in
"> 5 eXP nitUr PeT * XSOff< ThuS he n l Peter L 2
> as also
upon 2 p
CHAP. VIL] OF ELECTION. 221
unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world : thine they were, and thou gavest them me ; then verse 9, I pray for them : I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou hast given me ; for they are thine.
2. Given him they were, for that end, for him to keep; and therefore he
returns an account to his Father how he had kept them, and indigitates it
twice : ver. 12, While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name : those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost.*
3. That he had undertaken to keep them upon his Father s giving them,
all and every of those words declare ; as, namely, his giving that account of
the discharge of his trust therein : ver. 6, I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world, &c. ; and that he had done
(what in him lay to do) that which might preserve them : I have manifested
thy name, ver. 6 ; I have given them thy words, ver. 8. And also by the
* They have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou
effects he had wrought in them : ver. 8,
didst send me. And then likewise by his care to recommend them again unto his Father: ver. 12, While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name : those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost.
4. And all this, and those other great benefits that follow, do run up into God s having loved them, which is not only implied in his urging they were
* Thou hast loved them as thou hast
thine, but that God had chosen them :
loved me, ver. 23. Now of himself he says, Thou lovedst me afore the
foundations of the world ; that is, hast chosen me, which I shewed even now. And he expressly gives it as the reason why he had. so kept them :
ver. 9, for they were thine.
If you will take another scripture they also refer unto, John vi. 39, And
this is the Father s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day, these words shew,
1. That they were given by election; for he says, All that the Father
hath given me shall come to me, ver. 39 ; and therefore given before their
coming, and as the cause of their coming. And when afore, but at the date
the Scripture placeth election at ? Afore the world began.
2. Given for this very end to be kept, and that to be God s will and in
tention in giving them, and expressed at his giving them, doth as manifestly follow there : ver. 38, 39, For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father s will
which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
3. Their being called ariseth from their having been given by the Father,
ver. 37, And all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, &c. And so
you have in this one Scripture all those three things met which are men
tioned in my text, and likewise the prop, order, and connection of all these :
first, beloved of the Father ; and so, secondly, given to, and preserved in Christ ; and, thirdly, called. And this is a clear reason why preserved in Christ is set afore called, because
it prc-imports that original act of giving us unto Christ, and also is the
cause of our being called. For although indeed Christ s actual preservation of us, and his performance of it upon us begins from calling, and follows for
ever after it ; yet because the foundation of that preservation lay in God s
having given us unto Christ out of his love, and this from everlasting, as hath been said. Therefore this of preservation in Christ is made conjunct
with, and set next after beloved in God the Father, and before called ; for
222 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
calling itself proceeds out of that love, and our being given to Christ, as out
of those passages of John hath heen observed. There might other reasons
be given why called is fitly set after preserved in Christ, as that because there
were some new converts, who had sprung up in that, though a declining age
of old professors, which young ones had not had time or continuance long
enough to experiment the grace of perseverance as those others had done ; and yet they having been savingly wrought upon with an holy calling, were
concerned both in the comfort and duties that he after gives, as well as
those others that had been for a long time preserved. Alas ! might some
such novices say, I have not had the trial of having been kept long ; I am
but of yesterday. Well, but says Jude, thou yet hast the blessed experience
of having been called, and thereby mayest comfort and assure thyself of thy
being certainly kept against all the fears of falling away, which are incident
to such Christians, from the examples of such apostate professors ; the pro mise is as well unto the truly called as it is to you that have been a long while preserved. But though this be a reason of weight for this placing of
called last, yet I conceive the other of more. And this for the first, the
original causes.
II. The continuing causes of our salvation and preservation in their being
multiplied follows in ver. 2, Mercy unto you, and peace, and love be mul
tiplied ; and in ver. 21, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Three things are here to be explained.
1. What is meant by mercy, and peace, and love.
2. That here they are prayed for to be multiplied as causes, and the
carriers on of our salvation and preservation.
3. What is meant by the multiplication of them. .. For the first, the interpretation I give is, that
1. Mercy in the heart of Christ.
2. Peace or reconciliation having been made by Christ, and continued in
the heart of God towards us by and through Christ.
3. That original love in the heart of God borne towards us being for ever
continued and multiplied with the effects thereof; these are eminently intended.
I know interpretators generally understand love in our hearts to God,
peace in our hearts, and all sorts of good things which are usually wished, under the names of peace, he wishing that these should be multiplied more and more in them.
But though I deny not these, as the effects of the former, to be included,
yet I take it that the more principal, the other, as they are in God s and
Christ s heart, are mainly intended as being the fountains of these effects, and so the effects with their causes were at once prayed for.
And my reasons are,
1. That look what is meant by love and mercy in ver. 21, the same is meant here. Let Jude interpret Jude. Now there he tells us, ver. 21, it is
the love of God, and the mercy of Christ, which we keeping ourselves in, and by faith looking unto them to keep us, are the means of our being kept. Now, in the first verse, he had named, first, God the Father ; and, secondly, Christ. Why, then, his intention is to wish the love of God the Father, and the mercy of Jesus Christ to be multiplied towards us, as being the causes of that preservation and salvation likewise.
2. For one of these, this of mercy, all will acknowledge to be understood
of the grace and mercy in Christ s heart ; and not of the grace or merciful-
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 223
ness in ours ; nor yet merely the effects of mercy ; and therefore, by the same reason, why should not love also be meant of the love in God the
Father s heart borne to us ?
The Query will be, How peace should be meant in such a sense, which yet comes in between mercy and love ? For the multiplying of peace would seem to import only the grace of peace in our hearts, as it is the fruit of jus
tification and reconciliation with God, according to that in Rom. v. 1, Being
justified by faith, we have peace with God. Also peace imports all good
things whatever, and so the effects.
Am. I grant this, and take them all in ; but I desire it to be considered,
that all those effects of peace flow from this, that there first is a peace in God s heart borne towards us, which we may and must style the original
peace of all, whatever that peace may import in us, or towards us. When
Christ was born, the angels proclaimed this original peace in God s heart ; Peace on earth, good will towards men, Luke ii. 14 ; and his decrees and
* thoughts of peace, Jer.
purposes of grace, as to sinners, are styled
xxix. 11, For I know that the thoughts that I think towards you, saith
the Lord, are thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
My third reason why I interpret them of what is in God s and Christ s
heart towards us, as well as of the effects, is, that elsewhere these three are
mentioned together in the* like salutation, as in the second epistle of John,
ver. 3, Grace be with you, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and
from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. By
grace there, love is meant, being distinct from mercy ; and withal, mercy and peace are added even as here, and thereby not the effects of mercy, &c. But the grace and mercy itself, which is in God s heart and Christ s towards
us, are also intended there. It is expressly added, from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father ; and that as distinct from the
effects on us ; for they follow, In truth, that is, sincerity and love, which
are the effects in us of the former, in our hearts.
II. But the query will yet be, How is it that these are multiplied ?
Gerard, upon the Epistles of Peter, in both of which grace and peace are
wished to be multiplied, maketh the same objection ; for he there inter
preting grace, as I have here interpreted mercy and peace, not of the
effects of grace chiefly, but of the fountain of them all, the free-grace of
God, as I afore cited him,* thereupon he puts this objection, how the love
in God, remaining always the same, should be said to be multiplied.
1. Himself answers it chiefly by this, that in respect of the manifestation
of it to our souls, and the shedding it abroad in our hearts, it is therefore
: and to this effect he speaks in both those epistles,
said to be multiplied
1 Pet. i. 2, and 2 Pet. i. 2. And unto this indeed agrees, what in that second epistle follows : where, when grace and peace are wished to be multiplied, it is added,
* In the know
ledge of God, and of Jesus Christ: which (as he) is all one with <5/a,
< through the knowledge, &c., because through the knowledge of God and
Christ, the love and peace that are in the hearts of God and Christ, are come to be multiplied upon us ; so as by this answer and interpretation
given, it is still more manifest, that it is the love in God the Father, and
peace of Christ, which are the things multiplied in us, through and by the means of faith in us taking them, and receiving of them thereby into our
hearts.
But, secondly, I should give a farther answer, viz., that even the love and
* See note, p. 220.
224 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
mercy in God s heart, and Christ s, are within themselves truly said to be
multiplied towards us. The word *rfoj0ui/0g/?j, signifies both a continuation of the same thing, and a renewal thereof, and also an increase, or the fulfilling of a thing unto perfection.* Now the two first significations do fitly agree unto this love in God to us ; for there is both a continuation of it, after it was once taken up towards us, and that continuation is maintained by a renewal or repetition of the same, again and again, for every moment : I join both, and so it is continued by multiplication. Of justification, divines use to say it is one act at once, act.us unions et individuus; but yet because it is continued, yea, renewed every day, as our Lord s Prayer teacheth us, and many other scriptures, therefore the Scriptures expressly speak of it as a
multiplying pardon, Isa. Iv. 7. We multiply transgressions, by adding unto the heap new acts of sinning ; and for our comfort God multiplies to pardon by renewing the act of grace in a full and perfect pardon every day ; not only of those daily sins committed (which yet we are most sensible of), but of all our sins, as at first, Col. ii. 13 ; yea, and correspondingly hereto, the
Scripture speaks of God s election itself, which of all other acts of God s, is supposed to have been done but once, and that before the foundation of the world ; and yet the Scripture, in many places, speaks of it as reiterated or renewed again and again, which repetition, or renewal of it, is spoken of upon solemn occasion of God s taking his people into his favour after some
displeasure. Thus you have it : Isa. xiv. 1, The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Jerusalem ; and in Zech. i. 17, upon occasion of restoring them, he speaks thus : The Lord shall yet choose Jerusalem ; and chap. ii. 12, The Lord shall choose Jerusalem again. Nor is this meant wholly and altogether of a temporary choice (as yet in the type I acknowledge it was), but so as that type holds forth the substance towards his elect people among them ; for it is such a choice as upon which his people s sins are done away, and whereby Satan, that impleads them, which in the next words, chap. iii. ver. 2, is rebuked. The angel, Christ, that pleads against him, answers him with this : The Lord, who hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. And it was by such an election renewed, as bv virtue of which Joshua s filthy garments were taken away, that is, his sins", chap. iii. 4, and so proper to God s elect, which that in Rom. viii. fully answers to, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God s elect ? It is God that justifies.
Now as justification and election are thus renewed and multiplied, so I say not only, why may not, but that necessarily withal, mercy, and love, and peace, as in God s heart, must be together with them supposed to be so ; for these mercies are but the thoughts and purposes of grace, love, &c., im manent in God borne towards us, as well as those acts of justification and election are acts of God upon us, and yet immanent first in himself; yea, and those mercies and that love are the causes of those acts, and therefore are renewed together "with them, upon this renewal of them within himself. And hence, in the same sense, may love and mercy in God s heart be said, by a multiplication, to be continued to us, as those acts are. And in this respect it is that, Ps. xl. 5, like as the works of God, so his thoughts to wards us are said to be many, and multiplied : Many, Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and
thy" thoughts which are to us-ward ; they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee : if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. It is * Turn de multiplicatione in quantitate discrela, turn de augmento in quantitate contmua accipiatur. Inde quidam reddunt multiplicetur, quidam verb adimvleatur Gerard, in 1 Pet. i. v. 2.
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 225
Christ s speech, of whom the psalm is made, ancTthat relating unto his Father s resolved purposes and contrivements from eternity, and those con tinued unto his sending Christ into the world to die for us, as ver. 6, 7. It follows so, as although his thoughts and purposes were but one individual
act at first, and never to be altered ; yet they became many, through a per petuated reiteration of them, wherein his constancy to himself is seen. The
prophet David, in Ps. xxv. 6, imprecates God s loving-kindness in these
words, Remember, God, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses ; for they have been ever of old ; which phrase imports it is of old, that is, from eternity. So for ever of old ; that is, all along from eternity per petuated, and therefore suitable to this meaning, he desires that God would remember them. It is good now to remember these, and remembrance is but a reiterated act of the understanding, with the same affections that were taken up at first.
And the reason from all this is as evident, for such acts as are of pure, free, and absolute grace in God, are in their kind such, as though he doth act any of them towards us in this moment, yet to continue the acting of the same the next moment, or upon the next occasion, is from, and depends upon, a new grace in him ; yea, the promises of grace have a fresh act of grace to move him unto the performance
: Lam. iii. 22, It is of the Lord s mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions (those which are in himself) fail not. They are new every morning (both the mercies which are the effects, and his compassions which are the cause)
: great is thy faithfulness. And thus much for how they are multiplied.
The third thing is, to prove that mercy and love thus multiplied should here be mentioned and intended, as the causes of preservation and salvation unto the end.
And, indeed, that these are causes hereof, none shall deny ; but the ques tion only proceeds whether here in this salutation and wish, they be in tended by the apostle ? To which I answer, That they are so intended here.
Perhaps in other such salutations (especially in Paul s large epistles) they come in abstractly, or as altogether severed from a coherence with the matter afore or after ; as human salutations among the Jews, and those eastern nations, ordinarily were wont to do, Dan. iv. 1, yet here in this short epistle I take it, they hold a strict coherence with what immediately went afore, and
follows after.
And the reason in general of this difference in this epistle and in others
is, because that the sole and entire subject of this short epistle (I speak of what immediately concerned the saints) is professedly the preservation of them unto salvation, as hath been shewn ; and also it was the love and
mercy of God and Christ, that had hitherto been the preservers of them, as
ver. 1. And so as the series and order of things in those two verses
proceeds thus : 1. That a love in God s heart hath given them to Christ to
keep ; 2. A mercy in Christ s heart hath moved him to undertake this ; and
thirdly, in order thereto he had purchased their peace with his father ; 4.
All which, love, mercy, and peace, hath broke forth in their first calling ; and 5. From thence had been their custodes, the keepers of them thereunto. This is the substance or real sum of ver. 1. Hereupon, says our holy
apostle, in ver. 2, in a pertinent coherence hereunto, what other is my wish and prayer for you, but that the same mercy, peace, and love of God the
Father, and of his Son Jesus Christ (as another epistle, 2 John iii., in words supplies this), be multiplied ? and thereby so continued on you, so as still to preserve you to the end, even all along, from the first being called
VOL. IX. P
226 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
unto the being presented faultless afore the presence of his glory with ex
ceeding joy, ver. 24. From this genuine coherence, I conclude, that this
his prayer for the multiplication of this love and mercy, holdeth a strict con nection with, and aspect unto, that cause (preserved in Christ] as those which had been the causes of that their having been preserved for time past ; and to that end he prays for the multiplication of them for time to come.
And that which more expressly shews them this reason is the aspect that
ver. 11 hath upon this second verse. In ver. 21 it is and hath been made
evident, that he points the eye of their faith to the mercy of Christ, and love of God the Father, as those, which from time to come, the eye of their faith was to look at, as the primb moventia, the supreme causes of all other, of their being kept. The words are,
* Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And that this interprets to us what love, and in whom, or whose (even that of God s and Christ to us) love it is that in ver. 2 is intended ; espe
* Beloved in God the Father, and preserved in Christ, hath been already opened. Now, then, what is the difference between these two verses, but this : that this second verse is an apostolical prayer to God, that the same mercy and love might be multiplied, which, in ver. 21, is an exhortation to them to have the eye of their faith upon ; but so, as both do agree and centre in this, that those are the primary causes of their being kept, this being the common ground of either. And to shut up this, there being the same mercy and love in both verses intended, the argument proves strong from the latter to the former, ver. 2, that if the mercy and love in ver. 21 be directed unto, as the causes of preservation, then that the same are intended in their being prayed for, as the causes of our preservation, ver. 2, which is the point in hand.
cially when we take in thereto the coherence of ver. 1,
Thus much of the causes of salvation, in ver. 1, 2, both original and continued.
I come next to discover ; II. The original or antecedent in God s disposement of the apostates judgment and condemnation, as it is in ver. 4, There are certain men
crept in unawares, who were before of old fore-written unto this condemna
tion, &c. That this passage is set in way of opposition to and comparison with the former in ver. 3,
< Beloved in God the Father, &c., to the end to illustrate the grace of electing, and discriminating grace the more, is evident at the very first view of both, to any intelligent reader s thoughts. And how infinitely the grace of election is magnified to us by such a com parative way of setting that of reprobation by it, I have remitted to another place or method. I shall now only give an exposition of this passage, and shew how this ordained of old unto this judgment is to be understood, this being in view one of the harshest speeches concerning God s dispensations to the sons of men, that is found in Scripture. We are first to inform ourselves of these two words therein. 1. Fore-written, translated appointed. 2. This judgment, translated condemnation. 1. Fore-written, so the word in the original. We must know that God s decrees about the persons of us intelligent creatures, the sons of men (being the top of his decrees), are expressed to us under the metaphor of writing in a book their names, taken from what is usual amongst men, that is, of such as have power to dispose of persons and things at their will, for ratification sake, do it by writing, or setting their pleasure down in some record ; as when a man hath goods, or an estate to dispose of, he doth it unto persons
CHAP. VII. J OF ELECTION. 227
by a written will, or record ; or if offices to bestow, he pricks down (as our
kings do sheriffs) whom he thinks fit, and leaves out whom he pleaseth ; as among the Romans, patres conscripti, of senators ; milites descripti, of soldiers. Thus the Scriptures do attribute unto God a book of life, in which the names of all his elect are registered, and thereby we find election itself expressed :
Philip, iv. 3, And I entreat thee also, &c., and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life. They do set forth in like manner God s disposal of the rest of mankind, as Rom. xi. 5, they are termed under the same allusion. That in general, Rev. xx. 12, it is said, that at the day of general judgment,
* the books were opened, importing that there were other books concerning the rest of men, besides the book of life, which is there termed another book, that is, a more special, and, as it were, a more choice private book, which God keeps by him ; answerable, there is a black doomsday book, in which, what concerns those the rest, is registered and
recorded, as foreseen by God concerning them.
And in prosecution of this metaphor, the Scriptures do more particularly set out what concerneth them under two acts.
(1.) Negative ; That they are left out of the book of life, their names are not found written there. Thus Rev. xiii. 8, Whose names were not written in the book of life. So that the first and main act concerning them, is but a leaving them out, and not writing them in that special book. And that negative act is indeed an act of pure, and mere, and absolute will in God, and is but this, That God did not love them so far, as absolutely to
design them unto super-creation grace and glory. Observe how I express it,
it is but a leaving them out of that book, wherein was an ordaining men unto such benefits and blessings as were purely supernatural, and above the due of creation ; whether for grace as the means, or glory as the end. In such things they were left out, and it was but a mere leaving them out, as to such things unto which the other were elected, and their names set down to inherit. Those blessings are thus expressed
: Eph. i. 3, All spiritual blessings; (1.) in heavenlies ; (2.) in Christ, which were not due by law of creation in Adam ; and in such only the rest were left out ; but other
wise, as to creation grace, and what herein by any law of their creation it was meet for God to give them, he ordained to give them it to the utmost, and to deal with them therein according to that law, even whatever, as to
creatures, was any way requisite, all the good of holiness, life and reward, that by creation could be meet for intelligent creatures, endowed with free-will, to have, which was the law of their creation. This did God set out for them ; but mark what holiness, by a super-creation title, was to be renewed in Christ, and by Christ, if they fell ; the unchangeableness of that estate in holiness, which, as I take it, is the holiness which in Eph. i. 4 i^ said, that in election, as there it is intended, we were chosen unto, what life, and
glory, and a participation of God above the law of creation, or the attain ment thereof, such as is in heaven, these were supernatural blessings in
heavenlies, and in Christ ; wherein God was at full liberty to dispose thereof where he pleased. It was no part of that estate which was due to
creatures, as creatures, but as a third part of a Londoner s estate is by law
purely his own to bestow. Now these were the blessings only which God
left them out of his will about. Now search the Scriptures, and you shall
generally find, that the stress of reprobation is put upon this negative act ; as throughout the Scriptures of the New Testament I might shew you how
it is expressed by this negative of not choosing
: as the election obtained
it, the rest, Rom xi. 5 ; that is, the non-elected were left out. So the one written in the book of life, implies the other not written ; so of the
228 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
one, the Lord knows who are his ; of the other, I never knew you, Mat.
vii. 23. That word, never, reacheth backward to eternity. So of the one,
< which my Father hath given me, John
< they are my sheep, John x. 14,
vi. 86, 37, <*But I said unto you, that ye also have seen me, and believe
not. All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me, &c. And I
must bring them, &c., ver. 16, Because I know the Father, ver 15, and whom he hath decreed to save. But ye believe not, because ye are not
my sheep, ver. 26. It runs on in the negative.
(2.) But now you will say to me, But here in this place there is a
j>ositive act expressed, a being of old forewritten to this condemnation, and
that doth import, that God not only had a book of life, which they were
left out of, but a book of death, their names were set down in.
I will not answer you here as Dr Hammond doth ; they were forewritten,
that is, prophesied of by Christ, Mat. xxiv., which gospel was then writ in
Jude s time.
I shall in few words give you my thoughts of this.
[1.] Those men, as to this act, are looked upon by God as fallen ; for
however election, and non-election in the sense given, might have proceeded
upon man, considered as not fallen ; yet fore-writing to condemnation,
necessarily importeth more. And in that their fall, God used no prero
gative will at all, no super-creation act, only decreed to permit it : and that Adam sinned was from the mutability of his own will and defect, unto which,
as a creature, he was obnoxious ; and for God to have kept him from falling,
as here, ver. 24, Jude speaks of us, had been super-creation grace, and
belonged to the rank of those benefits which are in Christ, as, to be pre
served in Christ, is said here to be ; God must have gone out of his line of
communication to have kept him, and it had been an act of supercreation
grace.
Then the first man being fallen, by the same creation law it was that all men fell or sinned in him, as Rom. v. 12. I say by the law of creation,
the law of our nature, viz., that equal law, that holds as justly one way as
the other ; that he, being the first father of all mankind, as Isa. xliii. 27,
if we should have received holiness from him, by the same we should receive
sin from him ; it was the law of our propagation from him, such as was
given to all creatures having seed of life, Gen. i., to bring forth in their
kind"; and in that sense we are children of wrath by nature, that is, by the
force of the law of nature, Eph. ii. 3, as well as by birth.
[2.] Now, then, secondly, all men being fallen, and their being fallen
having been at one and the same instant foreseen by him, as all his own
works were uno actu intuitus, by one intuitive act, thereupon all men were now by nature viewed prone to all sin ; for so their nature, being fallen,
disposed them even to all or any kind of sin whatever of themselves, and
still not by any influence of his.
[3.] Hence, thirdly, their running into sin is only of themselves, and
from their own corrupt nature and inclination, according to the outward
circumstances and conditions, &c., which they should stand in, and all that
of God is said, as to any positive influence of his into sin, you have well
: Acts xiv. 1 6, Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in
expressed
their own ways.
[4.] Yea, and fourthly, they being not ordained to super-creation grace, in and by Christ, by which their sin should be any way healed, in order to
eternal glory, but left unto themselves, without it ; hence that mere nega
tive, and not being elected, that alone without any positive act of God s
ordaining, would have left them to all or any sin whatever. And hence you
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 229
find, that in those Scriptures, where but only that negative act of non-
election is mentioned, in the same places, the sins they commit are men
tioned as the consequents of it. I do not say the effects, for they flow from
their own corruption. Thus, 1. For their not doing good, that they believe
not, is attributed as the consequent of their not being God s sheep
: John
x. 26, But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto
you. 2. For their doing evil, their own corruptions so carry them thereto. Rev. xiii. 8, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foun -
elation of the world. Where plainly, their giving themselves up to anti-
christian worship and idolatry, is attributed to the negative, that their names were not written in the book of life ; for why, super-creation grace being restrained, which at no time was their due, their own corrupt hearts would of themselves carry them on to those sins. So in that other place
cited, for I instance in all I quoted, Mat. vii, 23, their damnation is ulti
mately resolved into two acts. 1. The negative, I never knew you. 2. Their own, being workers of iniquity. Which a mere negative act of God s could have no positive influence into ; for out of a mere negative, never did anything positive arise ; all this is but to them, whereto the said cause of men s damnation is to be resolved.
Well, but you still urge, that here^ is a positive act of God s, his fore-
writing them to this condemnation. Mr Cotton observes, that the word
xg///,a, signifies contention, as in that place to the Corinths : 1 Cor. vi. 7, There is utterly a fault among you, in that you have, Kgi/iara, contentions. And that in like manner it should be here used, of their opposition unto that
faith, which upon that occasion he has exhorted true believers that they should
* contend earnestly for, &c. And so that should come to this, that
amongst the sinners of that age, that were afore of old in God s view (when he was the
&>yuv6Qviros t orderer of those contentions), he had wrote down
their names, as the men and persons that should so oppose the faith ; and
so it is an allusion from the manner of those games, which was conscribere, to set down in writing the names of those that offered themselves to enter
into the lists.
But, secondly, the strength of my answer rests upon this small word, tic,
rovro, to this condemnation, or sinful contention ; and it is to me a mighty word, to clear this matter in hand, that God did forewrite their individual
persons unto this or that particular way of sinning. Now consider what
that will amount to at the utmost, taking in what was aforesaid ; but only unto this, how that all men lying fallen in God s view, and of themselves
prone to all sin, he might leave them to their own swing and corruption, to one sin as well as another ; but he shews himself a God in ordering or rank
ing their actual sinfulness, and particular ways of sinning ; some to this sin, some to that sin, that all might not run into any ;* and so it is but merely the disposing of men s sinnings, which of themselves they would commit. When all the world were sinners, and there was no difference, and all and
every man would be as devils, and run wildly, headily, and as horses into
the battle, into all manner of wickedness, the great God in his infinite wisdom and goodness, leaves one man to such a particular sin, as those here to this
contention ; another man unto that, and not all to perpetrate every one, which of themselves they would do. As he turned the heart of the Egyp tians to hate his people, and restrained them from other sins, as he did