Chapter VIII
The uses of the preceding doctrine. What in general we all may be instructed
from it to understand how largely God extends his acts of grace and favour.
The uses which the children of godly parents are to make of this doctrine. What obligation is upon them to be holy indeed. What encouragement
they have to believe. The uses which belong to the parents of such children. What their duty is to God, and what their carriage ought to be toward
such their children.
The uses of this great doctrine, that hath so largely been insisted on,
might be many and diverse, if I should go about to draw consequences from
the several particulars that have been handled therein. I will only take such
as are proper to the general doctrine itself from the explication of it.
first use shall be more general, to all sorts of Christians ; the other more
particular, to godly parents and their children.
I. General head of uses. Use 1. See how the privileges of grace are stretched to the utmost ei
that can stand with its honour ; God loves so to do. In the civil law, it is
484 OF ELECTION. [BOOK V.
a rule among men that favores sunt ampliandi. All grants of favour are to
be the most candidly, largely, and favourably interpreted that may be. The
privilege to inherit was granted the female as well as the male, Num.
xxvii. 1-8. This, above all, holds in the law of grace, wherein privileges are extended to the utmost. Yea, though many cases of exception inter
vene, which haply may cause a demur for a while, yet grace in the end is
prevalent, and will not be made void, but triumphs over all. The experi ment of this, as manifestly appears by this doctrine, as it hath been opened out of this 1 Cor. vii., as in any other privilege whatsoever. Let me pre sent it to you by those steps, beginning at the lowest and fundamental step of grace, whereon God rears his other privileges of grace.
It is much that through grace a sinner and enemy to God should be par doned and graciously accepted, and himself be justified and live. Yea, Who is a God like our God, who pardoneth iniquity and sin ? But that
ever the prayers, and praises, and vows of a sinner, flowing from so defiled
a heart, should be accepted, and the fruits of his soul well pleasing to God,
is yet more wonderful ; namely, that the evil of them should not outweigh the little good that is in them, whenas one sin would forfeit all the obedi ence of the most holy angel performed from his first creation. That God
should not set off the good in those actions we have done, to clear the back-
reckonings of their evil, but that he should thus resolve with himself: If I
vouchsafe to accept your persons, I will extend my grace yet further, and
accept your actions also, and all that is gcod in them ; yea, I will not only pardon the sin of them, but reward them too, and cut off none of the good that you have done for the evil s sake. Yea, further, God will take a desire
or thought of ours, and amidst the great heap of evil, he will search out the
least scrap of good, as we search for very line of a dead author of worth
among scribblings, that nothing of his might perish. Well, but this is not
all that God will do for you ; I will accept, says God, the issues of your bodies (and this though you be fathers of no more but the body, as the
apostle speaks, Heb. xii. 9), and those souls, which I joined and put into
those bodies, though born in sin, shall notwithstanding, for their fathers
sake (who yet communicates the body only, which is but the sheath of tho
soul, as Daniel calls it, Dan. vii. 15), be converted and made holy. Seeing I have begun to shew grace to their persons, I will extend it yet further, even to all that belongs to them. Yea, though the case be further such, that these children be begotten by unbelievers, whose seed I hate, and that my children have but an half part in them, yet I will shew mercy to them ; and my grace shall further prevail, not against the child s own sin only, but
the other parent s curse also, that so grace may every way be grace. God
will shew grace in cases wherein men will not. See Jer. iii. 1, 2, They
say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become
another man s, shall he return unto her again ? shall not that land be
greatly polluted ? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers ; yek return again to me, saith the Lord. Lift up thine eyes unto the high
places, and see where thou hast not been lien with : in the ways hast thou
sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness ; and thou hast polluted the
land with thy whoredoms, and with thy wickedness.
As there is an outstretched arm of power, so ,of grace also, that extends
itself to the utmost reach, of kindness beyond all oppositions, and carries out
a mercy to the full extension of it. When we first turn to Ged, all that we
then think of is to have our sins pardoned, and we wonder that God should
vouchsafe so great a mercy to us. But dost thou wonder at tiiis ? Do but
give thyself up to free grace, and thou shalt .see greater works than these.
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 485
Thou shalt see even sins turned to thy good, thy person in favour with the great God, and advanced to the height of glory to sit upon Christ s throne It a beggar were to be married to a prince, she would think it a great matter to have good lodging and meat enough, but if he take her to be his wife, she must be a queen, and have all the queen s royalties and attendance. The prodigal thought it a great matter to get but meat enough in his father s house.. and to be but as a hired servant. But doth his father mean to entertain him again ? it shall be as a son ; and if so, he will then run to meet him, and make a feast, and set him at the upper end of the table, and manifest expressions of joy. If he shews love, he will shew it indeed. And as it falls out here in this case in hand, that grace carries it and proves a blessing to a believer s child against the other parent s curse when he is an unbeliever, so doth free grace many times procure many a blessing for us against the many stops, and bars, and exceptions which our sins do put in against the promises of God. Grace, like a mighty river, will break and bear down all before it that interposeth itself to interrupt the current of it, and will in the end work itself out. The sin of man "shall not make the promise of God of none effect, Eom. iii. 3. Jacob was blessed by Isaac, but he got it by a lie, which, one would think, should have forfeited the bless ing ; and had it not been the blessing of the covenant of grace, it had. It
is true, says Isaac trembling, he hath deceived me ; but he is blessed, and he shall be blessed, Gen. xxvii. 33. Though men will be men, yet God will be God, and his gifts and grants without repentance. He will not recall them. If the promise be given out of grace, then grace will shew
itself grace, and remove sin, the obstacle of its receiving. The very salva tion of the elect is often through their sins put to a great venture. And the
apostle Peter says, The righteous are scarcely saved (though certainly), there do such strong oppositions fall out, and such diversions of the stream, and yet grace works it out, and bears all down. It seems indeed ofttimes
to carry it hardly and narrowly, but still it carries it. There is an else put upon it, as here upon their children s holiness. The children of but one
parent, who is a believer, are surely holy ; indeed they scape narrowly a
being unclean, yet grace helps them out, and the reason is, because it is
grace, and will shew itself to be so. And therefore when God, out of grace, hath begun to shew favour to a man, and to accept him, he is drawn on by
grace to pardon thus far, and then further, and in the end so far that it is
to wondernment. No man can say where grace will end ; as they say of some rich man. there is no end of his wealth known, so I may say of grace, you know no end of it. The grants of grace run without ifs, and ands, and
buts ; there are no exceptions in them. See Nehem. ix., how many yets of
mercies, and buts of sinnings there are, and yet grace carries it through all, from ver. 17 to end. And as Solomon says, that none can stand before
envy, Pro. xxvii. 4, wrath, though it be cruel, yet may be mitigated: Soft
words pacify wrath. Though it be an inundation (as the word is), yet the
swelling of it may be stopped ; but who can stand before envy ? seeing no
consideration can slake or assuage it. For even that good which is in the
party envied (that doth assuage wrath) doth but provoke envy the more. What then can there be to allay it ? So now may I say of grace. No pre
judice, no consideration to the contrary, can stand before it ; but it takes
advantages the more to shew itself to be grace even from sin, which should
provoke it to turn and avert itself from us. When, therefore, what should
provoke is turned into a motive to draw it forth in the more pity to us, to
save us in that case the rather, even to shew that grace conquers, then who
or what can stand before it?
486 OF ELECTION. [BOOK V.
II. General head of uses. The second sort of uses concerns the children of parents who are godly. 1. This doctrine lays a great and binding obligation and weighty provoca tion upon them to be godly indeed ; for otherwise (like Reuben), what a
dignity do theybfall from ! Even from the estimation once had of them that they were holy (which is the highest excellency in the world), to be accounted sinful and unclean, which is more than for one who hath been esteemed and honoured as a prince, and in hopes was such, to be now cast out as vile, and
abject, and as the son of the bondwoman, who shall not inherit with the free. They run also into the greatest unnaturalness and unworthiness of
carriage towards God that may be ; I call it so, for it is the expression used, Acts xiii. 46. They cast off God, the God of their fathers, which no people ever did. It is the argument of an whole chapter, wherein God pleads it with the Jews : Jer. ii. 9, I will yet plead with you ; he enters into a law suit with them, and complains that they (the children) should forsake the God of their fathers, whom he had entered into covenant with, ver. 2 ; he
first expostulates it with them, What iniquity have you and your fathers found in me, ver. 5, that you should forsake me thus ? For which of all my kindness to you, and to your forefathers, do you leave me ? And he empannels a jury against them, out of all nations. Pass over all the isle of Shittim ; that is, Greece, Cyprus, and the other islands in the Mediter ranean Sea, which were then the most superstitious nations and the most
firmly addicted to the worship of their gods of any other, and send to Kedar, which was of all nations the most barbarous ; and yet, they have not changed the gods of their fathers ; but my people have changed me their glory ; be astonished, ye heavens, at this, &c. It is so unnatural a
thing, that he calls upon the frame of nature to express his sense of it ; he bids the sun look pale at it, as a man in astonishment doth ; and the spheres to let fall their stars, and become desolate at such an horrid sight as this. And that their practice was degenerating from their forefathers appears, ver. 21, where God says he planted their fathers a noble vine, wholly a
right seed, for all the patriarchs were godly. Now then, How art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me, the children, though of so noble a root, becoming wild branches. The root was holy, the branches sinful and poisonous. As nothing adds a greater embellishment to virtue than the continuance of it in a race and succession from father to son
(for nobility is but the continuance of virtue, riches, and honour in a family), so nothing more aggravates the vices of children than their degeneration from their parents. And the sins of the fathers will be recompensed upon the
children, if they walk in their fathers steps ; so will the holiness of the fathers increase the children s sins and punishments, if they prove not answerably holy. How often comes it in to make up the measure of the sinfulness of each of those wicked kings,
* He walked not in the ways of David his father, as well as He walked in the ways of Jeroboam his father, as it was said concerning the kings of Israel. What! prove a rebel, a traitor to thy father s God ? So you have it in Moses s song, Exod. xv. 2, and therefore say as they there, The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation : he is my God, and I will prepare him an habi tation ; my father s God, and I will exalt him. You see he riseth higher upon that double relation, he is my father s God, and I will exalt him. What ! wilt thou prove a traitor to thy father s friend ? This is the highest ingratitude that can be. See what Solomon says in Prov. xxvii. 10,
* Thy own friend, and thy father s friend, forsake not. For such a friendship is the highest commendation of friendship, and such a friend hardly to be
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 487
found ; and therefore it is the part of a sordid and ungrateful spirit to leave such a friend. God was a friend to thy father, made a covenant with him to be the God of him and his seed, and offers himself to be thy friend; ; and wilt thou forsake him ? Solomon, we see, renewed the league of amity with Hiram, 1 Kings v. 1, 12, merely because friendship had been between him and his father David ; and so do thou with God, who then will love thee for
thy own sake, and double his love upon thee for thy father s sake (so thou
shalt be beloved for both), as the phrase is, Rom. xL 28. So Solomon is
called beloved of God, because of his father David, 2 Sam. xii. 25 ; and so thou shalt have a double portion of love from him, and be his Benjamin in comparison of other saints.
A second use to* such children is, when they are converted, to provoke them unto more holiness. Where there are more encouragements and more
helps, there lies a greater obligation unto obedience. God hath provided for your ease in the point of believing. He hath prevented doubts, and
temptations, and the turmoil of your spirits that way r that so you might
lay it out the more another way. He hath eased you in the work of believ
ing, that you might spend the more strength in works of obedience. Again, as your obedience shall be first accepted before others, so you shall be the
first and most forward of all others in matters of obedience. Being
worthies, you should fight in the fore-front, and though others of your rank do worthily, you should exceed them all. How does the continuation of
ancient nobility in a family raise the spirit to more noble actions than
others of an inferior birth aspire to ? Their fathers blood boils in their
veins, their virtues in their hearts ; so let your father s or mother s graces. And the longer the succession hath held in a right line, the more forcible
should your provocation be not to degenerate. There is no disposition in
nature but it is found in and heightened by grace. God takes in all natural
dispositions, and conforms gracious dispositions suitable and like unto them,
as the rules and dispositions of friendship between man and man he takes
in to the ways of grace, and expects that we should observe them toward
himself, and be as friendly unto him as ever we should be to men. And so
he takes in this disposition of nature also. There should therefore be a
correspondent proportion found in grace. And look what nobility would
work in men sprung from noble parents, to do beyond others in a natural
way, that let this royal privilege draw from your spirits in a spiritual way. Be you unto God above others a royal generation or kindred, as Peter
speaks, 1 Peter ii. 9, and, like David s worthies, excelling all his other
soldiers. Beckon yourselves to be the patricii, the nobles of this kingdom, and behave yourselves accordingly. And consider that your engagements
are double to those of other men. Even as eourtiers reckon themselves to
be doubly the servants of the king, not as his subjects only, but as belong
ing to his family in a more proper way, so are you doubly become the ser
vants of God, and therefore should do him double service. Thus David,
having a godly mother, reckoned that as a special obligation binding him to
< Truly, Lord, I am thy servant ; I am thy
serve God. So Ps. cxvi. 16,
servant; he speaks it twice, as acknowledging a double obligation. And
what those ties were follows: the one personal, -Thou hast loosed my
bonds (given me my life) ; the other relating to his parents, I am the son
of thy handmaid. It was the law that the sons of bond-women should be
servants by birth, so Ishmael being begotten on a handmaid, a bond-woman,
was a bondman by birth, Gen. xxi. 10 ; so Exod. xxi. 4 the law is that
the children which a bond-woman bears be her master s. So now doth God
challenge a special propriety in you. You are doubly his servants : ser-
488 OF ELECTION. [BOOK V.
vants in that he hath saved you, loosed your bonds ; and servants to him in that you are born to him in his house, and are the children of his servants. You have therefore a double tie to do double work to what others do, and
you shall have double wages, and be Benjamins.
Use 3. This doctrine may serve as an encouragement and direction also
to the children of godly parents, and be exceeding helpful to them in their
believing and coming to Christ, both at their first conversion, and afterwards
in temptations. It may serve to ease them of much of the difficulty of the work of believing ; and may make that hard labour and travail more gentle, and prevent many of those throes which others groan under. To clear
which, I will first shew what ingrediency it ought not to have, and what
furtherance you are to deny to receive from it, which a carnal presumptuous heart may be apt to do ; and secondly, what right and lawful use you may make of this privilege, and in what stead it may stand you in believing. 1. You are not to make it a foundation of your faith, either of coming to
Christ, or believing Christ is yours, as the carnal Jews did : We have Abraham to our father, John viii. 39, and therefore have God to our father, as ver. 81. For whilst you have not the faith and works of Abraham, you have the devil to your father, ver. 44. That was the answer to them then, and will be Christ s answer unto them at the latter day. And if there be
any privilege it will be this, that thou remaining unregenerate shalt even be damned first : so Rom. ii. 9, Tribulation and anguish, to every soul that doth evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile : to the children of godly parents first, and then unto others of mankind. Do you stand with me
* Thy birth is
upon your birth ? says God to the carnal Jews : Ezek. xvi. 3,
of the land of Canaan ; that is, it is all one to me, as if thou hadst been of the inhabitants of the land that were accursed, the seed of Canaan, and as if
thy father were an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite. Your spirits, there
fore, must be emptied of all such carnal props, as grounds of believing to
build your faith upon ; and you must be brought nakedly to close with God s
free grace alone, and see God to put forth as free an act of his grace, and to be as much at liberty in saving you, or refusing you, as in saving any one that is an alien from God, never so much a stranger to this common wealth of Israel. In this respect
* there is no difference, so the apostle tells us ; but all (both Jew and Gentile, of whom he had before spoken) have sinned. And there is no difference when it comes to the matter of
being justified ; they are justified freely by his grace, so Rom. iii. 23, 24. Thou must see thy dependence upon free grace to be as great as any man s, and lay thyself before the throne and sovereignty of it, and submit to the sentence of it, and thyself to be as much beholding to it to save thee as the Turks and heathens. And the ground of this may be fetched from what was before delivered. For that you are the children of godly parents is not the ground of your election, but the consequent of it. God chose you out of the lump of men, not respecting anything in you, only he so ordered it, that his elect should come of parents godly rather than others. Now it is certain that that only which had influence into God s heart as the motive of
election, that only is to have influence into our faith at our first believing as the ground of it. What God looked not at to sway his choice by, that
faith is not to look at as the foundation of our confidence. God chose thee
for nothing in thyself or in thy parents, and thou must look at nothing in
thyself or in thy parents for which thou believest and restest on him.
Nor, 2, is it to be looked at as an infallible sign or evidence, that is the
proper consequent of election, such as graces of the Spirit are, so as thou shouldst be able to argue thy election from it, as from the qualifications or
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 489
dispositions of grace which are wrought by conversion, which are as proprium quarto modo, infallible characters of it. Was not Esau Jacob s brother ? says God, Malachi i. 2, yea, a twin of the same womb ; yea, the elder brother, and yet hated, and Jacob loved ! God hath a reprobation among them as well as an election. All are not Israel, who are of Israel: neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children, Rom. ix. 6, 7. The apostle utters together both these things which I have now spoken. It is, therefore, neither a sign, as ver. 6 implies, nor the reason of
election, as ver. 7. But although it cannot, neither ought to be the ground of your faith either of these ways, yet it may still serve you as a great furtherance to your faith other ways and in other respects, both when you come first to believe, and likewise in temptations. The mother of faith it is
not, but it may be a midwife to it, and so facilitate that hard labour. Many things serve to the furthering and easing of the work of faith, which yet are not in the least way made the ground of it ; as for instance, the very ex ample of others being saved who were as great sinners, gives great relief and encouragement to the heart of a sinner ; and yet it is no way a ground of confidence for ourselves. So Paul says, he was made a pattern, and hung out as a flag of mercy to them who should believe hereafter, 1 Tim.
i. 16, to toll others in ; and, therefore, those who first believed, had an harder pull of it, as Eve at first, and Abraham afterward, because they had no examples before them to lead the way, and therefore, for the erninency of
* the mother of all who
their faith, they deserved the name ; the one, of
live by faith; and the other, of father of them. And as those who made the first voyages to the East and West ladies, found their adventures
fuller of hazards and difficulties than those since have, whose voyages, through their directions who went afore them, are made more easy, so it is
in the work of faith through the examples of others. In this your passage from death to life, though you are all to go through the same straits,
through a work of humiliation, and an apprehension of yourselves as lost,
&c., yet you may have both the help of some directions which may keep you from many shelves and sands, wherein others have been grounded and
stuck fast, and whereby your souls may be so steadily guided as to be kept from being stranded where many others have been before you ; you may also have the advantage of a wind more fair, a more direct gale ; whereas
others have but a small side wind, a little breath to further them, which makes their voyage more long and tedious. In faith there are two things
to be brought about, and both of them with much difficulty.
First, To convince the understanding of the truth of the promises, that God is in earnest, and so serious in them as he is, and that is indeed to
save sinners, and that Christ died to that end and purpose, and is most
hearty and real in it. And to bring the understanding to a full persuasion of this is a great work, and of a trying difficulty, and therefore the more
arguments can be brought to confirm this the better.
The second is to bring the will off, to cast itself upon Christ, and per
sonally to come in unto him. And for that, the more hopes and personal
encouragements you can give the party that God may intend him, the more
you further this act of faith, as by the more arguments that other, the more
you quicken his endeavours, and the more cheerfully and strongly and with
the fuller sail will that soul come in and cast itself upon Christ, and wholly
resign up itself unto him. Now it is this latter which most stick so much
at through discouragements, by reason of the uncertainties and improba
bilities, and utter unlikelihoods, that God may intend them. Wherefore
the nearer the promises can be brought unto any, by persuading them that
490 OF ELECTION. [BOOK V.
God may mean them rather than any other in the world, that act of faith must needs come off the more easily and roundly. You know, that that which at first draws in any one s soul to cast itself upon Christ, is the inde-
finiteness of the promise, that they are not excluded ; God means somebody, and what know I but that he may intend me as well as another ? As in
that 4th of Hebrews, ver. 6 and 11 compared, Seeing some must enter in
let us therefore labour to enter into that rest. And look how much more or less indefinite the promise is, and how much more or less express and
particular, the more or less hope and encouragements are given ; and the more or less hopes are given, the more or less easy or difficult is the work of faith made in this respect. Now, the promises upon which others of the
elect come in, of how vast an indefiniteness and compass are they, how wide doth God speak in them ! As in those, good will to men ; Christ came to save sinners, &c. ; whenas he whom God means is, it may be, one of an hundred thousand. And therefore they yield but far off hopes, and a remote it may be; yet are they such as carry a just ground with them to
put any one upon the venture. In a race, says the apostle, though but one obtains, yet all run, 1 Cor. ix. 24. They for a corruptible crown ven ture thus, how much more should we for an incorruptible
! Though it be ten thousand to one, yet it is worth it, and a just ground to move and draw on the soul to it, even to put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope, as Lam. in. 29. If there be never so remote an it may be,
if there be but a what knowest thou ? or never so dubious a conjecture, you see it is made a just ground of endeavouring to save another, as 1 Cor. vii. 16 ; therefore, how much more of venturing and casting one s self upon Christ for a man s own salvation 1 But what a slender, still gale, what a small and poor breath of hope doth thus afford to help the soul forward. Such are helped but with a little help, as David says in another case. But the promises which are made to you who are the children of godly parents, although they be but indefinite still, yet they are so express, and limited to so narrow a compass, that they bring the hopes of salvation a thousand times more near to you. It being so near an universal, as you have heard,
it is not one of a thousand, but two to one. I say as Christ said, The kingdom of God is come near you, very near you, when God takes the most of his elect out of you, and sometimes a whole family of you. When a king was to be chosen out of all the tribes, it was held ground enough for every tribe, and every man of them, to present themselves before the Lord, though in the end the lot was to fall but upon one man ; and so Samuel bade them do: 1 Sam. x. 19, Now therefore present your selves before the Lord, by your tribes, and by your thousands. For why ?
It gave a hope, though but a slender and remote one, unto every man that he might be king, yet it was all Israel, the thousands of Israel, to one., But then when the tribe of Benjamin was taken, this ga\o a, nearer hope to
every family and man of that tribe. This was but a few to one unto what the other had had before, especially seeing there were fewest of them ; this was a contraction to a narrower compass. But when it came tc* the family of Matri, how much nearer came it then to every one of that family ? Though it was to fall but upon one man, yet how great hopes must it needs
give, as being thought every man s then; every one then had a fair cast for a kingdom, none of them then knowing that Saul was the man, though Samuel did. Why ? Such hopes, and far larger, do these promises give to your tribe, to your family, comparatively to other men. For here is a greater kingdom, and your tribe, as I may call it, consists of the fewest of any other tribe or sort of mankind, compared with it. And this crown is not to
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 491
be set upon the head of one only, but sometimes upon all of a family. Oh, consider what a fair pull here is for heaven ; what would other humbled souls give for your lot ? as heaven is called, Colos. i. 12. What a fair gale of hope have you to fill your sails with ! How many points of the compass hath it on your side ? There are but two sorts of promises that I know of that are indefinite, and do yet bring down salvation so near and to so narrow a compass.
^ The first sort those make which are of special invitation, as that in Mat. xi. 28,
< Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, &c., and that Ho, every one that thirsteth, &c. ; these bring it near. For whereas others are invited but in the crowd, as all were unto the wedding, these have a more special, solemn, and particular intimation by name ; as in funerals, common people and neighbours have but an indefinite and general invita tion, but those of better rank are specially invited, and called forth by name. These promises therefore give a special encouragement to one that is weary and heavy laden ; but still so as you are to understand, that even such pro mises and such qualifications in you are not to give a ground to your faith, nor to serve as infallible evidences that Christ is yours, that you should so take a comfort of ease from them, as many have done, to their ruin. It is but the comfort of a special invitation to come. The promise of ease itself
is made to coming, Come unto me; only in the mean time it may much ease the weary and heavy laden, in that they are in an especial manner in vited to come, for it brings the promise of salvation very near to them.
But, secondly, there are promises, as of a special invitation, so of special designation, which design and point out a sort of mankind out of whom God hath his elect; and such are these, made to the children of godly parents. And it is as if God had pointed and said, In that mass or lump do the
greatest part of my elect lie. There is not any sort of mankind singled out with so special a designation. It is like the star over the house where Christ was, which designed the place of the Messiah s abode. So these
promises set over the houses and families of godly men, do help us to find
out where election lies. And as that star helped the wise men to find out
the Messiah, so may these promises help such children to come to the Messiah the sooner, and with the less difficulty.
More particularly, if you would know what singular help it may afford you in that act of faith, of coming to Christ, and of casting and adventuring your selves upon Christ ; 1. The consideration of it may alone stand you instead against all carnal
reasonings and objections against yourselves whatever, which do exceedingly
puzzle and hinder others. This consideration will quite cut off the heads of them all at once, and is a great help, though there were no other, in our way
to Christ, in which there are a great many stumbling-blocks laid by carnal
reason, that keep men off, and become the greatest hindrance to believing
< Cast ye up, cast ye up, take the stumbling-blocks out of the
Isa. Ivii. 14,
way of my people. He speaks literally of the great obstacles that were in
view against their return from Babylon, even a great monarchy lying in their
way, which was first to be removed. But he aims, under the type thereof,
at the hindrances in the way of broken hearts to Christ, as appeareth by
the 16th, 17th, and 19th verses; for he speaks of giving comfort to broken
hearts, and creating the fruit of the lips, peace, &c. Now, in the way of
such, you know, there lie a thousand objections and carnal reasonings
against themselves, which their fleshly reason, ignorant of God s way, and
of his freeness in pardoning, suggests, as things seeming to make it utterly
improbable that God will save them; and those are the stumbling-blocks he
492 OF ELECTION. [BOOK V.
there means. What! me? will such a soul say; so great a sinner as I, whom God hath suffered to live so long in sin ? that have so often refused
to come in, after so many enlightenings ; that have had so many false works
upon my heart already ; that have lain so long under temptations ; that have had no enlargements these many years ? What ! me ? A likely matter !
No, no ; if God had a mind to save me, he would never have dealt so with me ; his carriage towards me looks not as if he ever meant me any good. Thus the stranger objected, Isa. Ivi. 3, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people; I am a Gentile, a dog, and God means not to save me. Thus the eunuch,
* I am a dry tree, &c. There are millions of such carnal
reasonings as these, which do mightily hinder the work of faith, being as so many shelves of sand, on which the soul sticks fast aground, and off from which we have much ado to help men. Well, but if thou beest the child
of a godly, believing parent, this consideration alone may be put into the balance against a thousand such. For why, that alone is a greater proba
bility that thou art elected than all those put together are able to make im
probabilities to the contrary ; it may weigh them all down. It brings the
promise so near thee, within so little of thee, that I may say, as in that Isa.
Ivii. 19, the phrase is, whereas others are afar off, and have many stumblingblocks in their way, thou art near. The prophet speaks in the language of the state of the Jews then, in the Babylonish captivity, which was the type of the times under the gospel (as appears by the apostle s using of that
phrase, Eph. ii. 17), some of the Jews were dispersed far off among the Ammonites and Moabites; and they had greater obstacles and discourage ments to return, but some of them were still in the land. The poorer sort were to till it, yet had not a peaceable condition ; and they were near, now God would settle both in the land with peace. And so Eph. ii. 17 (in the
anti-type), some are said to be afar off, and some near. Such were the
Jews, and the children of godly parents are such; for I reckon them, in
respect to others, to be as the Jews then were to the Gentiles. And these have fewer obstacles in their way ; they are in the land (the church) already, and so are nearer to faith and peace, having their hindrances removed to
their hand, and their wav made clear and smooth. This consideration may so lighten thy vessel, as that thou mayest sail over all such shelves, which
others, being heavy laden with many sad and weighty improbabilities, are
often stranded upon.
2. But, secondly, it moreover gives a special encouragement also, in that
there is a special designation of election (as was said), and that in two
respects : For (1.) where there is a special designation of election, there is a special invitation included, and more also ; it hath the form of both. There may be supposed an invitation without a designation, but this special designation includes an invitation under it. So as thou art more solemnly and particu
larly invited than any other ; even as (you heard) those that are weary and
heavy laden are. And if thou beest heavy laden also, then both in that thou art heavy laden, and an elect s child also, thou art doubly invited. Now, that to the children of believers, as such, belongs a special invitation,
appears in that they come under the same covenant and privilege that the Jews did by virtue of their being sons of Abraham (till they broke them
selves off), to whom therefore (though not holy when infants, nor yet, when
grown up to riper years, as yet converted) the gospel was first to be preached. So Christ bade his disciples, and calls the word the children s bread. And so after Christ s ascension they practised, encouraging them to repent and
: Acts ii. 38,
believe, being pricked in their hearts by a special designation
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 493
39, For the promise is to you and your children ; and chap, iii 25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant; and unto you first (mark the word), God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, m turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Yea though there was the greatest ground for the greatest objection against them and carnal reason might suggest the strongest arguments against them that ever against any ; for it might arise in their hearts to think, This Christ have we crucified ; a bar that of all others might make them exclude themselves And so Peter tells them, ver. 23,
< This Christ have you crucified and slain ; and so verse 36. They likewise were the very men who had a hand in it ; and yet for all this, he puts this into the balance against all and invites them first. Now, I parallel the condition of these Jews in the new moulding up of Christian churches, with that of the children of godly parents under the gospel, though unconverted. Now, they are not to be reckoned holy, and so members of a church, simply because they are chil dren of such ; even as those Jews were not admitted into those new Chris tian churches till actually converted. Therefore, ver. 47, God added of them to the church such as should be saved ; though they were members of the Jewish typical church which then stood, yet not of the Christian ; notwithstanding, whilst they remained in their natural condition, this was due to them, above any other, as a privilege, namely, a special invitation. So Acts xiii. 46, Paul says, It was necessary that the word of God should
first be spoken to you, till you break yourselves off (as they) by envious
opposition, ver. 45, and
* putting it from you, judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life. Which, I take it, is the unbelief meant, Rom. xi. 20, that breaks you off; which is not simply unbelief, but an envious opposition against it, when yet the promise may belong to you.
You therefore who are young, the breasts of whose virginity the world has not yet pressed, who yet may be presented to Christ spotless and undefiled, do you come in to Christ ; he invites and entreats you in a special manner ; he likewise reserves the first of his love for you ; you shall have the flower of it. In marriage it is held a great matter to be the first love. Such shall you be to Christ if you come in betimes, and so shall you have a choice
reward, as Bom. ii. 10, he will give glory, honour, and peace to every man who worketh good ; yet to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile ; so to
you first (who have the Jews privilege), those of you who are under a work
of bondage, and weary of your natural condition, come to Christ. I may say to you, as the disciple said to that blind man, Mark x. 49, Be of good comfort, he calleth you ; you are doubly invited, both as you are weary and heavy laden, and as the children of believers also ; and therefore you may promise yourselves a double welcome.
(2.) A second encouragement that this affords is, that where there is such
a special designation of election, there is a greater certainty that many (yea
haply the most) of such shall obtain. Whereby such a special designation hath also thus much more in it than a bare invitation ; that an invitation
does not imply a certainty of obtaining, many are called or invited, when
few are chosen ; but a designation doth. Now this must needs be a great
encouragement, even as it would be to all the children of a noble family,
that a people or commonwealth should so oblige themselves to it in par
ticular, as certainly to choose their kings and princes out of it (as in Sweden
they have done out of the Gustavian family), not being tied to the eldest
to choose him, but unto the family, to choose some one out of it; so as there
were a certainty of some of them "their being kings and princes. The hopes
that every one would have in such a case, how would they raise their spirits,
494 OF ELECTION. [BOOK Y.
and make them observant of their carnage towards all, and to ennoble their
education by striving to excel each other in glorious achievements, insinuat
ing themselves into the hearts of the people, and in all plausible respects complying with them, as Absalom did ! Now just so it is here ; God hath
entailed heaven on your families, though in an indefinite, yet certain way ; so as not one but many of you shall certainly be kings ; you are now heirs
of life. How therefore should this quicken you, above all other ranks of
mankind, and raise your spirits, and set an edge on your endeavours! The more certain that your hopes are, the more strong let your endeavours
be, like merchants, who, where there is certain hopes of gain, will make the
greater adventures. We find the like in colleges, where there useth, by the
statutes of the house, to be such a special designation as this is, singling out some counties and shires, out of which their fellows and scholars shall be
chosen, and that most certainly ; and when there are places vacant, how
doth this whet the industry and endeavours of all those students who are of such shires, making them to study harder than others, and (as Paul says of
himself) to profit more than many of their equals of their own nation, and
outstripping others to be so approved for their learning as to obtain the
! So should this encouragement provoke and stimulate you above all
place
other men, and also to exceed one another in striving who should first get into Christ ; for know that the endeavours of some of you shall certainly not
be in vain, for God assuredly hath an elect among you. Some of you will most infallibly get to heaven.
(3.) The third way whereby it may help your faith is, that when you come
to plead for your lives and souls before God (as when you are humbled you
will, as much as condemned men ever did for their lives), then this puts into
your mouths a plea to use to God before the throne of his grace. I say not
that thou mayest plead it as a qualification for which God should respect thee or shew thee favour ; for his election is not swayed by it, or founded on it. Thou must leave the casting thy condition to the arbitrary, sovereign freedom of his grace, as much as any sinner else upon earth ; but yet (state
it rightly) thou mayest plead it, and make a strong plea of it too, as,
First, Thou mayest make it a good and full occasion, emboldening thee
the more to come into God s presence, and rather to do it, because of this.
Secondly, Thou mayest further make a fair tale for thyself out of it, and
say to him, Thou, Lord, hast given me this light into, and inkling about, thy decrees ; thy word tells me that this inheritance of heaven is estated and
bequeathed by thee to the children of thy children, and that thou hast
delighted to draw thine elect through the loins of thine elect, and so thy
promises run much to them. Lo, therefore, Lord, thy servant presents himself before thee as one of those, and extracted out of such, and so not
knowing but that this estate may belong to me, and do come to thee who
keepest these records, so to find out whether such an estate be befallen me.
I pray thee, therefore, that thou wouldst look and search thy book, and the
series of thy decrees ; look into thine own heart, and call to mind the
unfeigned faith that dwelt in my parents, and which I hope thou hast
ordained to be in me also. And do thou consider that thou hast further set my heart awork to seek thee, and more specially invited me, and hast certi
fied me that I shall be doubly welcome. Being therefore hereby emboldened,
lo, I am come to ask a bold question of thee. Do thou resolve me, Lord ; am not I one whom thou hast set thy heart upon ? Is not my name in the
list of thy beloved ones ? Am not I one of thy elect too ? Speak, Lord, answer me plainly and speedily. And whilst thou art urging God thus, and
putting him to it with what he knows is true, and speakest his very heart,
CHAP. VIII.] OF ELECTION. 495
he (as one that cannot deny it) plainly grants it, and will tell thee so My brethren, there is an art of getting out God s secrets thus. And thus, though to be child to such a parent is not to be considered as the attractive that draws God s heart to thee ; it was not as the burnin" glass to draw and unite the beams of his love in thee ; yet it may be as the cranny through which those beams may shine into thee, without prejudice to his free grace ; and so the eye of thy faith may have recourse to it, as unto a chink through which his love may spy and meet thee. And do thou lay thy eye to such a promise, and through it look unto God ; and ere thou art aware, the light of his countenance, his free love, will shine in upon thee this way. Thus did the Jews plead the covenant of their fathers, Isa. Ixiii. 15 (whilst they did not bolster themselves by it, and think that there fore God would save them), and it prevailed. So Jacob pleads it : Gen. xxxii. 9, God of my father Abraham, and my father Isaac.
III. General head of uses. The third sort of uses shall be unto godly parents.
Use I. That godly parents should value this blessing, especially when they live to see this promise take hold upon their children before their eyes, as the greatest blessing that can befall them, and for their comfort, next unto their own salvation. It is more than to have thy child a monarch of the whole world ; thou wouldst think that an infinite privilege, as David did when his house was raised up to be as one of the great ones of the earth. This is much more, for it is to such parents, not an outward, but a spiritual blessing, and in some respects an eternal blessing, and the comfort of it may upon some good ground be supposed to last unto eternity. For this is
certain, that look what spiritual affections there are in persons between whom there are carnal relations, by reason of those bonds and relations they will
last and continue ; whatsoever is spiritual will be eternal. If a man do good to his wife, she shall love him eternally by reason of it ; indeed the fleshly relation between them was the occasion whereby he came to do her good. At the latter day those that ministers do convert unto God, they are their crowns, as Paul saith, 1 Thes. ii. 19 ; it is a spiritual mercy that lasteth and holdeth them. When God made this promise unto Abraham, that he should be the father of the faithful, was the comfort of it only for the pre sent ? For Abraham saw no more but Isaac and Ishmael, and perhaps both were ungodly, though the promise of Christ was set upon Isaac. No ; the comfort was to come, when at latter day he shall say, These are the
children God hath given me. We are herein partakers of part of Christ s
privilege ; it was his speech, Isa. viii. 18, Lo, I and the children thou
hast given me/
Use 2. When you have children born unto you, then renew your covenant
with God, and walk more obediently. Hannah dedicated her child to God. That is not in your power ; but dedicate you yourselves more to God. God
is to extend his covenant anew to your children for your sakes ; do you therefore renew your covenant with him ; and the more they increase, and
the more children thou art in dependence upon God to extend his covenant
unto, the larger do thou extend thy covenant obedience, and to more duties.
Search further into the commandments, to find out new ways of obedience
to lay thyself forth in ; as God gives thee more lives, give thou more lives to
him. Methuselah being born to Enoch, provoked him to walk the more
exactly ; so Gen. v. 22, you who have many children should be much in
obedience, and ever for your children s sakes walk so as to keep up the
repute of being holy. Walk not doubtfully and unstably, so as that there
496 OF ELECTION. [BOOK Y.
should arise any question of your godliness by the saints you live with. Do this even for your children s sakos, for you have seen what a help, what an encouragement it may be to their faith, that you are accounted and known to be godly. When you shall walk so as to leave that doubtful (as Solomon
did, who so lived, that it is a question in the church whether he be saved or
no), you then waken* all these encouragements of their faith, and all the arguments that should provoke them to a holy life. Use 3. A third use to parents is, that if you have children that are godly and already converted, they should then get their hearts exceedingly affected towards God in love again. There is no outward mercy like this ; it is more than if he had raised up one of thy children to be monarch of the whole world. See how it took David s heart, 1 Chron. xvii. 25, 26, that he had raised himself up to be one of the great ones of the earth, which is not spoken of himself alone, but of his house also. They say, that man and wife love each other the better, when they come to have children by each other. It is a sign of an everlasting love on God s part, for him to have children by thee, and it should be an increase of love on thy part to have children by him.
Use 4. Are you to think your children elect ? Then die in that faith con
cerning them, and leave them to God. This comforted David when he was to die, that though his house was not tanta, so great, as some read it, nor
ita erga Deum, so exact towards God (as Junius), yet God had made a cove nant with him for his own, and many others salvations, though outwardly it should not prosper. God is thy friend, and thy children s friend ; he will remember thy seed when thou art dead and rotten, even as he ofttimes re membered David s. It is a comfort that thou canst leave them to a church, a mother, but a greater comfort, that to God as to a Father. If thou hadst a grandfather to leave thy children to, who thou wert sure would live, thou then wouldst not die solicitously in respect of thy children. Luther being to make his last will, and having nothing to bequeath to his children, he be queathed them to God. So do thou, and say as Christ did when he made his last testament, as being about to leave the world, Thine, Father, they were, and thou gavest them me, and tell them as he did, I go to my Father, and your Father. Those that are godly are provided for, there is one who hath taken them off thy hand and care already ; in the confidence therefore of that thou mayst die hopefully and quietly.
Use 5. A fifth use may be to take heed of an unequal partiality in your love or care towards any of your children, wherein many parents are ofttimes blameworthy, as disaffecting and neglecting some one, out of an inordi nate leaning to and setting up another. For that child whom thou neglectest or usest hardly, may be he or she whom God pitcheth on as his, and that child which thou cockerest, may be one by God refused. While God reveals himself thus indefinitely, thou art to look upon any one as elect, and art to bear those affections and bowels towards it, that a parent would have to an elect child, though thou canst not absolutely say it is holy ; and as whiles it was an infant, we were to perform all duties unto it, as to a saint, so afterwards, though yet it appears not to be holy, we are to do the like as to one elect. And wilt thou hate or misuse where God may love, and love for thy sake too ? How unworthy of you will such carriages be, and will likewise grieve you, when God shall once manifest his love to be set upon that child, which thou hast set thyself against. God is no respecter of per sons ; neither be thou of thy children, so as to doat on one, and neglect the other. God has often in the event exceedingly checked the sins of parents
* Qu. weaken ? ED.
CHAP. VIII.] OP ELECTION.
this way, and chosen cross to what their choice was Thfv h*v* Esau and God hath been for Jacob ; they have bee^ for SutiTa and God hath been for Solomon; they have looked with fleshly eyes as Samuel did, and thought Eliab the child of election, and for him Sve al heir prayers run because of his countenance and stature; bu God hath taught them not to look on the outward appearance; he hath been for David whom they have set to keep their sheep. Eve had a promise of the Messiah and she thought Cain the man in whom it should b* Sad so some mterpret that speech Gen. iv 1
< I have gotten a man, or
< tkeman" the promised seed from the Lord. However it implies some singular hopes she had of him, who yet proved the eldest son of reprobation, and the mur derer of his brother But Abel, he was godly, and after him, Seth, which shews that Godjudgeth not as man judgeth. I may say as God said bv Malachi chap, ii 16, about hating their wives, Take heed therefore to your spirits deal not treacherously, or unequally with any of your children/for they are yours, and may be God s. He carries it thus indefinitely and covertly, on purpose that you should perform your duties alike to all ; not but that out ward appearances may draw out the heart, and have in a proportion their due of love, such love as beauty, wit, good nature, &c. I yield that there is an allowance given to parents to affect children for such respects as bein objects more pleasing and love-attracting ; yet so, as not to sway the heart to a partial carriage towards them, only they may be allowed as a few grains to incline the balance a little more. But that same other child, who pleaseth not thy fancy and nature so well, is thy child too, and so may be God s child, and that because he is thine, and in respect to thee; and that gives the sub stantial weight that should keep the scale of the balance even towards him. God, peradventure, loves him for thy sake, and wilt not thou love him for God s sake ? What crossness and unthankfulness would this prove towards God !
Use 6. To such parents as come not of godly parents, and yet are godly themselves, they may here see their privilege ; they may be the foundation of a noble family. And what an honour is that ? It is a great promise that in Isa. Iviii. 12,
< They that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places
: thou shalt be the foundation of many generations. And it is a great honour to thee to be the first of thy house, as it was to Abraham and to David, and
as it is mentioned as an honour to Lois, by Paul, 2 Tim. i. 5,
< the faith which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois; who likewise maketh the like honourable mention of some that were
< the first fruits of Achaia, and of be ing the root to branches, &c. Amongst men what an honour is it to be the foundation of a house ? They affect and aspire to nothing more ; the
first being always always made famous by his successors, as Ottoman by his house, Cosmo di Medicis by his, &c. So did that Eoman esteem of it, who being upbraided with his mean extraction by a debauched patrician, made this his glory, I am, says he, the foundation of my house, and thou the ruin of thine. So may this be thy glory, that thou art the basis, the first stone of a building to God.
The last use is to churches, that they would receive with a special love and rejoicing, such of members children as prove godly ; they are doubly welcome to God ; let them be so to saints in church fellowship. They are not as strangers^ but as those born in the house, which renders them doubly amiable and acceptable. As Paul exhorts Philemon to receive Onesimus, not as a servant, but above a servant, ver. 16, so are these to be re ceived as brethren and sisters, and not only so, but above the ordinary VOL. IX. I 1
498 OF ELECTION. [BOOK Y.
relation of brethren and sisters. It is an honour to a college to have
students of its own nurturing fit for fellowships, and such especially they are
to take.
The families of church members are our nursery, and what a comfort is
it to have the orchard and garden of a church replenished with scions fetched from thence ? To build our houses with stones out of our own quarries
I may speak to every church in the words of God to the church of the Jews :
Isa. xlix. 18, Thou shalt clothe thee with them, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doth attire of her own weaving.
A DISCOURSE OF THANKFULNESS WHICH IS DUE TO GOD FOE HIS BENEFITS AND BLESSINGS.
Be thankful to him. Ps. C. 4.
is, I will explain to you by these few
! om gl nfying God, iux mey are maae
1 ei
to differ Rom i 91
< TU
Thankfulne< Lino ^ J gl
? f ^ takeD aS i4 is here
1 ed not God
> neither were thankful. man to Cof f g
> for the whole dutJ of ludll to IjrOu, IS lor Substancp nil nr>A o -f 1 f 1^ c J wherein we glorify him, we also give thanksTo hiiT And"therefore! Lukf
SPr 7 n ??* ,leper S tha kfulness, saith, None but he ^ to give glory to God, that is, to be thankful to him. I know aanksgiving is a peculiar branch of God s worship, when it is taken
iuri to ri
is larger, and extends itself to all duties, which, they are done to God as an acknowledgment of his mercies and our love hey may be t d thankfulness. And so, though in the same duties wherein we glorify God, we are thankful also, yet in several considerations,
,* t^kfiilness
T mg ^
US Up n Several F ** those duties are sometimes ea &lorily i;ng (jod, and sometimes beinothankful As if a friend a son mi^rr^n
collpd
a11 the Same thin^ for a man in the servant ^at act migiit be called doing him service, in the son doing his duty and an act of obedience, and m the friend a kindness. So here we, standing towards God 11 relations, and in regard of all those relations, obedience being due to km as to is a Father, all that we do to him is called honour, Mai. i. 6. As ne is a master and lord, it is called fear in the same place ; as he is a ocl, gracious, that loads us with benefits, it is called thankfulness; as he is a glorious God m himself, to whom glory and power is due, all is called fjlonjymg him. Thus, Ps. 1. 14, 15, 23, thanksgiving is put for his whole orship, and glorifying him so many ways ; and so in many relations we are tied in obedience unto God, as we can never want motives to draw obedience from us, and, therefore, so many aggravations are there of neglect and want of performance of them.
1 ? d
To come, then, to the difference between these two. God being so glori ous a God, we are to do all to him and for him, and obey him in all, and make him the end of all, which is called glorifying him. Suppose we were no way beholden to him, all this were a due to his excellency and glory,
500 A DISCOUESE OF THANKFULNESS. [Ps. C. 4.
which might challenge it from us, might extort it, Ps. xxix. 2 1 Give nnto the Lord the glory due unto his name ; that alone would challenge all the
service, all the praise that you do or could make to him ; but now we all are, upon a further ground, to do all to him and for him, because of all the many mercies we receive from him. Now to return all in this relation is called thankfulness. To do all out of a sense of his excellency and glory that is in
himself, this is to glorify him. But to do all out of a sense of his mercies
to us, and our obligement unto him, this is thankfulness. So that, Rom.
i. 21, it is brought in as a further aggravation, that though the Gentiles did, as it is in the verse before, read many characters of his glorious power and wisdom in the creation and governing the world (the heavens declaring his
glory, Ps. xix.), that though they knew this, yet they glorified him not gave not the glory which is due unto his name. But, secondly, not only so, but
though they knew they themselves had all from him, and that he loaded them with mercies (so Acts xiv. 17, speaking of the Gentiles, he saith, that
notwithstanding their ignorance, yet God left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons,
filling our hearts with food and gladness, all which are witnesses and testi monies of God s love and bounty), yet they, though they knew all this, and that they lived at his cost, were disobedient; and, therefore, their disobedience
is aggravated here by this, that they were unthankful.
The second question is, What thankfulness is ? It is a free rendering to God the glory of his goodness, principally to the end we may glorify it, and
testify our love to him.
First, It is a rendering, and in that act doth the nature of thankfulness
consist, and hereby it is expressed, and this act hath reference and relation
to something received. If I give any one any thing never so freely, if it be not in relation to something received from him, it hath not the nature of thankfulness ; it is giving, not thanksgiving ; but when a man begins first to consider with himself what he hath received from God, and upon that
ground he returns an acknowledgment of the mercy, that which he doth return to him is thankfulness ; and this you may see in David, Ps. cxvi. 12 : What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me ? Ye see how he considers the benefits received, thinks what to return again, and upon what ground.
And, therefore, for application, would you know whether you do all you do out of thankfulness ; I ask you whether it is a rendering to God ? That is, do you look upon God as the author of all the good things you do enjoy? And thereupon, do you bring forth all your obedience, and look upon it when you have done, but as a rendering to God again, even as all the rivers come from the sea and return to it again. So do your hearts but as it were return