Chapter VII
The security that Jesus Christ gives us, as well as God the Father, to assure
our faith that we shall be strengthened, and enabled to persevere. God is a God of all grace to us by Jesus Christ ; all his acts of grace towards us are
in and through him. He elected us at first, and then loved us only as con
sidered in him. He loved and chose him for himself, and us for his sake. God having thus laid Christ as the mediator, or rather as the foundation of
his grace, it is a sure ground of its continuance to us. All his purposes of
grace were made in him. All his promises of grace are established and per
formed in and through him.
By Jesus Christ. -1 PET. V. 10.
There are two persons engaged for preservation of us unto glory, God the
Father, and Jesus Christ, which was the general division I gave at the
entrance. I have despatched those securities, which the interest that God
the Father hath in us doth afford our faith. I come now to Jesus Christ, and the interest that he hath herein, which, added to the former, will afford
us complete consolation.
And truly let me say this of him, as the preface to what follows, that if
he be good for any thing (as he is for all things), he is certainly good at this,
to make our salvation sure and stedfast against all opposition, it being founded on him, and committed to him. He is a sure Christ a rock of
: Isa. xxviii. 16, Behold, I lay in Sion, saith the Lord
ages to build upon
God, for a foundation a stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation :
he that believeth on him shall not make haste ; that is, not to be con
founded, as 1 Pet. ii. 6 expounds it to be. By Christ Jesus. The aspect and extent of these words to the rest in
CHAP. VII. j OF ELECTION. 337
the text is the only thing as for explanation afore me, which I shall despatch
briefly.
Some interpreters would shut up the extent of it unto the influence Christ hath into eternal glory, because that was the thing had been immediately afore spoken of. Others do permit them to stretch themselves farther, unto the words foregoing, who hath called us by Jesus Christ ; and so to take
in the influence Christ hath in calling us.
* Sun of righteousness spread themselves so
But let the wings of this
far through the horizon of this text, as possibly from warrant from other
scriptures they may be found efficacious to extend, even from the first
* The God of all grace, as also unto the latter words, the utmost ends of the text.
words,
* by Jesus Christ together, and understand it as interpreted, that clause at the first, as of God s pur poses and dispensations of grace to us-ward ; and so it will be no derogation to God the Father to say, and say aloud, that he is a God of grace, yea, of
1. Put (say I) the God of all grace and
all grace, towards us, in and by Christ Jesus. God his Father, the God of
grace, and Jesus Christ, do run one joint stock and interest in all and every act of grace.
2. Put together who hath called us by Jesus Christ, understanding
calling to be that which Christ hath an hand and influence in, as well as his Father. Thus Rom. i. 6, The called of Jesus Christ.
3. Then further say that the God of grace, by calling us, doth estate us
into the full right to glory ; but withal add, that he doth it by Jesus Christ. The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. vi. 23.
* the same God
Then, 4, carry them unto the words that follow after,
* by Jesus Christ, too, and Christ to be, as the author and founder of our faith
will stablish, strengthen, settle you ; and therein take along with you
in calling, so the finisher of our faith unto the end thereof, even the salva
tion of our souls ; or if you desire rather to have it confirmed to you, in
the very word of the text, stablish you, take it from 2 Cor. i. 21, Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God. So
then, God, in and by Christ (as here), strengthens, stablisheth.
And therefore it is that by Jesus Christ is placed in the midst, as the sun,
to extend its influence unto all ; and read but the words thus, The God of
of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory. And so make a
colon or stop, or part the sentence there, and by Jesus Christ will, without
any rub to the reader s thoughts, take in and spread itself over all these. The God of grace ; the God of all grace ; &c. You know the way and course I have run in handling each of the former words have been,
1. To handle the doctrinal part that each word in their coherence affordeth.
2. To shew how each of those doctrinals do make good this main infer
ence, viz., a security to us that we shall be carried on to the end, &c. I
mast, in like manner, follow the same method in handling these words, which convene about Christ s interest, and shall make that main inference
that God will stablish us, and I shall intermix it with the handling of those
first three heads mentioned, at the end and application of each and every of
those doctrinals that follow, for it is as the burden of everything in this
discourse.
Now, as touching my making out this high engagement of Jesus Christ s
in this matter, there are four doctrinal propositions that come round about
and cleave to this clause, as broken pieces of steel would do to a loadstone.
VOL. IX. Y
338 OP ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
1. That God is a God of grace, yea, of all grace, by Jesus Christ.
2. I shall consider Christ s person, office, and relation to us, in this dis
tinction which is here set out, 1, as Christ; 2, as Jesus. By Christ
Jesus, saith the text. And the distinct influence that each of these have
into our salvation, will contribute something apart unto this security or
stedfastness of our faith herein.
3. The engagement and interest of Christ to carry us through, as it
ariseth from this, that he hath called us, and that God hath called us by Jesus Christ.
4. The interest that Christ hath in that glory into which the Father hath
called us by him ; who hath called ns into eternal glory by Jesus Christ. In which glory of ours, and our being brought into it, Christ having an hand
as well as the Father ; from thence doth a great interest and concernment
of his lie, to see to the preservation, and strengthening, and perfecting of us
to the end, as well as the Father.
There are a multitude of other considerations might be drawn from Christ,
to infer this main conclusion ; but these are natural and proper to the text, and I confine myself to them, and them alone.
1. That God is a God of grace, yea, of all grace, to us, by Jesus Christ. God forbid I should say, or you understand, as if God were not a God of
all grace, as in himself, in his nature, or essentially, or that he were so
* My
only by Jesus Christ. The man Jesus adds nothing unto him at all.
righteousness extendeth not unto thee, says Christ unto his Father, Ps.
xvi. 2. But this it is I affirm, that it is by Jesus Christ he is such a God
to us. When I handled that part, The God of all grace, I gave this dis
tinction how he was the God of all grace,
1. Essentially in his nature.
2. In respect of his purposes of grace. And 3. In his dispensations unto us. Now this is that I here affirm, that all his purposes of grace, and all his
dispensations of grace, they are all in and by Jesus Christ. He would not
have been a God of grace, much less of all grace to us, but for and through Jesus Christ. And for a general proof of this, look, as he is here said to
be the God of all grace, by Jesus Christ, so elsewhere, that all the bless
ings which, Rom. v. 15-17, are styled the gifts by grace, or which grace bestows, these are all said to be in and by Jesus Christ. Nay, there is no
act of God s, either immanent in his own heart or breast, or purposes to
wards us, or transient, and emanant of himself, conferred upon us, but he
hath founded it and seated it in Jesus Christ. Eph. i. 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. So in general he enume
rates the particulars, even from that of choosing us in him, which was an immanent act in him, ver. 4, unto our obtaining an inheritance in him, ver.
11. And whilst he says all blessings in general, and then gives a bill of
the chiefest and greatest particulars of those blessings, and that they are all
the blessings of grace, as ver. 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace/ and so on in the rest of the verses. Look how far the grace of God ex
tends, so far doth the influence by Christ extend ; Christ is left out in none. We owe all to God, and we owe all to Christ. As God is in his grace all
in all, so Christ is all in all, Col. iii. 11.
I use to say, free grace, Christ, and faith in us, are adequate ; that is, 1,
there is no blessing that free grace hath to bestow, but it hath given and
bequeathed it to the elect sons of men. 2. There was nothing free gra.ce had designed and given, but Christ comes as the medium, the instrument of
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 839
it, and is God s perfect servant to accomplish it. 3. There is nothing wherein God s free grace towards us hath manifested itself, or wherein Christ hath any way appeared, but that principle of faith in us is fitted to apprehend it, and to take it in, in such a manner as to give both free grace and Christ the right and proper glory, according unto the way of God s
grace and intention therein, which no grace in us else was fitted to do ; like as no sense but the eye is fitted to take in all the visible world at once.
I divided this first head into two propositions. 1. That the very grace and love he shews us, was placed upon our per sons as we were considered in Christ ; God did never love us out of him,
yea, and all his love is through him. I grant that Christ, considered as Mediator or God-man, was not the motive that swayed God, why he chose these and these persons, and not others. In that respect it is that Christ
says, Thine they were. Yet I say that God no sooner thought of choosing and loving any so, but that the love in solido he resolved to convey upon them was in Christ. He had Christ, not only as Mediator, in his eye, in whom he chose us then ; or, that Christ, as Mediator, was considered at and with the election, and as in whom we were chosen, so as we were not considered out of him when chosen, which is express
: Eph. i. 4-6, Ac
cording 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 : having pre destinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, ac
cording to the good pleasure of his will ; to the praise of the glory of his
grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. We were not
only elected cum Christo, together with Christ, but in Christo, in Christ when elected. And not only the benefits which we by election were pre destinated unto, but election itself, as a distinct benefit, is made one of the
first of blessings which in Christ, ver. 3, we are blessed withal : He hath
blessed us with all blessings in Christ, according as he hath chosen us,
ver. 4. But I would say farther, that the love, or grace, which in electing was
the fountain of all those benefits, was in and with the love he loved Christ
withal, he being the beloved, in whom God graciously accepts or loves us,
ver. 6. Which I farther make out thus.
Christ being his natural Son, he loves him indeed immediately for him
self, and chose him simply for himself; who is therefore styled by God the
* mine elect, and also in whom my soul delighteth (Isa. xlii. 1), that is, delighteth in him for himself; for
Father, in a way of singularity, both
though the man Jesus, by personal union, became his natural Son, and so
beloved for himself, yet that this man should have this dignity was from God s having elected him, and thereunto that speech in Isaiah is inter
* This is my beloved
preted by God himself from heaven : Mat. iii. 17,
Son, in whom I am well pleased. Which two, both of his elected and
beloved, Christ hath a respect unto in citing that place of Isaiah, Mat.
xii. 18, Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom
I am well pleased. And then God himself again, Mat. xvii. 5, in re
peating his former words, adds, Hear him, which was as if he had said, With him my soul is pleased, as my Son in himself, but in you only through him ; and that he was only elected for himself, for God to delight in, and who became the immediate receptacle of all the love of God, and we but
elected in him because beloved in him ; and so he was both caput electionis,
the head of election, and caput dilectionis, the head of being beloved. And
it is certain, that he that is the one, is and must be the other ; he that is
head or first receptacle of all God s love for himself, must needs be the head
of electing, or of the estating the whole of God s love upon others.
340 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
And truly, if we farther consider the infinite distance that is between God and mere single creatures, that are but nothing, they were not meet and fit matches (in themselves) or objects for his so immediate love, as with and
by election is bestowed on them, and is as the original of all the benefits and purposes of God therein. Nor, perhaps, could the creature have borne the weight of such an one singly themselves alone, no, not the angels, im
mediately, as they cannot bear his wrath ; and therefore it was transmitted
through his first beloved, who was able. Hence, therefore, God met those
that were to be mere creatures half the way, and descended and came down
into the man Jesus, who by personal union was made more than a creature, and then God could pour out his love, in the fulness of it, on us. But the chief of the reason lies in this, that God, of whom were all things else, and
in his counsels were ordered in a due number, and weight, and measure by him, he did observe in this of electing a dueness or comely proportion, and
it became him thus to love mere creatures in another, whom he should have cause to love for himself, and who, when chosen, was worthy of it ; yea, and chosen for his own delight first, and by him to estate them into that
his transcendent love, and to give them a right unto it as to glory. This was a most wise and orderly ordination, I might shew out of John xvii. 23, I in them, and thou in me ; that they may be made perfect in one, and that
the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Whereas other creatures he loves, but because they are his
creatures, and that he made them, and artifex amat opus ; this to shew the
peculiarity and transcendency of it, it is a love borne us in Christ, and a
loving us as he loved him, yet for his sake. And this for the first, that he
is a God of grace to us in Christ.
2. Now, secondly, as to the main conclusion, that therefore we shall be
invincibly carried on to glory, you find the fixedness of God s love put upon this very thing
: Rom. viii. 39, Who shall separate us from the love of God ? He stops not here, but adds, which is in Jesus Christ. And it is
there added as the ground of its unchangeableness, over and above God s
love in predestinating of us, of the which he had before abundantly dis coursed in that chapter, ver. 29, 30, and 33 :
* For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he
might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called ; and whom he called, them he also jus tified ; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. The love he bears
to Christ is such, and so unto us as beloved in him, it is so strong and pre valent. And it is as if he had said, Although God s love would have been
of itself unchangeable, and most constant unto those it should fix upon, yet God thought meet to take in Christ his Son, and to put him as a medium, or midst, or, if you will use Isaiah s word (for we cannot have a fitter), laid him as & foundation first, and a sure foundation between his grace and us ; as for other ends, so on purpose for this, that his grace, in all the emana
tion of it, might have a just and consistent ground and foundation for the continuance thereof to us, that as there might be a sureness of his good pleasure in his own heart, so of dueness and equitableness in it upon which
that unchangeableness should be grounded, in our being loved, not in our
selves (which was creation love by works), but in his Beloved, wholly out of
us, as even that love of his had no respect at all to what was in us, but it was purely in his own heart, and now founded on our relation to his Son.
II. As he is a God of grace to us in Christ, so he is a God of all grace to us in Christ.
CHAP. VII. J OF ELECTION. 341
For, 1, take all the purposes of God s heart towards us, which were the
first bubblings up of grace and of love in his will, as from the spring, and which were the matrix, the womb, the mother, in which calling and per severance and all lay. Now although, in the first of the Ephesians, he is
said to have purposed all in himself, ver. 9 and 11, ex mero motu, yet chap,
iii. 11 withal telleth us that his eternal purposes towards his church and
* purposed in Jesus Christ ; nay, the original hath it, $v s^o^ffsv, which he
calling the Gentiles, whereof he had spoken, ver. 8-10, were
* made, con
trived, or framed in Jesus Christ ; even as well as we are said to be his
workmanship in Christ. They had a foundation, as in God s heart, so in
his Christ s, and they are the whole of his everlasting purposes he speaks of,
wgoQeffiv rtiv aiuvuv, the purposes of eternity, the purpose or purposes of ages, as from everlasting and to everlasting they have their firmitude, their sub
sistence from him.
And that God made all his purposes in Christ, hence it is that firmness and sureness accrued to them. Christ strengthened God s heart in them, and his hand (he being God s arm, Isa. liii. 1) to perform them ; and surely,
if he served to fix God s heart in them, then the faith and consideration of
his engagement in them may well serve to secure, fix, and stablish OUTS. And particularly, perseverance was one great design of God amongst the
rest, as hath been shewn.
2. Take all the promises, which are the adequate, indefinite expressions of God s purposes, and the channels or cisterns all his purposes run out into, and as God is (as he is styled here) a God of all grace, so the promises, what are they but the contents of all and every of that grace, whereof those
of keeping us and preserving us are an eminent part ? and these also have a
firmitude, a sureness given them in and by Christ. And although God s bare
promise, and his oath added thereto, are said to be two immutable things, Heb. vi. 18, which do shew
* the immutability of his counsel to the heirs
of the promise, that they might have strong consolation, and have an
* anchor of hope sure and stedfast (that is, of stedfastness against all temp
tations, storms, and tempests that threaten casting us away, as the allusion
of casting anchor doth withal import) ; I say although his promise and oath
were alone sufficient, and indeed either of them, as the apostle there implies,
yet his Christ comes in also as a third, to add a farther immutability to them,
yea, to each of them.
(1.) To make all the promises sure : 2 Cor. i. 20, All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen. He is God s yea, and he is God s
amen. When God made all, or any of his promises, Christ stood by, and
said amen to them first, or they had never been promulged to us ; and that
to affirm this is no derogation unto God, that which follows, as if to prevent
any such an imagination, is added, unto the glory of God. For it is God s
glory that he should have a Son, so great a Son, as in the very words afore,
* the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is always the same, and whose years fail not, Heb. i. 12. In him was
ver. 19, he had on purpose styled him,
and is God s yea founded. You may build on him. For an instance of
all other promises, the yea and amen particularly gives this for all the rest,
even in the very word this my text useth : ver. 21, Now he which stab-
lisheth us in Christ is God. God stablisheth, but in his Christ. And the God that hath called you by Christ, shall stablish you by Christ, saith the
text here.
(2.) Then, secondly, Christ comes in to make his oath sure (which was
the second) ; but that will pass into a third particular, wherein God is a God
of all grace.
842 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV
(8.) In his performances, to assure us of which his oath was added to his
promise, and Christ comes in to both, as undertaking the performance of all. Though his oath made all sure, yet even the performance of that oath de
pended upon our Christ to make good. Now look ioto Zacharias s song, Luke i., which was made upon occasion of Christ s being born a Saviour ;
* who hath raised up an horn of salvation for us ; that is, Christ a strong Saviour ; and to what end it is that Christ comes in, verse 73 tells us, To perform the oath which he sware to our
* Blessed be God, says he,
father Abraham, that he would grant unto us. And it is Christ, you see, that must perform all, and the sending of him was the great matter of God s oath. And last of all, the very point we alleged all for, and in the
conclusion of all, is made the thing which God sware and Christ came to
* That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him with [out] fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. I might here insert a
: ver. 74, 75,
perform
critical observation upon that very oath that God swore to Abraham, which we heard even now, the apostle also speaking of it : Heb. vi. 17, sfj,tffirsuffev
02/iw, He mediated by an oath, saith Paul there, so shewing that God in
Ills very taking the oath had an eye to the Mediator, as in the intuition and
contemplation of whom God took it and swore it, he it was that was to make it good. And to this sense the Greek Scholiast hath also interpreted
it ; and it is to be greatly heeded those words in Gen. xxii. 16, By myself have I sworn, should have been rendered by the Chaldee paraphrast, By my word do I swear ; that is, by my Christ, who is the Word, as John
after declared him. The oath of a king runs in the word of a king ; God s oath runs higher, not barely in a verbal word, but in his Word, that
is, Christ, his substantial Word, who is also God himself; for my name is
in him, says God to Moses ; and by my Name have I sworn, so the
Syriac translation. The effect of all which comes to this, that in the virtue and strength of this my Son and my Christ, as a Mediator, and in whom is my name, it is that I do make this oath, and he shall see to perform it. Thus much for the first general head, that he is a God of grace, and of all
grace to us by Christ Jesus; and the inferences from thence to strengthen our faith in the main conclusion.
CHAPTEK VIII.
What security the consideration of Christ s person, his relation to us, and office for us, affords to our faith that we shall he strengthened to persevere unto the
end. As he is Christ our head, u~e are elected in him to all those benefits of grace which were above the dues of creation. As those benefits had no
dependence on the fall, Christ considered as our head icas a sufficient ground for God s bestowing them upon us in election ; viewed as we stood in that
relation to him, as he is our head, God loves vis in him, and with the same
love he does him, and therefore he will love us unchangeably, and never cease
so to do. As Christ is Jesus, a Saviour, our first calling into grace, and our continuation and ^perseverance in it, is the purchase of his blood. Sup
plies of grace and strength for him to give us ability to strengthen us against
temptations and deliverance out of them, is the price of his sufferings.
II. The second head proposed was the consideration of Christ s person, relation to us, and office for us, by Jesus Christ, and see what they will
afford for consolation and security herein.
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 343
1. Consider his person and relation to us as he is Christ. In his person, you know, he is the Son of God in our nature, God s Christ ; and as con sidered such, constituted and made an head and husband unto us who are
his fellows, chosen to be one with him, as God s Christ or anointed over us, and to us, as an head, Ps. xlv.
2. Consider him as Jesus, and as he undertook to be a Saviour and a Eedeemer to us, and who hath by his merits purchased all for us.
I know that both these two titles of his are often mentioned, but with an
intent only to design forth who it is that is spoken of when mentioned,
namely, that individual person, Jesus Christ. But his mention here being with a by Jesus Christ, as a note of influence and accusation* unto the
things here spoken of, give me leave, therefore, to inquire what each of
these, and particularly what the consideration of Christ, so far as it may be from Scripture warrant, conceived distinct from Jesus, will afford to secure us the elect of God, of our perseverance, or being carried through tempta tion ; both,
1. By his influence thereinto, and engagement thereupon, as he is
Christ.
And 2dly, As he is Jesus. By Christ, and by Jesus each.
I undertook that every word in the text would contribute something to our main point, and truly these two will contribute a great deal, and indeed more than I am able to grasp or mean to fetch in. I shall but give you a small
taste of these, and that will perhaps afford some light, comfort, and strength unto faith in this grand point.
You will first ask me, what my meaning should be to put this difference between his being, 1, Christ to us; and 2, Jesus, a Saviour, as you know it
: he shall save his people from their sins. I shall open my heart
signifies
in this particular, as God shall vouchsafe to enable me.
(1.) I find this distinct consideration of him as head or husband, and
: Eph. v. 23, Even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Saviour of the body. And by head is meant his relation of husband unto his church, as to his body, as the words
then of Saviour, made by the apostle
afore shew, For the husband is the head of the wife ; and it is exemplified and prosecuted by the instance of Adam and his wife, considered afore
the fall in their marriage, as then typifying out Christ and his church,
ver. 31, 32.
And he is first said to be the head, and then the Saviour; and Saviour as
an additional unto that relation of head, as those words carry it, And_he
the Saviour, &c. As if he should have said, Farther, or moreover, he is the
Saviour of his body, besides that of his being an head. Adam, his type, was
not the saviour of his wife, though her head. And according unto this
double relation there, I do take the boldness here, and warrant to make this
distinction and apartment. 1. By Christ, as he is head to this body, which
is in a reciprocal relation to him, again called his body, and both together,
_ In
Christ. 2. By Jesus, as Saviour, which title is proper to him alone.
1 Cor. xii. 12, both he and his body, if you observe, are called one Christ :
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of
^ But to be
that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
styled Saviour is proper to him alone, and therefore his relation to us as
Christ, is distinct from that of Saviour. There is a controversy among those that are orthodox in point of election,
under and in what view in eternity the elect came up before God, whether in
their fallen or unfallen estate, when they were the subject of his election.
* Qu. accausation ? ED.
344 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
Those that are called Superlapsarians, they say, Man came up into God s mind first, without the consideration of the fall ; and that the creation, and then the permission of the fall, were but as means to bring about the designs of election, which were ordained before the fall. Others, whom you call
Sublapsarians, account the creation and the fall but a matter of common providence, not intended as means to accomplish election, but only as ante cedents ; and that God began his election, having first foreseen man would
fall. These are two extreme opinions ; but there is a third, and that is, that both man unfallen and fallen, and all things that did or could fall out concerning man, being in one entire view before God at once, whose infinite
understanding grasps and comprehends all in one prospect, as he doth all time into an instant, being all present to God (though of the things them selves one succeed the other in execution), that God had respect to both estates in his election, and that some sort of his decrees respected man as
unfallen, and some as fallen. Now it is certain that some respect man as fallen ; for to appoint man to faith in Christ his Redeemer, to appoint man to repentance, such decrees must be upon the consideration of man as fallen.
Give me leave to be of the latter s opinion, and I explain myself thus in
it : that there is an election to the end, which is to the utmost glory which I have spoken of, and there is an election to the means, as Christ s redemp tion on his part, faith and repentance on ours, which are in the way to that
glory. This notion I have elsewhere enlarged upon, but as to my present purpose, as God s election had these two respects, so suitably Christ bears a twofold relation to us through God s ordination, the one of being Christ and an head to us, which suits his decrees of election as to the end, and which considered man as unfallen ; the other of Jesus a Saviour, which wholly respects man fallen into sin, and to be restored out of it.
I shall take my first rise from this distinction given you, from what is in the text, that God is a God of all grace to us men, in and by Christ, taking the word grace in the utmost latitude of it ; and so that all kind of grace is in and by Christ, as hath been handled. This is a sure maxim, that there
is no sort nor kind of grace that is in the heart of God to any of his crea
tures, that he did not bear to the elect sons of men. The reason is, because
he^is a God of all grace to us : now consider this, that grace doth not (take it in the latitude of it) only respect creatures as fallen, but had respect to creatures as unfallen, for grace was extended to the elect angels. And an evidence of it is, that if grace in God towards us after the fall, were only said to be grace in respect of what man is, or can do after the fall, then grace in God were only such a grace as must have the
- advantage of man s sin, and became grace only in a respect to man s unworthiness, by reason of sin first laid, as the foundation for it, and that this consideration must come in to make it grace, that what he gave was therefore grace, because man had deserved the contrary ; but that were to lower grace, as it
is in God, and to make it to need, and to be beholding to man s sin to make
it esteemed grace. That which is, and we call, grace in a king, a mortal, scorns to be so lowered. He is not said to be gracious only to traitors, and those that have incurred the penalties of the law : no ; but he hath favours to bestow on his best subjects over and above their deserts ; and he is said to be gracious in that respect also. So then, grace in God is not only to
be^ esteemed as grace in respect towards his elect, considered as fallen, but
it is super-creation grace that is above what is due to the creature by the law of creation. Supercreation grace also, as of a God so great as he, hathpower in his hands to bestow gifts of grace on man considerjd as not fallen;
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 345
and this appears evidently in the example of the angels. They were kept by election, and therefore are styled the elect angels in Timothy, and that they never sinned ; what kept them ? A grace above their creation-grace ; for election is an order of decrees above creation. Election prevented their sinning, and that was an infinite grace bestowed above the due of their works, or of their creation ; and it was a grace that flowed from, and accompanied election, and all election hath a grace above the law of creation for the foun dation of it : Kom. xi. 5, 7, it is styled
< the election of grace ; and again there it is opposed to works, according to which creation only proceeds, for it is a covenant of works. Whatsoever is of grace, goes by election ; and whatsoever goes by election is by grace, and therefore is not to be narrowed unto grace shewn after the creature hath sinned, but may as well be bestowed and terminated on the creature afore. And although this grace broke no way forth upon man afore the fall, but was a reserve left to be discovered afterwards ; for grace had a second design, an ampliation of itself unto man as sinful, and so God forbore to discover that first design until the other was accomplished. Now if God be a God of grace to man elect, then we must not think that man, God s darling, did partake only of that grace which was discovered upon his having sinned, but had a share and allotment in supercreation grace also ; and that man, considered as unfallen, as well as the angels, and being God s darling, God s Benjamin, in point of grace, had a double mess of grace designed him, had the lower springs and upper springs too, superlapsarian and sublapsarian grace ; for all God s springs are on and towards him ; all that the angels had designed them was intended to man afore sinning, except only that of being kept from falling ; and all that grace that after sinning was requisite to restore him, to the end that God might be a God of all grace every way unto man, as hath been explained, and that he might come behind hand in no sort of grace (as the apostle says of
us) that was in his heart.
Now you will ask me what benefits of grace are there (for we measure grace by what good God had to design) to man considered as uufallen, and whereby to magnify that sort of grace to him as well as to angels, that were not due by creation or works, nor never should have gone that way ?
I answer, in general, all benefits that answer the design of election.
(1.) Immutable holiness, which is above creation-dues, was, as you know, bestowed on the angels by election.
(2.) Adoption of sons, which was above creation-dues ; for it consists in a relation unto Christ. Adam was but a son by creation, as having God s image ; but adoption is an higher thing, and depends upon a relation to the natural Son.
(3.) That glory, as I shewed, or immediate communion with God himself.
(4.) A gracious acception, and loving them simply, their persons, without a respect to works, this also was above the due of creation : for if thou do
well, shalt not thou be accepted ? was the language of creation-due, and of the covenant of works ; but to have my person itself loved, and irrespectively to works, simply and absolutely, this was super-creation grace.
Now, of all those kinds of benefits, man considered as unfallen was capable of; yea, and grace will be more illustrated and magnified to have had them
designed to man considered as not fallen, more than that simply after the
fall, as you may discern and might be shewed.
And that the bestowing of those depended not at all upon the considera tion of the fall is evident, the thing itself speaks it ; and as Bishop Davenant and others have acknowledged, sin was impertinent to the bestowing of those, they no way depended upon it. God could love with an absolute
OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
love, and graciously accept our persons out of that love, without the suppo sition of sin.
Lo, all these four benefits we find to have been designed unto man by election of grace, and that as distinct from and antecedaneous to those that necessarily suppose the fall : Eph. i. 4-6, 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 : Having predestinated us into the adop tion of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the pleasure of his
will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved.
(1.) Here is immutable, unchangeable holiness : he hath chosen us that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. What doth he mean ? the holiness we have in this world imperfect ? No ; it is that holiness that
is faultless, and a holiness that is faultless before God ; and afterwards it
is he speaks of that imperfect holiness in ver. 8, which in calling is given us again.
(2.) He tells us of adoption
: He hath predestinated us to the adoption of children ; a sonship beyond creation, and such as did not depend upon our having sinned. God could make and therefore decree us thus sons without our sinning ; he could design for us an adoption in our relation to
Christ, which gives us right to utmost glory.
(3.) A third benefit that he hath predestinated us to himself, yea, and to Christ, for the words bear both respects ; the meaning is, to immediate communion with himself and Christ. He hath predestinated us to enjoying himself, even God, his being all in all : this depends not on the fall. God could have taken creatures immediately unto himself, and communicated
himself, as he will do, after the day of judgment to them.
Again, (4.) Wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. This is
Ftill a super-creation grace, not supposing man fallen, and another thing than to be accepted by creation holiness, which was to be accepted by works.
And, secondly, all these are distinct from those benefits which come upon the consideration of the fall. In verse 7 he begins, as in a new edition,
* In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, accord
ing to the riches of his grace. Then he comes to calling, ver. 8, 9, Wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence
: having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; which are bestowed on us also, as by the decree and the means, afore the fall, in bringing us to glory ; and for the
bestowing of these the good pleasure of his will, which he had purposed in himself, again comes in, as a farther decree to bestow them; and then
* to the praise of the glory of his grace, is brought in at the close of his enumeration of the first sort of benefits that depend not on the fall, for grace is seen in them as well as in those other of redemption, unto which also apart the riches of his grace are ascribed, as the fountain of them.
Our election, &c., unto both sorts are in Christ, so expressly of the first
superlapsarian benefits : ver. 4, We are chosen in Christ, &c. And indeed if of grace, then in Christ ; Christ is as large and extensive in his instrumen
tality as grace is in ordaining. Now, then, here I clap in this, that Christ, as head, is considered as the foundation of those first sort of benefits bestowed upon man considered as unfallen ; and Christ, as Jesus, or Redeemer, is the author of the benefits of redemption.
I shall only end in this, that as all those first benefits do not depend upon man s having sinned first, so that this foundation of Christ, considered as an
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 347
head to us, might be, and was a sufficient ground to bestow them upon us in
election, upon our relation to him, as given of God, as he is Christ, and as he is an head and husband to us.
For, first, to make us holy and immutable before God in love, our relation to Christ, as an head, was a sufficient, though not the whole, ground for it, as I have elsewhere shewn. If Christ takes the pure creature to relation to
himself, he being the holy of holies, anointed of God, we shall be made un
changeably holy in and through Christ ; for by that relation we are called
his, 1 Cor. xv. 23. It was Christ fixed the angels, and made them un
changeable.
Secondly, Our being adopted sons to God will in a dueness follow upon our being given to Christ as head ; for as he is the natural Son of God, therefore by virtue of our relation to him simply as such, we may well become adopted children by marriage with him, as a spouse becomes the
daughter of the father to whose son she is married, there needed not the
fall nor his redemption.
Likewise, thirdly, to see God face to face, which by the right of adoption we have, it is but being made members of Christ, of him as of an head, to be brought to that utmost glory, to have it designed for us ; it did not depend upon Christ s being a redeemer only, because it was natural to Jesus Christ
to see God face to face ; and we having relation to him, come to the same
interest.
So that in the fourth place, that we are graciously accepted in the be loved ; this depended not upon the supposal of the fall, nor upon Christ considered as Jesus only, but the very relation of our persons to him as an husband : Thine they were, and thou gavesfc them me, will do all this. These things to clear my meaning being premised, I come to that which
is proper to the point in hand, which is,
What doth this our relation to Christ, as Christ and an head, and God s
love to us in Christ as such, contribute unto our security, that we shall in
vincibly be carried on to glory, maugre all oppositions ?
For answer, I lay this for an unquestionable maxim, that that in Christ which fixeth God s heart most firmly unto us, that that must needs be the
strongest and firmest motive to God to carry us on unto salvation ; for in
the text he professeth himself engaged to do it, as he is a God of all grace or of love to us, through Christ. That thing, therefore, which in Christ
fixeth him most firmly, must needs be supposed to move him most to per form this. Now, consider when in that Eph. i. 6 he is said to have
graciously accepted us in this his beloved ; whether of the two, his being a Redeemer unto us, Jesus, or his being his beloved Son and Christ, which
of these two must be the principal motive to love and accept us, and which
of them is intended in that place ? It being put upon Christ his being his
beloved, and our relation to him as such, I would put the question, For which of the two it is that God loves Christ most, whether as he is Christ and our head, or whether as he is our Jesus, undertaking to redeem us ?
It is true he loves him because he died for us at his command Therefore
the Father loves me, because I lay down my life but let me tell you, he
loves him more because he is Christ ; that he is his Son dwelling in our
nature, that it is that makes him the eminently beloved of God. Now, if God s love to us be in and through Christ, and our relation to him, then
that in Christ, for which God loves him most, will prove a foundation upon which he loves us most.
We find that this was it which Christ twice useth in the 17th of John, to move his Father to love and save his elect ; first in verse 23, That they
348 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me ; and verse 24, Father, I will that they also that thou hast given me be with me where I am ; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast
given me : for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. I ask the question, What do you think of God s loving Christ here ? Did he love him from the foundation of the world chiefly because he foresaw he would die for us, and be Jesus, a Saviour ? No ; it was because he was his Son in our nature. Then say I, if he loved us in his beloved, then he loved us most in and for that wherein and for what he had loved him most from the foundation of the world, and us with that kind of love he had loved him
withal, and for the relation we had to him upon that his love to him ; and he contents not himself to have said this once, but at the conclusion of his
prayer he speaks thus, and it is as if he had said, These are my last words,
That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Whereof I take the meaning to be, that as in the thing itself God s love to us was founded upon his love to him, it was but the overflow of God s love to the person of Christ that flows on to us ; so therefore he prays that we might understand so much. And upon what it is that the love of God towards us, through him, is especially founded, that the love in God, wherewith he had loved him, may be in us ; this he prays for as a matter of the highest moment and concernment for us to know. And then add we
this, that if he loves us as he loves his Son, who is his beloved, that then he loves us unchangeably, ver. 23. Yea, and this unchangeableness and fixedness is grounded on a due and equitable ground, for the relation we have to his Son is it that makes us sons ; and so God loving him so natu
rally, so strongly as he doth, it becomes him so to love them that are his, as
they are called 1 Cor. xv. 23, Those that are Christ s and so are in a near and strong relation to him.
That as Christ said of his Father s love to him, that it is greater than all, that nothing can fall out to remove it, so it is here, his love being fixed in
Christ, he may as well cease to love his Christ as cease to love us. And hence it comes to pass that sin doth not, nor cannot, work his heart off from
us, but it provokes him to destroy it in us. And there is this equitable ground for it ; it is certain he hates not sin so much, which yet he only hates, or so intensely, as he doth love his Son for himself ; for then some
contrary affection about what is in the creature should be as great and as intense as his love to bis Son is. And therefore he can never be brought
finally to hate our persons for sin, or because that sin is in us, for what is in us distinct from our persons, as sin is, more than to continue to love our
persons, because we are in his Son. Observe but the proportion between the one and the other, and it will invincibly hold ; for else he should value his love to his Son at a lower rate than he doth the evil of sin, which cannot be. I will not deny, but that to forgive our sins by Christ was necessary ; yet this I will say, that sin could never have wrought his heart off from us ; but love to his Son, that caused him to work sin out of us ; and yet what a valuable consideration there is for all this, even in the thing itself, of loving us in Christ.
2. By Jesus, a Saviour of us, as sinners, through redemption, and pur chase, which falls in with what the most interpreters give the account of, as to what purpose by Jesus Christ should come in here, ascribing it to what he meritoriously wrought for us, and purchased for us at God s hand. As when we are said to be called, we are said to be called by Jesus Christ, because his merits bought or purchased our calling, and that God by the virtue and intuition of his merits called us ; so likewise, that we are called
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 349
into glory, that he intendeth, it is by Jesus Christ, who purchased all the glory which God estates us into.
_ Now as to that main point and drift afore us, there are two eminent par ticulars I shall insist on, as the purchase of the merits of Jesus, the consi deration whereof may inseparably secure our hearts for his preserving and carrying us through all temptations.
(1.) That Christ hath bought and purchased our first calling into grace ; and together therewith our continuance and perseverance in that grace.
(2.) That he hath meritoriously also bought off all our temptations, and purchased withal an ability to himself to succour us, and strengthen us through all temptations, and stablish us in the end. This I add here, not only because our greatest hazards and dangers are from our temptations, but because the scope of the text, as hath been shewn, is to relieve us against temptations in a more special manner.
_ (1.) For the first, there are three particulars which make up the conclu sion I aim at.
[1.] That Christ s merits have purchased our first calling into grace. [2.] That together therewith he purchased our continuance and preserva tion in grace.
[3.J What an obligation there is lying upon Christ that ariseth from both, that when once he hath called us, as that which is the first payment, and purchase of his death, he should then be engaged to see it, that we be strengthened and preserved in grace to the end, as being the second pay ment or latter part of that purchase, without which the first of calling would be ineffectual. These, all three of them, are proper and pertinent to the apostle s scope.
[1.] He hath purchased our calling, by which we are first estated into
grace, and that is our conversion, which hath the name of calling given to
it being a calling of us out of the world, and a dedication of us as first fruits unto God. Now, Gal. i. 4, this is expressly attributed to that merit of the purchase made by Christ,
< Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from the present evil world, which, ver. 6, is interpreted, our being
< called into the grace of Christ, or
< in the grace of Christ, kv y^n, as being that which cost Christ dear, and wherein he shewed his love and grace towards us, whom he bought (his soul found an hard penny worth of it) ; for as unto God he gave himself for our sins, to call us, ver. 4, but as unto us indeed that are called, it was merely out of his grace. Thus
also, 1 Peter i., God s calling of us, ver. 15, is made the price of his blood ; in ver. 18, 19, For as much as ye know, ye were redeemed from your vain conversation with the precious blood of Christ. Their vain conversation was that course of life and state they had been in all that time afore calling; the
delivering them out of which, by calling them and making them holy, was by redemption, and that redemption was by the charge and price of the pre cious blood of Christ.
[2.] Our continuance in grace was cast into his bargain, together with our
calling, and inseparably annexed thereunto ; for it imports he bought out the whole of our time in the world. The manner of speech there used is such as if it were said of a father, he had bought out the remainder of his son s time at a valuable consideration, who is an apprentice to a vain, ungodly master, and who had a claim and interest in him for such a term of years ; for when he says, He redeemed you from a vain conversation, the meaning is, that it had a power over you, and an interest in you, so as
otherwise you would have continued therein to the end of your days, such an hold had it of you. So, then, Christ bought out of God s hands, with
350 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
your first conversion, your whole time to come, and thereby your preserva tion and continuation in that grace, in as sure a way of bargain as your first
calling (which by experience you are sure hath been wrought in you), and
this against all claims and recoveries your old vain conversation or your old
temptations should ever be able to make unto you, so as never to endanger his losing of you again. Thus, also, Titus ii. 14, Who gave himself for
us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a
peculiar people, zealous of good works. He speaks of redeeming us from
the power of sin (as the opposition shews), to purchase to himself an
* zealous of good works. So, then, all those sins which we should have been carried out into in the whole of our lives after,
addicted people to him,
in the dominion of them over us, which they afore calling had ; from this and these he redeemed us, and so bought out our whole time at one lump, at one entire and whole bargain.
You have all this fully in that song, Luke i. 68, Blessed be God, that hath redeemed his people ; ver. 69, And hath raised up an horn of salva
tion for us, namely, Christ ; ver. 70, That we should be saved from our enemies (specially spiritual), and from the hand of all that hate us ; to
perform and remember the mercy, oath, and covenant which he sware,
ver. 72, 73. He sent Christ to redeem, and lay a price down that God
might be able to perform his oath ; and what was that oath? Ver. 74, That he would grant us, that being (once) delivered out of the hands of our
enemies, we might serve him without fear (of our coming in our enemies
power, and conquest of us again) all the days of our lives, in holiness and
righteousness.
I observe there, first, how he bought our calling ; for then and at calling
it is that we are delivered from the hand or power of all our enemies ; from
all as well as any one. We heard out of Gal. i. 4, that our calling was a
* out of this present world, as here, from all, &c.
deliverance
Secondly, That he withal bought out all the rest of our time, after our
calling, or first deliverance, or enfranchisement from our enemies, even all
the days of our lives to come.
And, thirdly, he purchased not only for us, that we should have power in
ourselves to be able to preserve ourselves, if we will look to it, as we should do to ourselves. No ; he fixed it more certainly, he bought this of God, that he would grant us it, the very effectual bestowing the thing upon us.
In so much, fourthly, as God, in the foresight and contemplation of the
invincible efficacy thereof, took an oath to grant it to every son of Abraham ; and God never breaks an oath, it is irrevocable. So as, fifthly, we may in this point be perfectly secure, as the words, without fear, assure us ; and so turn all our care and solicitude (which tears and wears the hearts of many, viz., that few shall be able to hold out) upon
this, how to serve him the more acceptably.
[3.] The third thing proposed was the force and strength of the obligation that lieth on Christ, and riseth from hence, that he, having thus bought both
our calling and preservation in grace, that therefore he should be more care
ful and heedful to keep us, and accordingly to strengthen, settle, stablish us
in wisdom. It is his concernment. Christ is a wise purchaser, as well as
a wise builder. Now for one to make sure of one part of a purchase (which
is but the first payment, as we say), and to make all the rest as certain, how great a folly and oversight would it be accounted in any bargainer or
contractor, especially when the condition of the bargain is such as if the
latter part faileth and cometh not in, that then also the first is null and void, and so as he must lose all benefits and use of the first part, after it is paid
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 351
in, and so lose the whole ? To be sure in this case a wise man will look more narrowly (of the two) to the latter part of his bargain than to the first.
I exemplify it thus : if in the 8th verse of the second epistle of John, he
exhorts his Christian converts, wrought upon by his ministry, to look lo
themselves, that we (ministers and apostles, as well as Christians) lose
not those things which we and you have wrought, but that we receive a full
reward. You find also how vehemently solicitous, to a jealousy, the apostle Paul was over those he had converted, lest they should in any degree have
fallen. Do but read the first epistle to the Thessalonians, chap, ii., &c. The like you have in his epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians, Yet his concernment was, but his having been a poor instrument in the hand of
Christ to work on them. Without doubt, then, Jesus Christ will be sure to
look to this ; he will look to this himself, for it is his own interest and con
cernment, which is infinitely greater than what was the apostle s ; he being both the owner and master-workman, he will look narrowly to us, and to
the thing he hath wrought in us, to succour, stablish, strengthen, &c., that he have his full bargain out, especially seeing he hath obtained one great
part belonging to it, hath called us already, and so hath received the first
payment, and so is in possession in part, both of what he hath bought, and what he hath wrought in us. Above all, when the condition or rate is such
as he must forfeit that too, and so both his whole work and his whole pur chase become frustrate, as if he had never laid out a penny upon either. It
is certain Christ will not lose one farthing, not an iota of what he paid ;
* heaven and earth shall pass away rather. God held him hard to it, ami
would not abate a farthing, and he will hold God as hard to it, and will look
to it, not only to have every individual soul he purchased, but to have also
every degree of grace which he purchased for every soul.
(2.) As he bought thy first calling and continuance in grace thy whole
time, so he hath paid for and bought off from thee all thy temptations that
should any way befall thee, or that should any way endanger thy continu
ance in grace ; and hath procured succour, strength, settlement, and estab
lishment for thee.
This is certainly the full scope and direct meaning of that passage, Heb.
ii. 18, In that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to suc
cour them that are tempted. He had said he was a merciful High Priest,
to pity us, in the verse afore, and so hath an heart and willingness to pity us ; but in this verse he adds, that he was able ; now mark it, he doth not
term him able in respect of his personal abilities, as he is God, but he in
tends a further acquired ability, and acquired by this, that he being made a
frail man, subjected to temptations, as in chap, iv., he was subjected to all
temptations; yea, and in the 17th verse of this 4th chapter, he gives this
reason why he was made a frail man, even to make him the more tenderly
merciful to us : It behoved him, &c. So that besides his mercies, as he was God (as if that they fitted him not
enough), he also became a man, a tempted man, to engage his heart to
faithfulness, and to soften his heart to pity us with such a kind of pity with
which one man useth to pity another of his nature in distress ; this was an
additional acquired mercy in his heart unto that which he had as he was
God. Now in a like sense this speech here is to be understood, that he was made able thereby to succour us.
You may ask of me concerning this (as of the others also), Was not our
Saviour able to succour us, being God-man, though he had never been
tempted ?
I answer, it is true he had that radical or fundamental power, both of
352 OF ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
that and of all things else, as God, but it was this, of his having been him
self tempted, which gave him the immediate next power, the potentia proximo,, as we say.
And then you will next inquire, How came it that his having been tempted should give him power and ability to help us, such as he else had not had ?
That Scripture resolves you clearly, In that himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able, &c. So then it lay in that all his temptations were in him all pure and mere sufferings to him. In conformity unto which, here in this text of Peter s, even our temptations are termed sufferings, After you have suffered a while, &c. All Christ s temptations were grievous afflictions and vexations to his spirit, he suffered in them ; and not only his
hanging on the cross, but all his temptations from Satan in the wilderness were his sufferings. All the oppositions, reproaches, and contradictions that sinners and this wicked world made against him, they were part of his suffer
ings: Heb. xii. 3, Consider him that endured (mark it) such contradic tions of sinners, such as never no man else ; they were part of his endurings. Now this is a certain rule, that whatever you can reckon and account to have been his sufferings, they acquired and merited, in every tittle of them, a redeeming power, a purchasing power of something of like nature for us ; and the emphasis, force, or reason of that lies in those words in Heb. xii. 3,
against himself, &c., which is as if he had said, That he, so great a person, should submit to bear it, expose himself, and suffer himself to suffer, to be
tempted by Satan and the world, who could have flung them backward and
destroyed them, as in the entrance to his last sufferings he gave evidence. So then, as elsewhere it is termed,
* the blood of God, so these were the
temptations of God ; not objectively only, as we are said to tempt God, but
subjectively, so as he suffered in them all personally, as we poor men do when we are tempted. So Heb. iv. 15, Was in all points tempted like as we are ; he in his person as we in ours. Now all these sufferings being for us, and as the Scripture speaks, he therein giving up himself for us, and a piece of himself was concerned and touched upon in every temptation ; they therefore aim to have a redeeming, purchasing power and ability in them for us ; as Titus iii. 14, Who gave himself for us to redeem us. And according to that maxim of his, he
uttered, when he came to suffer, Here I am, take me, let these go free, John xviii. 8.
And again, add this, which is as certain a rule, that whatever Christ did
particularly suffer in, that suffering hath a special virtue and ability of re
deeming us from the like particular wherein we suffer, and he thereby did buy help and succour for us therein. So then, his being tempted bought off
all our temptations, either not to befall us, or if they befell us, in the end to leave us. Have we a temptation of shame comes upon us, that is, a busi ness that is matter of shame ? Ps. Ixix. 6, 7, Let not them that wait on
thee, Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake ; let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, God of Israel. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. It is a psalm of Christ, if ever any was made for him ; for it is quoted four or five times of him in the New Testament. Now observe from hence, with what intentions Christ transacted things with his Father. And what was the scope and intendment he directed his sufferings in any kind unto, you may learn it by this one in stance farther, I suffer shame, says Christ, I have borne reproach, &c. For what end and fruit was it ?
* Let not them that wait on thee be ashamed, &c., and he adds twice, for my sake. The meaning is not as to this sense, because they cleave to me, and adhere to me, and are of my
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 358
party, and so that though I were foiled, yet let not them be shent or ashamed for rny sake ; no, but the clean contrary
: as Eph. iv. 32, As God
for Christ s sake hath forgiven you. He there pitcheth it thus : Because I, for their sakes, do at thy command bear that shame which they should else have done, Lord, take it off from them, because thou hast laid it upon me ; so it expressly follows, ver. 7, Because for thy sake I have borne reproach ; shame hath covered my face. The clear resolve of it is this. Now what is
spoken of matter of shame there, the same holds true of any particular thing which Christ suffered, or which befalleth us. We may say of each of his
sufferings, that it hath procured of his Father, that we, for his sake, should be relieved in it, and that because he suffered in being tempted, therefore he is able meritoriously, and by way of merit and desert at his Father s
hand, he comes to have power to help and succour us in that particular, be
it what it will be. I have elsewhere given other instances of like kind out
of 1 Cor. viii. 9, and Mat. viii. 17, and 1 Peter ii. 24, speaking to servants
* By whose stripes ye are healed. Now so it is in the
beaten and abused,
point of temptations in any kind ; he bore our temptations, he was tempted, that for his sake we might have either no such temptations, or have them
moderated, and in the end struck off. He may be termed a man of tempta
tions, as well as a man of sorrows.
Yea, and thou art but so far tempted, as therein to be conformed to him, and merely for that conformity ; so as look upon thy temptations but only as his aftersufferings
: Col. i. 24, Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for
his body s sake, which is his church.
Add to this, that as he bought off all our temptations at his death, so he
is meritoriously able, and received ability to succour us when he first came
to heaven, and so was habitually enabled. This is a certain rule, that
look whatever thing he purchased here on earth by his suffering, the like he had ability to perform in heaven, and so meritoriously is enabled thereunto,
as one that hath deserved it. The dispensatory power thereof, or power to
give that forth, did he receive when he came to heaven ; yea, it was his first
entertainment there. God was honest to him, and faithful to him, as he had been to God ; and gave him not only
* all power in heaven and earth,
by way of mere commission to manage all, as Mat. xxviii. 18, as a king hath
all sovereignty by law ; but he supplied him with that which was completely able to effect whatsoever he pleased. The Holy Ghost is able to comfort
thee in all thy temptations and tribulations : you know he is called the
Comforter, which is spoken properly in respect of discomfort and tempta
tions. Christ knew what he did when he promised to send him to them, as
need should require, as afore his death he did ; for no sooner did Christ arrive,
or set his foot in heaven, but he for us did receive the whole of the Spirit, and all his comforts, and whatsoever he was able to do. Thus Acts ii. 38, And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. He had bought all the
cordial succours the Holy Ghost had by him ready prepared for every
malady; he had the whole at once given him; for Christ, the head, was made at once complete. God anointed him, as in his own person, with
the oil of gladness above his fellows. So with the whole of that oil, which
was for ever to be poured forth upon all his fellows, even upon the whole
church ; and what he then received by wholesale, he pours out and gives forth
to every member of his church, as occasion is, and their need doth require.
Use. Had Christ an issue out of all his temptations ? Then shalt thou,
VOL. IX. Z
354 OP ELECTION. [BOOK IV.
because lie suffered, being tempted, for thee, and in thy stead. In the wil
- and the devil left him, and the good angels came and ministered unto him. In the garden he was tempted, and in
derness he was tempted,
agony ; the issue was, an angel came and comforted him, and God gave him counsel and support, Luke xxii. ; and he was heard in what he feared, Heb. v. 7. On the cross he was put to it : My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? And he was heard in what he feared, not knowing by what he felt, unto what height the wrath of God would rise. It is finished
(says he) ; that is, this great brunt is over, and here is an end of all. God
delivered him out of all troubles, and he will deliver thee out of all : God
delivers the righteous out of all their troubles, says the psalmist, not leaving one which he is not delivered out of.
Yea, I say, thou shalt much more easily be heard and delivered than he was.
It is a sad thing, and may affect any one s heart, to hear the great Saviour of the world complain, as in the next words to those just now mentioned, My God, my God, &c., Ps. xxii. 1 ; in the next words, to hear him go on
to complain, my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not : and
in the night season I am not silent. And then, to aggravate his grief the
more, adds, ver. 4, Our fathers trusted in thee : they trusted, and thou
didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered. Thou art more hard and difficult to me in my distresses, than unto them in theirs ;
but, above all, to have him then add, But I am a worm, and no man, whom thou having cast below the condition of other men and saints, as a worm is below a man, takest freedom to trample on me, so as never on any ;
yea, and that yet it was so, that for his very sake they all had been heard and
delivered in their temptations. The truth of it is, we shall be sooner and more easily heard than he was ; for he bore the stress, the brunt, for all the
rest, to suffer being trampled, to procure audience and despatch for thee. Therefore be of good courage, for he hath overcome for thee, and thou shalt more easily get off than he that made way for thy succour.
And whether thy temptations be small or great, thou mayest, by viewing what Christ suffered, comfort thyself against either ; for in that it is said, He was tempted in all things like as we are, it comprehends all sorts and
varieties. As he was a man of sorrows, so of temptations. Our spirits are
oftener exposed to temptations and disquietments from things that are in themselves small, though great unto us. Gnats trouble us oftener than
wild beasts. A mote on the eye frets it ; an hair, lying upon the heart, eats into it ; and when we look to Christ, we considering him as we do men of great spirits, think that small things made no impression upon his
great heart. But oh, he had withal the softest and tenderest heart that ever was, more than of any man ; for the same temper of softness that makes him merciful to us, also rendered him most sensible of all that befell him
self, and he was left to the infirmity of his flesh in sufferings ; he was
affected with the meanness of his parents, disesteemed in his own country, Mat. xiii. 55-57 ; and at his death, when they cast lots upon his gar ments, it was a trouble to him, and he passionately complains, and of the mouths they made at him, Ps. xxii. ver. 13, 18. It is much, that a mm
dying on the cross, in his cruel pains and tortures, forsaken of God, aid
conflicting with his wrath, and so wholly swallowed up therewith, should have room in his heart and thoughts to mind parting his garments, and casl -
ing lots for his vesture, after he was divested of them ; yet he lays to heai t
so small an occurrence ; it was his tenderness. In tender flesh, as in that
of children, fleas make a great knot and mark with the least of their bitings, which on others make no impression.
CHAP. IX.] OP ELECTION. 355