Chapter III
That, de facto, God hath made an election of some out of pure grace, with a
non-election of others, proved by the story of all ages of the world, through
the Old and New Testament.
I found upon the same text of Rom. xi. 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th verses,
this second assertion, that these two companies or sorts of men, thus diffe
renced, the election, and the rest not elected, have been in all ages of the
world, and have divided mankind, and shall to the end.
1. All the world are and have been either the election or the rest; yea, and therefore those other are termed the rest (the tenderest word that could
have been used), as being the other whole remainder when the elect are
taken forth. As if you have a great heap afore you, and you cull out some, and what are the remainder are called the rest, there is not a third company;
and they are so distinguished, as that none of the elect do become of the
number of the rest, nor of the rest do become of the number of the elect. And therefore you must never intermingle them, by thinking that a man may be of the elect to-day, and at their death reprobate; for these two, as contra-
distinct sayings, remain such to eternity. If any of the elect were finally
hardened, then this other saying, the rest were blinded, were not true ; or
if any of those that are the rest did obtain it, then that first, the election
have obtained (as they stand thus differenced one from the other), were not
true. The elect and the rest stand severed in such a contra-distinction, by two such events appropriate to each ; you must take election and obtained it
as eternally yoked, and belonging to the company alone ; and on the con
trary, the rest were blinded, as the issue of that company alone ; who are not
said to be the rest, because they are blinded, but being the rest that is
severed from the election, it comes to pass that they are blinded; as on the
contrary, the election being a company chosen out from the rest, they obtain
it, and are not finally blinded.
2. That this division is and hath been in all ages, &c. I found it thus
far upon the text. You see the apostle instanceth in two ages, and parallels them together in this very respect. Elijah s times in the old, in which God had an election (though the worst of times), seven thousand men, and the
rest fell all to Baal ; so even in this present age, says he, it proves to be
among my countrymen the Jews. And the word so tlien is an inference from
the former instance to prove it, as well as it is a parallel to exemplify it. So
that although he instanceth but in two, these ages past and present, yet it
leads on and gives a just occasion to extend inquiry into all ages. How doth he prove that there is an election now as well as a parallel ? Or how doth
this follow, that if he had an election before, he hath now ? Because elec
tion nunquam excidit, saith Pareus, election never ceaseth to be in the
world. A church unto God must then cease to be extant, for whose sakes
the world doth stand, and will continue no longer than till God hath all his
elect out of it, and then will the end be.
To evidence the demonstration of this, that there is an election, &c., I
shall make use of no other argument than a representation and scheme of the
course and current which runs down through all times, as the Scripture stories have purposely, in a continuation of instances of persons elected, drawn a
line of election, and oppositely, together there is a line of rejection through out all ages ; which way of proof is most proper and suitable to the course
of the text, which hath recourse to an exemplary instance of election, con-
CHAP. III.] OF ELECTION. 27
tinued in an age as deplorate as whatever in the Old Testament. This
draught of the whole, set in one view, may prove pleasant to you, and will b3 profitable for your instruction.
There are those in the world that say God hath loved all mankind alike as to salvation, and to that purpose hath in all ages given them helps and divine assistances in common, more or less, which we usually term common grace, which, if their wills, being stirred up and moved thereby, will use well, then
they may and do obtain faith, and an effectual calling unto salvation. And upon the right use of those common adjutories it is that God doth then elect them, and not till then ; or upon the foresight from all eternity that they will do so. But if they do not use those helps well, then they are reprobated or
rejected.
But from that rehearsal of instances through all ages, when put altogether, it will appear that the special grace of election hath put the difference, the one obtaining (as the word in the text is) by virtue thereof, the election hath obtained it, while the rest of mankind, with all their common helps, have perished, being left to the blindness and hardness of their own hearts
in the use of them: And the rest were blinded. And the story of the one sort set oppositely to the other, as the Scripture in all ages doth, will evince it. Now my argument from matter of fact, or from the examples recorded in such a continued series, to prove that this proceeded from God s eternal pur poses and decrees, and that one are argumentative of the other, is founded upon this rule, which will not deceive us, that what hath been done and
fallen out in the world, and as it hath been done, that God afore decreed and determined should come to pass, yea, and in that manner as it hath come to
pass, the infallibility of which maxim is abundantly evident in Scripture declarations, and from undeniable reason, drawn from the perfections of God.
If, therefore, in the stories of all ages, this differing condition and disposement of persons be found, then certainly the decrees of God must have been the supreme cause and determiner thereof. But above all things else, this
general rule will undeniably hold in the matter of grace and election out of
grace ; for there is nothing more God s own, to dispose of to whom he
pleaseth, than grace in us, and glory to us, out of the freedom of the grace in himself, and so are evidently dependent on his sovereign wih
* Shall he
not, says Christ of him, do what he will with his own ? And for the confirming of this rule in this special case touching election, that the matter of fact, or what doth fall out in persons, as touching their
salvation, doth come to pass in the event, according to God s everlasting decrees thereabout. I shall only mention what an apostle, in an assembly of apostles, Acts xv., did only mention and allege to this very purpose, as the ground why the Gentiles came now, and but now, to be converted, which was newly begun to be done afore their eyes in that age, ver. 14 ; yea, and
together therewith, the falling down or decay of the house of David, or the church of the Jews, and the building of that church in the room thereof;
applying for the issue, or fulfilling of both these, the prophecy of Amos,
* After
chap. ix. His words the apostle rehearseth in Acts xv. ver. 16, 17,
this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, that is fallen down ; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up
: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doth all these things. And to cause
this great alteration foretold to have the more weight upon the minds of
that assembly, and cause the greater observation by them, he adds, ver. 18,
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
28 OF ELECTION. [BOOK L
The coherence of which passage with that afore, brings forth this conclu
sion, that as God had foreknown and decreed, even so he had foretold ; and
as he had both decreed from eternity and foretold, even so in the events it came to pass, and that at that time wherein he had foretold and decreed they should. Therefore in the close of the 12th verse, you read how the prophet Amos doth add these words to his prophecy of it, saith the Lord, who doth
all these things. It was not therefore his simple foreseeing what man would
do, nor what these Gentiles would do in their turning to God, and that this
conversion of them should fall out at that very time or age ; for the prophet notes that circumstance also, After this, I will return, says God, to do so and so. Whereby it appears that the conversion of the Gentiles, and that
at that time, and not for two thousand years time afore, notwithstanding all
those common helps that had been (as must be supposed) continued to them ;
this, he says, was the Lord s doing, and was marvellous in their eyes. It was the Lord that doth all these things, that so foretold it all, and every
particular of them, who is said to work all things according to the counsel
of his will, as Eph. i. And the apostle, he imputes and ascribes it there unto : ver. 18,
* Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the
world. He brings this matter of fact or event, or that these things thus
fell out, and God s everlasting foreknowledge of them as his sole work, to
gether, and shews how the issue or event and his decree corresponded, and were answering one to the other. He had foretold them long afore he did them or brought them to pass, and foretells withal that it should be his
doing, and not man s, that effected them. And both his foretelling and the
effecting them, he tells us, were from out of his foreknowledge and decree
so to do.
So that my conclusion from all these three stands firm, that all these
things, or these matters of fact and real events (as he terms them), as they
fall out, so they were foreknown and decreed ; and that therefore by the like
issues and events in point of men s having had grace and being saved, we may infallibly judge and infer what were his decrees. Let us hold, then, the contemplation of this rule in our eye in all the instances that I shall
give of persons. That look what we find fell out in the execution, was but the effect of God s foreknowledge, even as the conversion of the Gentiles at that time was the same, and will hold true of the conversion, faith, and sal vation of every person recorded in the Scripture story of their godliness ;
yea, and therefore also we find matters of fact, or things to be done and come to pass, are said to be written in God s fore-decrees, as in the Scrip ture of truth : Dan. x. 21, I will tell thee, saith the angel, what is noted in the scripture of truth. And yet there was no outward scripture as yet had spoken of it. God s decrees, therefore, are the scriptures in which matters of fact are first written. And therefore, what our Scriptures have set down and written, are all but extracts and copies taken out of the scrip tures in God s heart, in which they were written from everlasting ; wherein
it is equally said, the names of all those particular persons that are elect men were first written as the first-born, and thus Clement, and those with him, whose names are in the book of life, Philip, iv. 3, says the apostle ; and therefore by the same law and rule, we conclude that all those particular persons whom out of the Scriptures we shall make recital of as just, and
holy, &c., we may safely write upon each and every person of them, that they were elect, and that they become holy and righteous, it was by election; and of the other sort, of wicked and ungodly, left to their natural blindness, we may say, they never were written in that book of life, but under the title of the rest, left out ; yea, and as the apostle s word is, Jude 4, forewritten
CHAP. III.] OF ELECTION. 29
too in another book. We may say of every one of each sort the Scripture
gives the different catalogue of, Concordat cum originali.
And so I come to the story I proposed ; which is the map of God s decrees
in the execution of them, who doth all these things exactly, according to his
everlasting purpose about them, whose his works are known to him from
the beginning.
I begin from the fall, with the first two that were put forth into the world ; next after Cain, an election brake forth in Abel : he was of the election, and
Cain was the first-born of the rest, or seed of the serpent. You know that
God, when he preached to Adam and Eve, had by prophecy divided all into two seeds. Of the one, Christ was to be the head, the seed of the woman, &c. ; and of the other, the serpent. And the seed of the serpent are not
all men as by nature, but those that prove wicked, and have an enmity
against the saints. Now, 1 John iii. 12, Cain is said to be of that wicked one ; there began the seed, as election of grace and works here in the 6th
verse, make up the fundamental division. So the covenant of grace and the
covenant of works are the concomitants that follow thereupon. And to shew
that the covenant of grace followed upon election, and so the other upon works, they accordingly did work in the hearts of these two first men, the
sons of Adam : Cain betook himself to the covenant of works, as God speak
ing to the way of his heart shews, If thou dost well, shalt thou not be
accepted ? but Abel being of the election, he betook himself to faith, he
dealt with godly faith : Heb. xi. 4, By faith Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness ; that is, he was righteous. And faith betakes itself to the grace of God, or God s
special grace and love, and is proper to the elect. So, then, Abel was of the
election of grace. Now, Titus i. 1, it is called the faith of God s elect. And
to manifest that Cain was a castaway, he was presently upon it cast out of
his father s family, where the presence of the Lord was, and never returned ; but he and his people fell a-building cities. The election obtained it, as the
phrase is of Abel, Heb. xi. 4, and Cain and the rest were blinded.
But then Seth, he through election obtained it, and election ran in that
line among his seed, and then men that were of him began to call upon the name of the Lord. They were worshippers of God, and professed themselves to be of the separation from Cain and his posterity ; and though few of them were elect (as by and by), yet among them we have some, as in
those godly persons, whose catalogue you have in that of Seth s children, Enoch, Methuselah, &c. But in process of time, as the world was filled and multiplied, even those that professed themselves the sons of God cor
rupted themselves, as you see Gen. vi. There was few of them regenerate,
they were of the company of the rest ; for you read in the Gen. vi. 3, speak
ing of the sons of God, My Spirit shall not always strive with the sons of
men, for they are all but flesh. They had the gospel preached, as 1 Peter,
chap, iii, by Enoch, &c. ; and God s Spirit strove with them, so as to assist
their wills to turn, but not to overcome their wills, and so they remained but
flesh. And again, at ver. 5 of Gen. vi., And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. God had cast up the accounts of the whole world after sixteen hundred years, and he brings in this general, that
every imagination of their thoughts were evil, and only evil, and that con
tinually, even in these sons of godly professors, who yet, notwithstanding, were thereby evidently unregenerate. For a regenerate man s thoughts are not only evil, for he hath a world of good thoughts and affections. And
again, ver. 12, And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt:
80 OF ELECTION. [BOOK I.
for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. All flesh, of one and
the other sort, of Cain s seed and Seth s. It is worth the inquiry into the
original cause of this. Why, one there is, they were left to their free-will
grace; that is, those common helps of light of nature, &c., to assist their
wills. They had the preaching of Enoch, Noah, a preacher of righteous
ness, and the Spirit of God accompanying their ministry ; for he did strive
with them. And Christ was preached to them, 1 Peter iii. And the Spirit s
striving must be supposed to move and assist their wills, and these opera
tions men call free ; yet the pondun, or weight of flesh and corruption, pre
vailed, and carried them another way, and they were blinded.
But you will say, Was there none of the elect among them ? Yes, Noah
was, and some of his family. Well, but still what put the difference of Noah from the rest of the
whole world? Look into the same chapter. Gen. vi. and the 8th verse, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
"
Pray, what do you think to be the meaning of finding grace in the eyes of
the Lord? It expresseth election in the words of my text. As also when God says of Moses, the chosen of God, I have known thee by name, and
thou hast found grace in my sight; and is all one with the apostle s By
grace you are saved, Eph. ii. ; and so he became heir of the righteousness of faith, Heb. xi. 7, for faith follows election inseparably. So, then, the
election obtained it, and the rest, with all their free-will helps (yet being left
to flesh), were blinded and hardened. This is a strange thing, that among an whole world of people there should not be found one whose free will,
assisted by common and general grace, should have obtained it; for he
styles them the world of ungodly. What ! not one ? And that Noah by
election-grace should obtain it. Who would not venture to be saved by the way of election-grace, when it is a world to one that a man is saved no
other way ?
Thus the old world, as the apostle calls it, both began and ended in By
grace you are saved.
Let us now view the world that now is, as the same apostle calls it. No
sooner doth Noah with his three sons come forth from the ark, which was
the epocka from whence the new world began, but the election and the rest
began anew to be declared, even among those three sons that had been pre served from the flood. And this appeared by prophecy of Noah, directed
thereto by God : Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, says he, Gen. ix. 6, which imports that God was his Lord, and had chosen him, and blessed him
with all manner of blessings. But what of the other, Cursed be Ham, he
shall be a servant of servants, which is still that whereby rejection is ex
pressed. Japhet and his posterity should one day be persuaded to live in
the tents of Shem, which was meant of the calling of the Gentiles, the
European Christians, ver. 27, fulfilled more than two thousand years after. For which, with difference from Ham, when Shem s genealogy comes to be
recorded, Gen. x. 21, it is first prefaced, Shem, the father of the children
of Eber; that is, of the church that was to be of the Hebrews or Jews. And then it is added,
* The brother of Japhet. Was not Ham the brother
of Shem also ? Yes ; but Japhet was to be the father of the Gentiles, of whose race the church of the Gentiles was afterwards most to consist; and
so they are yoked as brethren in this blessing, as Simeon and Levi in evil.
From these sons of Noah did come the division of the nations that then
rose up. God divided their languages, appointed the bounds of their habi
tations, according as the three sons of Noah, and their sons that came of
them, did disperse themselves. The number of which nations, in their
division, you have recorded in the catalogue of those fathers of them that
CHAP. III.] OF ELECTION. 31
descended from Noah s three children, Gen. x., which to be the scope of
that chapter the last verse shews : By these were the nations divided in the
earth after the flood. And the number of those fathers, and so of the
nations, is found to be just seventy. At this division of the nations, which in his counsel God appointed, Acts
xvii. 26, God was then to choose again in what nation or nations he would have the great current of his election to run. This division of the nations
is said to be made in Eber s time, Gen. x. 25, who was the great-grand child of Noah, or the third succession descended from his son of blessing, Shem ; for until then all the children of Noah and his sons lived together, and were of one language. But after so long a time it was that they were confounded in their language, and began to scatter at Babel (and not afore
his time), and from that time to be scattered, and so did first begin to be
set up those several nations, which yet at the first must needs be supposed to have been done in some succession of time.
But why is it with such a special notoriety said, this division was made in Eber s time ? Even to signify that upon the division God began to separate the Jewish nation to himself in Eber, whom he first set out to be the father
of the Hebrew nation, or the church of the Jewish nation, to begin with him. At the division of other nations, the elect of Noah s family having before that division lain promiscuously intermingled with those that were
those nations, but not till then divided. Therefore, chap, x., at the very entrance of Shem s genealogy, Moses doth with the like observancy begin it
thus, ver. 21, Shem, the father of all the children of Eber. And why of Eber s children, when Shem had other children, whose genealogy he also
there records, as Elam and Ashur (the fathers of the Assyrians and Persian
nations), who were the elder brethren to Arphaxad the father of Eber, and
Eber, too, was the third from Noah by this Arphaxad.
It is high time now to demand what should this long narrative tend to ? Even unto this, to make way for and to discover that next great and long
stage of election in its new race after the flood, upon this division of the
nations, how and what course it took and held, viz. that when God was no\v
after the flood to begin to choose among the nations when they were first
divided (which we have heard was in Eber s time), that then he chose the Hebrew nation from among all those nations, through whom this mighty current of election should run for above two thousand years continuance.
Every tittle of this is the result of the foregoing passages, compared together, as any intelligent reader, by putting things together, will easily discern ; for
in that it is said in Eber s days the nations were divided, is imported withal
that in him and from him did the Hebrew nation begin to be divided from
the rest, as the other nations were from one another. And accordingly we
find his posterity (when even few) was called Hebrews, as their national denomination and distinction from those other nations they lived amongst: Gen. xiv. 13,
* Abram the Hebrew, it is said, and
* Joseph the Hebrew, Gen. xxxix. 14. And therefore also when they grew up into a great body, and were multiplied so as to deserve the name of a nation for their numbers, and as then living in one of those divided nations, viz. among the Egyptians, they then re-assume that title, and are again styled Hebrews, Exod. xv. 10. But yet more expressly in Balaam s prophecy the whole nation is styled Eber: Num. xxiv. 25, They shall afilict Asshur (meaning the Assyrian nations, so called from their father), and they shall afflict Eber, that is, the Hebrew or Jewish nation, named Eber from this their forefather in
like wise.
And then for the other part, that at the division of the nations God caused
32 OP ELECTION. [BOOK I.
his election to take its course through the heart and bowels of that Hebrew
nation, with difference from the other sixty-nine nations, as the event suffi
ciently evinceth ; so another scripture, added to these, doth signify and con
firm. And you have it as a memorial set down in that highly divine song of
: Deut. xxxii. 7-9, Remember the
Moses, which was his last to that people
days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he
will shew thee ; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High
divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam,
he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of
Israel : for the Lord s portion is his people ; Jacob is the lot of his inherit
ance. He bids them look back unto ancient days, the traditions whereof
their fathers had left down to them, and among other, how his eye of grace and favour was upon them, to single their fathers forth then, when he divided
the nations (relating to that famous division, Gen. x.). The number of the
children of Israel being, when first in Egypt, seventy souls ; and just so many, even seventy heads, or fathers of the nations, is the number they are divided
into, Gen. x. ; and from thence to have continued to that day the same to
themselves, who were their posterity, with this great difference, that unto
the nations he appointed (as also Paul, Acts xvii.) bonds of habitations as
their portions and inheritances on the earth, as in verse 8; but had that
eye of grace upon this nation, as to make them a portion and inheritance
unto himself; for (says he) as thereby expressing God s special love by this,
ver. 9, For the Lord s portion is his people ; Jacob is the lot of his inherit
ance. And by these and the like expressions it is that election is signified
in many places parallel to this ; as Deut. vii. 6, The Lord thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are
upon the face of the earth ; Ps. cxxxv. 4, For the Lord God hath chosen
Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. And you see it is
so in my text; which, though as it is spoken of that whole nation, was but
in a type ; yet in that type was shewed that in that nation peculiarly there
were those his chosen people that were ordained to eternal communion with
himself.
Well, but you may demand what became of the other nations, and what was the general condition of them ? Truly, their lot fell to be the rest, to
speak in the language of the text. The apostle hath given a brief resolve ; and that being added doth make the proof of the other part of the doctrine, and so the whole of it complete. Acts xiv. 15, 16, We preach to you,
says Paul to the Lystrians, that you would turn from these vanities (so he terms their idols and false gods they generally worshipped) to the living God. We preach unto you, that ye should turn from these vanities, unto
the living God, which made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all the
things that are therein : who in time past suffered all nations to walk in
their own ways ; which he adds, to shew how the condition of all nations was the same with that of these Lystrians, given up to the same idolatry. The issue, then, of all comes to what is in the text, that the rest were
blinded. God took [the] election out from among the Jews for himself, and the rest were left to the counsels of their own wills.
We might here leave off, and sit down and take breath, for the two thou sand years and upwards space that follow, as having seen how, arid where
[the] election was disposed of, together with the preterition of the rest. That God had alone known, and owned the Jewish nation, and an election
proceeded forth from amongst them, as by the prophet Amos, a long while
after the times we have been now upon, God utters himself. And so we
might come immediately to the times of the New Testament ; but that we
CHAP. III.] or ELECTION. 83
find among Eber s children, both before and after it grew up into a body as a nation for numbers, some eminent observations in the story of the Old
Testament, how election went on to make the like difference, even amongst them ; and hath (as if the Holy Ghost delighted to do it) recorded many apparent particular instances of an election, and the rest, to have run
along in their families and tribes ; and this I am bound to do, the rather because our apostle in these 9th, 10th, llth chapters to the Romans insists
especially on those instances as most apparent examples of what I pursue.
1. Before they grew up to be a nation for number, as in Egypt they became, the genealogy of Shem and Eberis set down, Gen. xi., from ver. 27 to the end of the chapter, and centres in Abraham.
So then we are to begin anew in him, and from him, whom God made
his covenant with, for him and his seed after, saying, I will be thy God, and of thy children, which was indefinitely spoken; but the apostle informs us all were not children, but those were the children that were children of
promise ; that is, those whom God in giving out the promises did intend
therein, and they were only his elect.
The prophet Isaiah, chap. li. 1, 2, calls upon that people to consider Abraham their founder and original
: Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abra ham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you
: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. And unto what should they look at in him or her ? 1. At what his condition was afore his calling
: a server of other gods ; until his calling, an idolater ; from the midst of whom God did
single him out, which Joshua lays afore that people to look at and consider :
chap. xxiv. 2, 3, And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor : and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. Was it, then, his well using of natural helps, or additional light by education ? Surely no. But as degenerate children of Eber, he and his father both were servers of other gods. Therefore
look, 2, that it must be election or electing love that moved God so to
call him, and could be no other. Moses in the general layeth afore their
consideration God s love and choice of their father : Deut iv. 37, He loved
thy fathers, of whom Abraham is counted first and chief. And chap. x. 14, Only he had a delight to love them, and so set his heart upon them. And
that word only singly points out that his love to have been the sole cause ;
it was only that he loved them, &c., and so in like manner chose you after them. As it follows in Deut. x., but more particularly and expressly, Nehemiah in his solemn prayer says it of Abraham, chap. ix. 7, Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave to him the name of Abraham. For an election of grace was most conspicuous in his example. Therefore, ver. 3,
* I called him alone (says God by the prophet there). Consider that too. I know that that word alone interpreters wholly carry to import that he was called a single or an alone man when God called, as in reference and in way of
opposition to what follows ; and I increased him in so numerous a pos
terity out of that one man s loins. But why not also, and perhaps rather, that God singled him out alone in respect that he was the first that was called ; and his father, and Lot, and Sarah were by and upon his calling moved to turn with him to the true worship of the true God ? But he alone
first, and so was the restorer of religion in that family ; and therefore in him
VOL. ix. c
84 OP ELECTION. [BOOK I.
election did first eminently break forth in God s so extraordinarily taking him forth alone as he did, as Paul differenceth his conversion from other
Jews, without being instructed by man, but by revelation. And this
Stephen observes, as with difference from those others that left their country with him. Thus, Acts vii. 2, The God of glory appeared unto our father
Abraham, when he was in Mesopatamia, before he dwelt in Charran ; the
title of the God of glory is thus given him, because God appeared in a
glorious manner to him, and he also is alone there mentioned ; because he was the he goat, and first leader of his father and them into Charran, and
after his father s death, of Lot into Canaan. And this Ainsworth hath also
observed upon the 31st verse of Gen. xi., especially from those words in
that verse, that Lot and Sarah went forth with tham from Ur of the Chal-
dees ; that is (saith he) with Abraham and his father ; whom Abraham
acquainting with the oracle of God to himself, his father repenting of his
false worship went out with him (as Ainsworth s words there are) and so Lot with them ; that is, with Abraham and his father. And that God revealed to Abraham his electing of him, and so that his
first call proceeded therefrom, as also of all the spiritual seed, that one
passage cited and interpreted by Paul, Heb. vi., hath abundantly satisfied me ; Abraham being therein made the pattern of us in election, the original of salvation, as well as he is in point of believing and justifying, the way to
* God sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I
salvation : Heb. vi. 13,
will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee ; that is, first, I will
bless thee in thine own person, and then in multiplying thee into a spiritual
seed, the heirs of promise with thee ; of whom thou shalt have the honour
to be styled the father, because therein thou bearest the type of my Christ, who is the everlasting Father, and my first chosen, and others in him. Now
the apostle in applying this to the comfort of elect believers, who were intended in that part of the promise,
* in multiplying I will multiply thee, as is plain in the place he cites, Gen. xvii. 22,
* In multiplying I will
multiply thy seed, he interprets this promise to have proceeded from, and
to declare God s eternal purpose of election, by his inserting by way of
gloss those few words, the immutability of his counsel, as that which his
promise proceeded from, and expressed, ver. 17, Wherein God willing more
abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. And what is the immutability of his counsel, but
his unchangeable decrees ? A promise made by God to us is one thing, and God s counsel is another ; his counsels are his decrees within himself from everlasting, as Eph. i. 4, 9, 10. And what other is a promise with an oath but God s immutable counsel, or election, put into promise ? And who are
* the heirs of promise, but the same whom in Rom. ix. he terms the
children of promise ? And if children, then heirs, such as Isaac there is
said to have been, Rom. ix. 7, 8. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called ;
* they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God : but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. But though we have seen the election to have obtained it in faithful Abraham, yet that is but one part of rny assertion ; you may yet inquire concerning the other part. Are there none recorded to have been the rest, as those that were blinded, so to set off the grace of Abraham s election, and render it the more conspicuous ? Yes, verily, even in his father s house, his own brother Nahor. You not only read not of his not removing* with Abraham, as converted with him to his religion, which his father Terah * Qu. his removing ? ED.
that is,
CHAP. III.] OF ELECTION. 85
repenting did, and Lot, of which you may read, Gen. xi., but Nahor would not stir, not he, a foot, though father, and brothers, and sister went out from
Ur of the Chaldees, but remained still with his idolatrous countrymen, and continued an idolater, and derived it down as his religion to his posterity. You know, or have heard it, I suppose, out of the story of Laban s
(Nahor s grandchild) his images, Gen. xxxi. 19, which himself calls his gods, ver. 30 ; as also how, when Jacob and he came to take an oath,
* Jacob sware
by the god of his father Isaac, who was then living ; and Laban sware by the
god of his grandfather Nahor, ver. 53, yea, and in the plural calleth them
the gods VPN, the gods of Abraham, and the gods of Nahor, judge between us ; whether meaning thereby that at first Abraham himself had served the same gods that Nahor had done, or that Laban joined Nahor s gods with Abraham s, the true God, and so that Nahor served both, so to blind* him
self and Jacob by oath, I have not time now to dispute ; for, however,
thereby it is plain that Laban professed to worship those gods, and so other
gods besides the true, which the jealous God will in no wise bear in those he calls to draw near unto him to worship him. Whereas Jacob swears
only by the fear of his father Isaac, that is, whom Isaac feared ; and
answerably, Laban professeth further, that these gods he swore by were the
gods which his father Bethuel, and his grandfather Nahor, Abraham s own
brother, had worshipped as their gods. So, then, you see of what religion they of that line were of, and that they had continued idolaters in their suc
cessive generations, and thereby are manifestly declared to have been of the
rest that were blinded.
Abraham s family (as a worthy interpreter! hath observed) did in his next and immediate succession bear the type or resemblance of the future condi
tion of the church ; and in his family and next successors there fell out, of
all other, the most pregnant instances of election and preterition ; for as his
family was the first part, so the epitome of the ensuing whole ; and accord
ingly the Scripture hath made the most singular observations hereof. There
are two pairs of instances in that family ; 1st, of Isaac and Ishmael, the immediate sons of Abraham ; then, 2dly, of Jacob and Esau, the sons of
Isaac, extant whilst Abraham was alive.
That Isaac was a child of pure election-grace, as the aforehand cause
of his faith and holiness, and not the subsequent, of election without works, and that as such he was cast into Abraham s bosom, as a precious gift, whilst Ishmael was excluded from that blessing, is evident enough from the story itself in Moses, although the apostle should not have moreover expressly told us so, and alleged it to that purpose ; for that God, ere he was conceived, should declare him heir of the same salvation with Abraham, and immutably and irreversibly estate the covenant of grace upon him, as an inheritance
settled on him by an entail, with a professed difference from Ishmael : Gen.
Xvii. 10-21, And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed ; and thou shalt call his name Isaac : and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for
* Qu. bind ? ED.
t See Rivetus in Genesim. Exercit. 102, cap. 21. Cum tamen certum sit domnm Abraham! per ilium tempus fuisse typum ecclesise, non solum analogia sumpta a parte ad totum, quae tamen in hoc argumento negligi non dcbet ; sed maxime a constantissima Dei natura, cujus una est semper sibi constans erga ecclesiam voluntas, unaque ratio quse ex hoininibus sibi facit filios ; quemadmodum igitur in familia Abrahami per electionem suam discrevit fratres ut unus esset hseres, alter excluderetur domo, quamvis ipse Abraham aliter statuisset ; sic enim per electionem suam asternam dis crevit filios promissionis, quibus fidem dare voluit, ut in semine Abrahami censeren-
tur, ab iis qui carnis prserogativa turgentes, non sunt Israelite secundum spiritum.
36 OF ELECTION. [BOOK I.
Ishmael, I have heard thee : Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him
fruitful, and I will multiply him exceedingly : twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with
Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time the next year ; which you know how the apostle applies unto the covenant of grace and works : Gal. iv. 22-26, For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the
one by a bond-maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh ; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are of allegory
: for these are the two covenants ; the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in
bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. And that afterwards, whilst Isaac was but young, and lay as
a sacrifice bound upon the altar, God should by an oath confirm the promises made of blessing him, and with him his spiritual seed: Gen. xxii. 16, 17, By myself have I sworn, in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and .as the sand which is upon the sea-shore ; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. Whereof
Isaac was the first included and intended, for it was in reference to, and upon occasion of him that God uttered it. Thou hast not withheld thy son,
thy only son, from me, ver. 13, therefore I will multiply thee in him in so numerous a seed as are the stars or sands. This oath, as we afore observed out of the apostle s interpretation of it, was intended of the spiritual seed, the heirs of promise, such as Isaac was, the declared son of promise ; and
this oath declared how that promise proceeded from God s immutable coun
sel, as the apostle interprets it, which is election, that sure foundation, the Lord knows who are his, and knew well what he then did in so swearing. And shall we think that God s oath and irrevocable promise was built and founded upon the immutability of Isaac s free-will grace, and such helps, as he should by free-will use them, which he should for the future have in Abraham s family, in common with Ishmael ? Isaac was yet to live a long while in the world, and might, according to the principles of free-will grace, have fallen away and proved unregenerate ; and God could have no such sure and certain assurance of him as to venture, as I may so say, an oath upon him, with a peremptory irreversible blessing of him. What ! and establish his everlasting covenant with him upon the uncertain fickleness and
mutability of free-will, no otherwise ? Nay, would God have pawned by oath his own self, by myself have I sworn, so as to cease to be God, if Isaac and Abraham both should cease to persevere in faith to the end of their
lives, for it was Abraham s case also, according to their position, to have been
assisted but according to the rule of free-will grace s assistance, as surely as God said, surely, &c. The foundation of this oath lay deeper in God s own heart ; it lay in the immutability of his own counsel, which he purposed within himself, wherewith he invincibly resumed and undertook to carry on Isaac s and Abraham s wills to the end ; not in the stability of what he fore saw was within themselves. But we need spend no more time upon this of
Isaac, nor would have done, had it not made for a comfortable issue to us
all, of which by and by.
The apostle, therefore, to confirm that distinction of his, of an election, from the common Israelite, he instanceth to that end in the persons of Ish mael and Isaac, and then Esau and Jacob ; which instances do manifestly declare, first, that the promises of God to Abraham, that God would be the God of his seed, Gen. xvii., were limited in their intent to the persons of
Isaac, and so to Jacob, as leading examples unto the rest of that seed of his
CHAP. III.] OF ELECTION. 87
that should be children of the promise ; in affirming of these, in particular, that they were, in God s foreknowledge, the only children of the promise, and not those other, either Esau or Ishmael ; only with this difference, from others of the elect to follow, that Isaac and Jacob were definitely and by name declared children of the promise, whereas the elect seed, which were
to come after, are but indefinitely spoken of in the promise to Abraham. I will be a God of thy seed, not naming who, and yet not intending all of
his carnal seed, are therefore indefinitely delivered and uttered, and so are to be understood ; yet so as, in that indefinite promulgation of them, God did intend within himself (who alone knows personally who are his) those
very individual persons whom he had chosen, and these only ; and they only are the children of promise, even as Isaac and Jacob are said to be.
Only Isaac and Jacob came by name to be mentioned in personal promises of them ; but the other of the seed elect, their names are concealed, yet still so as the promises are only theirs, and they only children of the promise, as
well as Isaac and Jacob were. All the indefinite promises of salvation are but the expressions of election, and its intendments, indefinitely declared as
touching the persons ; yet those persons were fixed upon by God, and for
their sakes those promises are given. And this is evidently the scope of the
apostle s argument there, to prove that all are not Israel, that are of
Israel, nor all children of the promise ; or else his proof of this from those
instances had not held. Though the promises were, because indefinite, to be promulgated to all, that none knowing but that himself might be a per son intended, as well as any other, might be moved to seek for an assured
interest in the promise, by effectual calling and conversion. And because of this general promulgation, it is that Peter exhorts the Jews in that man ner as he doth : Acts iii. 25, 26 : Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kingdoms of the earth be blessed. Unto you
first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
Now, as the apostle proves by these two pair of instances of Isaac and
Ishmael, &c., that this was a leading case of the like difference among the
people of Israel to come, so he as plainly resolves this difference put between them (and so in their example among others) into God s election, who, hav
ing pitched his eye and grace on some, doth in the foresight and intuition of
them, effectually designed by him, give forth and utter those promises of
salvation, which are but the very declaration of an election amongst the sons
of men ; and the matters or things that are promised therein are but what
election did design, only declareth them, as to us, but indefinitely as to per sons ; so that still these elect only are the children of the promise in tended ; which that they are so is in the end discovered by effectual calling, and conversion wrought in them and not in others. That all this is so (and
it is a great so), is evident by the llth verse that follows in that 9th chapter,
For the children, namely, Esau and Isaac,* being not yet born, neither
having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.
It is clearly resolved into God s purpose by election, and shews how that
election discovers itself upon the children of promise, by causing the pro mises to take hold, by working faith in the hearts of those who are intended
by God in the promise, and are only the true children of the promises,
* sons of peace, as Christ aforehand, when he sent his apostles to preach the
gospel of peace, enstyles them ; and thus it was that election manifested * Qu. Jacob ? ED.
38 OF ELECTION. [BOOK I.
itself in Isaac and Jacob. And election manifested itself in the effectual
* that
calling both of Isaac and of Jacob. As the last words in ver. 11 [shew],
the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. And although in the instance of Isaac, he hath not mentioned
a scripture that hath the election of him (and yet that in Gen. xvii. 21, My covenant will I establish with Isaac, is a plain declaration of the thing itself), and then the difference professedly here put between him and Ishmael, and
others of Abraham s children, doth sufficiently evince the grace of election
to have been the cause of the difference. And however the drift and current
of the apostle s discourse clearly insinuates it ; for in the other instance
about Jacob, he manifestly declares it in those words, ver. 11, that the
purpose according to election might stand. And his allegation of Jacob s
instance, and of Isaac s, are both to one and the same purpose, which is to
prove an election, which he proposed as his thesis or assertion, in the words
afore. If, therefore, the one doth so expressly mention an election of him as the
cause of this difference of him from Ishmael, then, certainly, the same holds
as intended in that of him as well as that of Jacob. Now, that election was
the declared cause in the case of Jacob, he produceth two testimonies out of
the Old Testament, the one given his mother whilst both were in the womb,
the elder, namely, by birth, shall serve the younger ; the other uttered
by the prophet, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Servitude was
* Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And in Esau it signi
used to express the curse of rejection, as Gen. ix. 25,
fied also the loss of the inheritance which he had by birth-right, which was
* The
the type of heaven; all which agrees with the case of Ishmael, Gal. iv.,
son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman/ Aud so thereby the inheritance of heaven was declared not to be designed by God to him, and so the promises not to intend him. And this was said
of him when yet he had not done good or evil ; that is, without the con
sideration of the difference of any works in either to have moved God to have put the difference. And this comprehended with Esau, first, the Edomites who came of him, in whom the curse began, and descended to
them, as in the same prophet, Mai. i. 4, They shall call them the people
against whom the Lord hath indignation ; whereas on the contrary, the
love and blessing took hold first on Jacob, and so descended down to those
that were the children of promise amongst his seed. Thus much for what
of this argument is in the 9th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans.
Now, how punctually doth the apostle continue to prosecute this same
argument here in this llth chapter, though more amply and in plainer terms,
yet to the same issue and effect, whilst he assumes the same distinction of
children of promise, there distinguished from the rest of Israel, as children of
the flesh, as here he doth of his people whom he foreknew* as the ori
ginal cause of that difference now in the apostle his days put between a few and the rest of Israel, that were passed by ; which he doth in plain words,
ver. 5, Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And ver. 7, What then ? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for ; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. So as whoever will but consider the reference arid respect these and other passages in this chap, xi., have with those other in chap, ix., must withal acknowledge, that if election to salvation be meant in this llth
chapter (which no man can deny), that it must also be intended in chap, ix., which scope divers have gone about to frustrate and make null.
Well, I come to those. Now when Israel grew up to be a nation, and to be a church unto God, as they are called in the 7th of the Acts, why that
CHAP. III.] OF ELECTION. 39
God did take the whole nation in the type, because he had an election among them, it is put upon election, as you will see in Deut. xiv. 2. Says he, The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people to himself above all the nations that are upon the earth. That he chose them above
all the nations, was it because they used their free will better, for which he thus chose them ? Oh no ; he tells them along that they were a stiff-necked
people ; and he tells them he did foreknow what they would be : Deut.
xxxi. 21, I know the imaginations which they go about, for I see their
wickedness, yet have I chosen them. Their vine was the vine of Sodom, Deut. xxxii. 32 ; their vine worse than the vine of Sodom. If you read it
as it is in the margin, worse than the heathen about them, Ezek. v. 6. He justified Sodom and Gomorrah in comparison of them, Ezek. xvi. 47, 48. Yet election pitched among them, though they had changed his statutes more than any people ; Thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways ; look in Ezek. v. 6, And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her; for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. Yet the election took place among them. My brethren, it is to me a great observation, though he chose them to be
his people in a type, that there were a company among them on whom his
* the chosen of God, and Aaron. What, to office only ? No ; there was more in it: Exod. xxxiii. 12, I know thee by name ; and at the 19th verse, when God was to proclaim his mercies, he said, I will make all my goodness to pass before thee, and
heart was set. There was Moses, as he is called,
I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee ; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. The Lord professes this aforehand, that he intends this but to some special ones among them: I will be merciful but to whom I will be merciful. The
apostle quoting it in the case of election, adds, Whom he will he hardens.
It was an election whom he knew by name. What is election ? Why, it
is, I will be merciful to such and such. Merciful, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee ; that is, that hath chosen thee, and pitched his mercy on thee.
Well, then, when the people were come into the land, and the worship of God began to be settled, still election ran one way more than another. There were, you know, ten tribes and there were two tribes ; election shewed which way it bended. I shall give you a place out of the Psalms : Ps.
Ixxviii. 67, 68, Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim
: but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. He speaks of the times of the judges. The rejection of
the ten tribes began to shew itself soon ; he says, he refused the tabernacle
of Ephraim, but he chose Judah. After Solomon s time, they fell to wor
shipping of calves (let me tell you, it is the declining of election that undoes
a nation, when election grows low, and ceases in an age), till at last the ten
tribes were cast off, and they are at this day ; but the tribe of Judah had
election among them.
Well, come to gospel times. When Christ first sent his disciples out, he
gave them a command, and he gave them an instruction, as you may read
in the 10th of Matthew, and the 10th of Luke. In Mat. x. 5, 9, says he,
* These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not : but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Yet afterwards, when the regions were white unto harvest, then he bids them
* go and preach to every creature, Mark xvi. 15. You have a direction which he gives them,
40 OF ELECTION. [BOOK I.
Luke x. 6, Go ye and say, Peace be unto this house ; but be not troubled
if it be not entertained, If the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest
upon it ; that is, one that is ordained to peace and salvation. What says Paul ? Hath the word taken none effect ? Brother, says he,
* there be many thousands of the Jews that do believe. If there be a son of peace, it
shall rest upon that soul. Why now, then, when our Saviour Christ was
gone off the earth, gone up to heaven, he sent the apostle, and where the
election took place, they obtained salvation. What is the reason that the
apostles were forbidden to preach in some places amongst the Gentiles, and
bid to stay in other places ? It was because that God had much people there. Look in Acts xvi. 6, Now, when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into
: but the Spirit suffered them not. What is the reason, on the
Bithynia
other side, when they were at Corinth ? chap, xviii. ver. 9, 10. Paul being at
Corinth, the Lord spake to him by a vision : Speak, be not afraid : for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee ; for I have much people in this city. And when they came to a city, one expelled them, others
entertained them. What is the account that Paul gives of it ? Acts xiii. 48, As many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. There were but a few among those Gentiles that believed, others stirred up persecutions, and
they expelled them their coasts.
Jesus Christ from heaven forbids Paul to stay any longer at Jerusalem, but to go to the Gentiles: Acts xxii. 18, 21, I was in a trance, and saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem : for
they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. Whither shall he go, then? Ver. 21, And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. It was as election ceased, or was found, so they were sent accordingly to preach. Where there was a good company of the
elect, the gospel ran like wild fire. 1 Thes. i. 4, says Paul, I know your election to be of God. Why? For our gospel came not to you in word, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. You know what manner of men we were among you. God did mightily raise up my spirit, and did a great deal of good. I need not tell you why the Jews were cast
off and the Gentiles called; you may read from the 9th to the llth chapter of the Romans.
Come to the dark times of popery, after the apostles were gone off the
stage. He tells you that all the world should wonder after the beast; it is in two places : Rev. xiii. 8, All that dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Lamb s book of life. Look in the 17th
chapter, ver. 8, And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
You are come now to our very times. There will come a time when those hardened people the Jews, that they say spit at the name of Christ; con
tinually hardened more and more, and caked in hardness this sixteen hun dred years ; the Rom. xi. tells us that there is a time coming wherein all Israel shall be saved; ver. 25, 26, I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits ; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved, &c. Why? But what is the case of these elect? As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers sake, ver. 29. For the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.
CHAP. IV.] OF ELECTION. 41
The Gentiles have had it so many hundred years. What is the reason of
* Oh the depth of the
difference ? It is election ; therefore he concludes,
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out!