Book V
Election, in the ordinary course of it, runs in a line of succession from believing
parents to their posterity. The covenant of grace is entailed on the children
of believers. God most usually makes such his choice. What judgment we are thereupon to have of them.
CHAPTER I.
The children of godly parents called the inheritance of the Lord, because he is the owner of them, as his elect and chosen, among whom, his possessions and his peculiar people lie. The derivation of the covenant of grace from their
fathers unto them proved by the covenant made to Abraham, as it was a
family covenant. The difference between his privilege herein, and ours under the gospel.
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord : and the fruit of the womb is a reward, says the psalmist, Ps. cxxvii. 3. He speaks of what children are unto godly and holy parents, for unto such only is any blessing given by God as a reward, namely, of their holiness and righteousness (therefore merces bonorum openim, a reward of their good works, says the Chaldee
paraphrast), and the psalmist expressly speaks of blessings which God gives his beloved ones, as the words immediately foregoing do tell us, of which this
blessing of children he makes the last and greatest. And it is also as cer tain that he speaks of children as supposed holy and godly (Jilii recti, says the same paraphrast) ; for otherwise they are not a reward, but as Solomon full often speaks of a foolish or ungodly child, he is a curse, a shame, and sorrow to him that begat him, and to her that brought him forth. The psalm was made, as appears by the title of it, of or for Solomon, and
therefore, as it is more than probable, was penned, as that other psalm, the 72d, which bears the same title, by David the father, of and for Solomon his son, who was, for his father s sake, the beloved of God, 2 Sam. xii. 24, 25, and upon whom the sure covenant and mercies of David were entailed, together with his kingdom. And what is said in this psalm, in the verses before, fitly agrees to him, for he it was who was to build God s house, to keep and preserve Jerusalem the city, and the kingdom, in peace, and to have rest, or as the psalmist calls it, ver 3, quiet sleep given him by God, from all his enemies round about him. And for this, compare the prophecy of him, 1 Chron. xxii. 9, 10, with the instructions here given him in the three first verses of this psalm, and ye will see how fitly this psalm concerns him.
Now, this Solomon, thus owned and beloved of God, David himself looked at as a child given for a reward of all his piety and. uprightness, and there fore upon his rejoicing in so great a blessing, he takes occasion indefinitely to pronounce of other holy men s children, beloved of God also ; so to raise
CHAP. I.] OF ELECTION. 427
up their hearts, that which to his comfort he had found true of his beloved Solomon. And this upon a just ground, for as the covenant made with David is set forth unto us, as the exemplar or draught of God s like covenant with his elect, so Solomon, David s son, is here by David con sidered as the pattern or prototype of all the like children of godly parents, on them bestowed by virtue of that same covenant by which Solomon was on him. So as indeed this is the true scope of the royal prophet here :
Lo, such children as Solomon was (holy and beloved of God), ihey are an
heritage of the Lord, a rich and great reward ; and blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of them.
Now such children may be understood to be an inheritance, &c., in a double respect: 1, unto their parents, an inheritance and a great reward to them from the Lord ; or, 2, the inheritance of the Lord himself, through and for their parents sake. The words here will bear that latter reading
also, and so by boti the sense will be made more full ; and then the meaning
is, that as they are a choice and peculiar gift given by God unto their parents, as his rewards use to be, so withal a choice and peculiar people unto God
himself, as his inheritance is said to be ; and so not only an heritage (as our translation carries it) from the Lord as the donor (as Isa. liv. 17, and
in some other places the word heritage is taken), but further, they are the
inheritance of the Lord as the owner and possessor of them ; that is, such
children, they are his elect, his beloved, his chosen, among whom his
possessions and his peculiar people lie. Thus everywhere in Scripture, to
* chosen people of God, and to be his inheritance, are all one; for
be the
instance, Ps. xxviii. 12, Save thy people and thine inheritance; and Ps.
xxxiii. 12, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance. Thus in the New Testament
likewise, as well as in the Old, 1 Peter v. 3, the apostle calls the church
the Lord s heritage ; and through they being thus God s chosen for his
propriety and choice inheritance, it is that they become (what follows) the
highest reward unto their fathers of their uprightness ; and so by being
first the inheritance of the Lord, they become an inheritance from the Lord
unto their parents, even the richest they can possess. And thus this read
ing of the words is so far from excluding the other, namely of their being
their fathers inheritance, that it is improved and raised thereby, and the
due value put upon this blessing given ; for what greater favour can there be
than this, that God should first take their children to be an inheritance to
himself, and so make them heir of all things, and when they are thus
ennobled and enriched, then to put them into their parents arms as a rich
inheritance to them ? And then as Christ said, John xvii. 6, of the children
which God had given him, so may they, They were thine, and thou gavest them me ; and as it is in Ps. xvi. 6,
* Lo, I have a goodly heritage. There is nothing that is or can so truly be accounted our own as our chil
dren ; other things are but external appurtenances, but these are as branches
to the root, yea, they are ourselves multiplied ; therefore God, who is in
covenant with us, doth (as our children do inherit our goods) become heir
of them himself, and owns them for his inheritance, to protect and dwell
upon, and with, for ever.
And surely the elect children of godly parents in covenant with him may
in this respect more peculiarly be called God s inheritance than others of his
children chosen by him ; for their parents being servants to him, and he their
God, their children therefore do by a natural right of inheritance fall unto
him, as the children of servants born in the house did unto their masters by
the law, Exod. xxi. 4.
OF ELECTION. [BOOK V.
But, however, whether this were the meaning of these words or no, this we may rest confident to have been the psalmist s drift, that children, when
they are holy, and so God s elect and chosen inheritance, are to be looked upon by their parents as the choicest and freest gift (as inheritances use to
be), the richest reward and blessing that on earth can be bestowed upon them. And this we see confirmed to us, from what esteem both Abraham our father, then when his heart had been newly enlarged from the highest communion with God, did put upon such a blessing; as also from what esteem God did put upon it to him, by promising of this blessing then, when his heart was drawn out to the largest expressions of his love. Gen. xv. 1, God came to Abraham in a vision, and said unto him,
* I am thy exceeding great reward ; here was the deepest and most comprehensive expression of love that God ever made unto any man, and Abraham takes the advantage of this, and improves it (for how could he now out-ask what God had pro mised ?), and says to God, What wilt thou give me, seeing I am childless? so that a child, next to his own salvation, was the gift and blessing in Abra ham s desires and thoughts. Upon this hint of Abraham, God promiseth him a Son, even Isaac, and that his
* seed should be as the stars of heaven, and this son to be an heir, not of his goods only, as verse 4, but of his God also ; and indeed when God renews the covenant, he so expressly enlargeth it, chap. xvii. ver. 7, and so God promiseth to take his seed to be his own in heritance as well as to be heirs of Abraham; lo, from this instance also, such children, as the psalmist here speaks, are at once both the inheritance of the Lord and a very great reward ; even the greatest of all rewards, next to God himself becoming a reward to us.
Now, this great blessing and inheritance, in which God hath thus mutually estated both these parents and their children, is to be the main subject of the ensuing discourse, even to confirm and establish the faith both of chil dren and parents on both sides ; to the end that godly parents hearts may be raised up to the expectation of the highest comfort and reward in their
children, that they, next assurance of their own salvation, can be filled with (which notwithstanding they too much neglect and undervalue) ; and that their children also, who are the most of God s elect, may be provoked to make search, and diligently to look out for that inheritance, here of the Lord himself, which by a gracious entail God hath settled on many of them
long ere they were born, and of which they are often ignorant.
That my scope may by all be fully understood, I have shut up the full sum and argument of the whole into this one proposition, that
The children of believing parents, at least their next and immediate seed, even of us Gentiles now under the gospel, are included by God within the covenant of grace, as well as Abraham s or David s seed within that covenant of theirs. Both the proof and explication of which great point will run along together.
I will begin first to search out this right by that magna charta, that great and faithful charter which was made to Abraham, the father of the faithful, in the name of all his seed ; for that is made the primary and fundamental ground of this great privilege by our divines, that we being Abraham s seed (as Gal. iii. 29) as well as the Jews, and having the same covenant, are therefore
< heirs of the promise, and so of that promise which was made to Abraham and the Jews : I will be the God of thee and of thy seed. But
against this ground, as thus barely alleged, this exception hath often come thwart my mind, that this was Abraham s peculiar privilege, and an honour to him vouchsafed; as likewise was that to be styled the father of all the
faithful, which, as we all know, is to us incommunicable; and that there-
CHAP. I.J OF ELECTION. 429
as fore, although we may for our own persons indeed come into his promise
- his seed, and so into that part of the promise, I will be the God of thy seed and so have the promise of God s being our God, and of the blessin^ by Christ for ourselves, as we are Abraham s seed, yet take the whole promise as collectively made to him and us, I will be the God of thee and of thy seed, and it should seem to be peculiar to him alone, as to be the father of the faithful also is, by which title we are no way called, but only the sons of Abraham, and Abraham s seed. It might have well sufficed us for our own persons to have come into his promise singly, and to be heirs according to the promise, as the phrase is, Gal. iii. 26, although we were not fathers also to convey the promise, as Abraham was ; nor although the promise, as collectively taken, had belonged to us, as to Abraham it did, nor that part of the promise,
< I will be the God of thy seed, had been extended to us. And although the Jews, who were Abraham s seed after the flesh as well as after the Spirit, had that privilege also, that God in their generations pro mised to be the God of them and their seed ; yet that also may seem to be a special
_ privilege proper to them, which we Gentiles cannot plead; for as in Rom. iii. 1, What advantage or prerogative had the Jews but this, Rom. ix. 4, that to them pertaineth the adoption, and the covenant, and the promises, as being those whose are the fathers after the flesh, verse 5, and so they had this privilege, that the covenant was propagated by the flesh.
Now, in satisfaction to these two exceptions, although there must neces
sarily be granted a transcendent special honour and privilege vouchsafed to Abraham, and to the Jewish nation his seed, which we have not; yet withal a further inquiry would be made, whether notwithstanding we Gentiles have not some correspondent sprinkling of this privilege of his and theirs, though of a lesser extent, and how far ours extendeth, in difference to that of theirs, and what further warrants there are for any such privilege to us Gentiles, who must have a charter and grant to shew for it if we would prove our seeds to be born heirs within the covenant, even as nobles and gentlemen have in a civil way for theirs ; otherwise it will be the highest presumption in us to claim it, or to expect it at the hands of God.
First, then, to Abraham we grant this transcendent privilege, that he had the peculiar honour to be the
* father of all the faithful, as Eve had the honour to be the mother of all living, Gen. iii. 20, which being spoken by Adam after the promise to her seed made, ver. 15, may be interpreted in the same sense that Abraham s was; she was the mother of all living, that
is, that live spiritually and by faith, as Abraham was father of all the faith
ful, the covenant running in her name at the first, as in Abraham s after ward; and so Adam, in that his speech to Eve, uttered his faith in the promise made to her of her seed, and so in that respect Adam himself came in under her covenant.
Secondly, It was both Abraham s and the Jews privilege also that they should have this promise to all generations, as Gen. xvii. For two thou sand years the covenant to belong thus unto them, and to be entailed on
them, and also that after the flesh Christ should come of them, as Rom.
ix. 5, and that they should be the root of our covenant, and we but engraffed on them as the
* natural branches, Rom. xi. ; and further, that after their eminent breaking off by unbelief, for well nigh two thousand years since, their covenant should be remembered, and for their fathers sakes all Israel should yet be saved, as in the same chapter. And as the place which he
there quotes out of Isaiah also promiseth that their seed s seed should be
converted in a successive way from their second call to the world s end; and
430 OF ELECTION. [BOOK V.
perhaps of every one, at least the most of that nation. And indeed it hath seemed to me to be one reason why all that nation were outwardly holy (which no nation ever was) before Christ s time, that this might be a pro
phetic type that all should one day be inwardly and really holy. How transcendent a privilege is this, then, that they should have something
peculiarly promised to them, which is evident even by this also, that Abra ham and his seed had the peculiar promise of Canaan, which we Gentiles have not.
But yet let us search into the records of Holy Writ, if out of this their
great charter, there be not a seal grant of a lesser, though like privilege, and this by virtue of Christ, in that we have the honour to be accounted Abraham s seed as truly as they ; and likewise in that, to have the covenant
entailed unto children is so great and spiritual a privilege, as would tend
infinitely to the comfort of godly parents now, as then it did to theirs, to have our seed within the covenant, as theirs were. Wherefore, though this was peculiar unto Abraham and them, to have an entail to them and to
their seed for ever, yet that we should have our eyes and ears blessed with
the hopes of our next seed (how far further I will not now dispute), as involved in this covenant, was a meet mercy for God s free grace to vouch
safe to us Gentiles also. And seeing Abraham and they did partake of so
great a privilege otherwise, it may well be hoped and expected, that so small an one correspondent to theirs, God should vouchsafe to us Gentiles, upon whom the blessing of Abraham through Christ is come, in a conformity unto
his blessing upon him and his.
And searching this, first, I find that this very privilege is given unto a
Gentile convert by Christ himself, and founded upon this very ground, that he was a
* son of Abraham, being become a believer. This we have, Luke
xix., declared by Christ of Zaccheus when he was converted, who by all circumstances was a Gentile, and so the ancients carry it, for he was a pub lican ; and though some, yet but few Jews were such, because of the hatred
of their own nation ; yet he being a chief publican, was surely therefore a
Gentile. It being an office of trust to be chief custom-gatherer for the em
perors, they would be sure to put none into that office but a Gentile ; and
so I find out of antiquity, Cyprian and others quoted for it, that in those
chief places of custom, none but equites Romani, Koman knights, were
placed.* And whereas some object, that if Zaccheus had been a Gentile, that then the Jews would have clamoured against Christ for going in unto a
Gentile, and that so professedly as under that notion, because a Gentile. The answer is not far off, for, ver. 7, we read that they did quarrel him for
it, they all murmured, saying, that he was gone to be a guest to a sinner, that is, a Gentile ; for the Jews usually called the Gentiles by the name of
sinners, as Paul s phrase is, Gal. ii. 15, sinners of the Gentiles. But
then, further, that answer which Christ there gives unto their murmuring doth strengthen this, for he says of him, Inasmuch as he also is the son of Abraham, ver. 9. The meaning of which words evidently is this, that he who is not by birth a son of Abraham, but a sinner, a Gentile, yet is made one now by grace ; and when Zaccheus was thus converted, Christ enlargeth his covenant to Zaccheus his family also, This day is salvation come to this
house, inasmuch as he is also the son of Abraham, ver. 9. This was spoken of him as now believing in Christ. Now if Christ s intent had been in this
his answer given, to shew that he was a Jew, and so though a great sinner,
yet was converted as being a son of Abraham (as some expound it), he would have made it the reason but of this only, why Zaccheus was saved himself
* See Cont Zen upon the place.
CHAP. I.] OF ELECTION. 431
personally ; but he makes it the reason why his house should be saved also, and so the covenant stuck with them of his family likewise, because he the father of the family was now a believer ; whereas had his children and family, being Jews by birth, and himself likewise, then salvation had come unto him and them all, because they all were sons of Abraham by birth (if Jews) as well as he. So as it is evident, that as he was a Gentile by birth, so now
being converted, is therefore called a son of Abraham and withal had this
privilege of Abraham, as being his son (which is the point I allege this for), to have his house brought into the covenant, even of that of salvation, in
conformity to his father Abraham, whose house at the first giving of that
covenant, even children and all, were circumcised and saved upon that
ground, Christ intending now he should go in to eat with him, to convert his household also. And let me add this, that as Christ once before, in the conversion of the centurion, the first fruits of the Gentiles, Mat. viii., did
first break open the treasury of the Gentile s conversion, so upon occasion
of this man s conversion afterwards, he shews the privilege of the Gentiles, when converted, and their covenant to be the same with Abraham s in a
conformity therewith ; and so here first broacheth the doctrine of it, this man being the next first-fruits of the Gentiles, shewing how their covenant was to run by households, in a conformity to Abraham s family at first.
And, 2, Thus in like manner, when the apostles came to preach the gos
pel to a Gentile householder, master or father of a family, they carried the
offer of it in this tenor, and in the way of this privilege, as a motive to con
version. So when Paul preached to the jailor, Acts xvi., he asking, What
* Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved ; and then addeth, thou and thine house. As
shall I do to be saved ? ver. 30, Paul answers,
Christ published the covenant with these promises annexed to a Gentile
converted already, to comfort him, so the apostles promulge the offer of it
to one to be converted, and being a master of a family, do declare his pri
vilege by this, that he should be a means to convey it to his house ; and
accordingly it fell out there, ver. 34, that he believed in God with all his
house, as Zaccheus and his household did here.
And, 3, in the New Testament we find in the event (which still answers
to promises) that the gospel spread itself through whole households, this
being the tenure of our covenant. So it is said of the centurion, a Gentile,
Acts x. 2, that he was a devout man, fearing God, he and all his house ;
so Lydia was converted, and all her house, Acts xvi. 15, 16 ; so 1 Cor.
< The household of Stephanas, and perhaps intimated, at least some
i. 16,
* the church in thy house.
times, in that usual phrase,
Now, then, when the covenant thus runs with the heads of houses for the
families themselves, I argue thus from thence for their children, that they must needs be included and intended in a more special manner ; for they are
the natural branches, and servants but engrafted, as was said of the Jews
and Gentiles in the like case. And the servant abides not always in the
house, but the son ever abides in it, John viii. 35. The house of Aaron
and his children are put for one and the same, Ps. cxv. 12, 15. In like
phrase of speech, Leah and Rachel, in bringing forth children, are said
to build up the house of Israel, Ruth iv. 11 ; and so the word house is used
for posterity in all languages.
And for the further confirmation of this, namely, that this tenure oi the
Gentiles covenant in a conformity to Abraham s, should run thus by fami
lies from the heads thereof, this doth fully suit with the original promise made to Abraham himself, when the Scripture foresaw, as Paul s phrase is,
that the Gentiles should be justified, and so conveyed a blessing through
432 OF ELECTION. [BOOK V.
Abraham unto them, as his seed. The promise (Gen. xiL 8) runs in these
terms, In thee shall all the families of the earth^be blessed ; as elsewhere, Gen. xviii. 18, and xxii. 18, it runs in these terms, All the nations of the
earth shall be blessed. These expressions are both used ; the one to shew, the seed should be of all nations and people, yet so as withal the covenant was to run by families in those nations. Therefore the New Testament
quotes it in both senses : Gal. iii. 8 says, /ravra ra I0w}, all nations, or
heatJiens, because some of all nations shall be converted ; but Peter, when he makes mention of the covenant, Acts iii. 25, though chiefly for the end to shew the Jews were the first children of the covenant, yet he expounds these words spoken to Abraham, In thy seed shall the families of the earth be
blessed, thus : In thy seed, namely Christ (as ver. 26 he interprets it),
1 all the fatherhoods or kindreds of the earth shall be blessed. The word
, fatherhoods of the earth ; so he styleth families because of the father s covenant, through which Christ, the seed of Abraham,
in the original is a/ crarg/a;
conveys his blessing. And the psalmist, Ps. xxii. 27, speaking of the calling of the Gentiles by Christ, as the fruit of his death, when he says, All
the ends of the earth shall turn unto him ; and all the kindreds, &c. The
Septuagint also renders it, as Peter here, narya), fatherhoods, and because
it shall be derived sometimes by succession of birth, as a means of convey
ing the blessing, therefore, in the following 30th verse, he saith, a seed
shall serve him ; that is, the posterity of those godly, who (as ver. 31) shall be born of them.
Further, we see that in the calling of the Jews to come, God respects their fathers and their covenant though it be under the gospel ; so Rom. xi.
Yea, and the apostle quoteth for it that place of the prophet, Isa. lix. 20, The Redeemer shall come to Zion. Now if we look into the words of the
prophet prophesying of their call, how doth the promise of the new covenant made to them in that their call to come run ? More infallibly upon their seed than that former to Abraham s did.
* This is my covenant, my Spirit shall not
depart out of the mouth of thy seed, and out of thy seed s seed, from hence
forth and for ever. There will be in the new Jerusalem a continued suc
cession of sanctified ones, a seed s seed for ever ; and not only of men con
verted when of ripe years, but when infants. Therefore in Deut. xxx. (where God gives the covenant of the gospel, as appears by Rom. x., and that in
opposition to the law given before, and expresseth it by way of prophesying what should fall out after their dispersion, as ver. 1), he says,
* I will cir cumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, ver. 6. You know whither
the phrase circumcise leads, namely, to the sign and seal of it, which under
the New Testament is baptism answering unto it. Their children s hearts he will circumcise, which is the fruit of baptism, as Col. ii. 12. And further, that our covenant, as Abraham s seed, should run thus with us and our families, was most correspondent to that first example of the covenant then given to Abraham ; for then the church was only in a family, and so the first giving of this covenant and the seal to confirm it, was estab
lished with a family through Abraham the father of it. And this was (as
all knew) the primitive and natural church way, under the law of nature afore
Moses, unto which therefore for ever God hath suited this family covenant, and in Abraham ratified and sanctified it to the end of world, he being con
stituted the father of all the faithful, both Jews and Gentiles ; and accordingly he and his family were made the prototype of this covenant, God then
blessing all families of believers, and the fathers thereof, in blessing that of his
through him the father of it, even as God blessed all mankind in Adam and
Eve, Gen. i., for increase and multiplying, as being the root and first sampler.
CHAP. II.] OF ELECTION. 433
And the reason why God chose this of a family to convey the covenant by was, that this society was the only natural society of all others, and therelore (rod did always choose it throughout all states of the church. Thus when the church was national among the Jews, then was this way in force I and my house will serve the Lord, said Joshua ; so David, Ps. ci. And when, under the New, the institution was to consist of many believers meet ing in one place for public worship, yet this still remains, a church in the house also. God herein engrafting (as he uses to do grace on nature, in our spirits, when he converts us), so his covenant of grace upon this cove nant of nature to run in the channel of it.
And let me add this further observation, that in Abraham s family his ser vants that were Gentiles, if they had] children, those children were circum cised, as fore -running pledges and types that both we and our children, who are Gentiles and strangers, were engrafted into this covenant, it held forth this our privilege to come, that in Abraham the Gentiles seed (as well as Abraham s own) should be blessed in him.