Sermon VL

Having predestinated us unto adoption by Jesus Christ for himself, accord ing to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his

grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. VEK. 5, 6.

THE coherence of these words with the former stands thus : they contain a second instance of that general of his premised, ver. 3, wherein the Apostle had said that God had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ. Now, as in that verse he mentioneth both an act of

blessing us, he hath blessed us, and in the general or total speaks of certain

blessings themselves wherewith God hath blessed us, with all spiritual blessing in heavenly things in Christ ; so in these following verses he accord

ingly instanceth in particulars, namely

1. Election, ver. 4.

2. Predestination, ver. 5. Both which are acts of blessing us. His first instance is in election : according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Here is the act of blessing, that God chose us in Christ, and so blessed us; for blessing was joined with choosing, as a concomitant of it; God then giving us all spiritual blessings when he chose us, as out of other scriptures I have shewed. So that the meaning is, that then, and in that act of choosing, God thus blessed us ; and that par ticular blessing bestowed by that act is, that we were blessed with a perfect holiness, as it there follows, that we might be holy and without blame before him in love.

The second instance he giveth is predestination : having predestinated us unto adoption, &c. Herein again predestination is the act of blessing, and that from eternity; and adoption is the particular blessing wherewith we were blessed. And this is the fruit of predestination, as perfect holiness is of election.

Now, as an introduction to the opening of these words, you will expect I should first distinguish between chosen and predestinated, or between God s election and predestination. To choose, is to single and cull out from others, or out of a common lump ; and to predestinate, is, in English, to fore

ordain, or fore-appoint to some end. Now, how do these differ, as they were then done by God ?

1. It may be there was no difference intended; but the Apostle being to

repeat the same thing, or one and the same act, his scope being apart to mention those particular blessings by that one word, as they are bestowed upon us by that one and eternal act of God s love, he takes occasion about them to use two several words or expressions thereof ; especially consider

ing that those eternal acts of choosing, predestinating, &c., were all but one entire act in God, even as his essence is one. And yet the Holy Ghost is pleased to express it by two acts; whereof the one notes out one thing more

34 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SERMON VI.

eminently, and the other another thing, so to convey all of it the fuller unto

our apprehensions, according to this latter conception.

2. Some distinguish them thus : that election or choice imports more

eminently an act of God s will, for choice is an act of will ; but that predes

tination is an act of his understanding, as working by counsel. So, ver. 1 1,

this seems explained, Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will. But more expressly

in Acts iv. 28, Whatever thy counsel did fore-determine to be done. The

word is the same that is here, KPOUPKK. So then the difference here should

be, that election imports simply his decree to the end ; but predestination should further note God s contrivement or preparation of means to the

obtaining of that end.

3. But though other scriptures may hold forth this second difference, yet that it should be here in these two verses intended, I see not. For adoption here is set forth to be an end, as well as holiness ; nor are there any means

in this verse mentioned. And of the two, holiness is rather a means, or a

foundation laid to adoption, than e contra; and therefore Rollock rather calls

election, as here used, the decree of the means, and predestination the decree

of the end. But yet that this notion of his should be the Apostle s scope

here, I cannot wholly assent to neither ; for the holiness unto which we are

here said to be chosen is perfect holiness in heaven, which is the end we are

ordained unto, as well as adoption. And, indeed, both of them are decreta

finis, decrees about the end, as I shall afterwards shew.

Wherefore, the best difference that I can find out, and that is proper to

the scope of the text, is, that election, although it be a decree about the end, or at least one main end concerning what God ultimately meaneth to do with us, as well as in predestination ; yet together therewith it does emi

nently note forth a singling or culling out some persons with a special and

peculiar love from others of the same rank and condition ;* both out of

things possible, which God had in his knowledge, which his power could have made, but he never decreed a being unto, which are as infinite as his

knowledge and power are, (and even out of these there is an election,) as

also out of all persons, whom he did make and actually give an existence

unto, both men and angels, of whom some he laid aside, as in the case of

the angels is undeniable. So that election being a preferring of some before

others, doth connotate the terminus a quo, the term or mass of persons from ivhich ; but predestination more eminently notes out the terminus ad quern, the ultimate state unto which we are ordained.

And secondly, because by this election, or first calling out from others, we

are not ordained to a sole and separate being in ourselves ; such as other

persons, whom he decreed not to save, are only to have, they all stand upon their own bottom ; but a being in Christ, as a Common Person and root to

spring in and out of, and that in him we were considered and chosen to be in the very first act of God s choosing us, (as in God s heart we may be said to have stood, although, until converted, we have not an actual being in

Christ, according to the rules of the Word, which God will judge us by, but are without God, and without Christ, as chap. ii. shews ;) and therefore unto

&lt; chosen is added in him, that being the first act that gives us a sub

sistence thus in God s mind, and that in Christ. Hence therefore election, the first act, having thus singled us out from all things, and decreed us a

representative being in Christ as members in a head, together with our being,

* The proper object which election is carried unto are the persons. It is of persons as of persons. He hath chosen us to bring us to sacli an ultimate end, ordained for us,

EPH. I. 5, 6.] TO THE EPHESIAN3. 85

predestination then further imports a second act of ordaining us to a glorious

well-being in him, as the end God means to bring us to. It adds adoption, and by adoption is meant the right unto the glory of heaven, as I shall by and by shew you, and this is bestowed upon us as a privilege or dignity

sJoucva, as it is called, John i. 12 over and above our first being in him ; for

in him we must first be, ere we can partake of anything through him. Now, election was the first act that did put us into him, and then predestination was that which conveyed unto us all those privileges which we have through him, and union with him, whereof adoption and holiness are the highest and most eminent.

To illustrate this, we must know that things must be purposed to have a

being ere they can be supposed to have a well-being from Christ ; according to that maxim of him, that is, of the Father, whose work all this is, Of him

you are, and have a new being, in Christ, which Christ is then made to us wisdom / and many other privileges we have by him before we can come

to have a well-being. In like manner, we must first be supposed to have a

being in Christ Of him ye are in Christ Jesus, 1 Cor. i. 30 ere we can be

supposed to partake of anything from him, or of any extrinsical or intrinsical

privilege that is his, or that cometh from him. You know, ere a man can have any privilege in the visible world, he must be a man, that is, a son of

the first Adam. God indeed hath given the world to the sons of men, but

yet the conveyance and the charter by which they hold it is their coming from Adam by multiplication, as it is Gen. i. 26, 28 ; so as, before any soul,

if you could suppose it extant before it conies into the body, can come to

enjoy the right or privilege of anything in this world, it must be by being united to a body that corneth from Adam by propagation, and so it becomes one of Adam s posterity. So is it here. Before ever you can come to have

a right of inheritance in anything of the other world, you must first be sup

posed to be in Christ. Now, election is that which first gives you a being in Christ, and then God by the act of predestination did appoint you a

well-being through him.

Again, look as God in his decrees about the creation did not consider the

body of Adam singly or apart from his soul, nor yet the soul without his

body, (I speak of his first creation and state thereby,) neither should either have so much as existed, but as the one in the other ; so nor Christ and

his Church in election, which gave the first existence both to Christ as a

Head, and to the Church as his body, which each had in God s decrees.

And holiness, which is the fruit of election here, is the image of God, and

a likeness unto him, which makes us capable of communion with him. As

likeness in one man unto another makes him sociable and fit to converse

with another man his superior, so holiness for communion with the great God ; and therefore the Apostle says, without holiness no man shall see

God, nor indeed can see him, as Christ, John in. 3. Look as some colours

are the groundwork to the laying on of other, and all colours to varnish, so

is grace a groundwork unto glory and communion with himself. Look as

reason is the foundation of learning, no man being able to attain it, unless

he hath reason, so we cannot attain the glory of heaven, which is meant by

adoption, till such time as we have holiness, and perfect holiness. Without

holiness no man shall see God. So that holiness is the image of God, which makes us like unto him, and fit for communion with him; and heaven

is but communion with God.

But then, if you ask me what adoption is, it is plainly this : it is a right to the glory of heaven, and that is superadded to holiness. We groan

gg AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SERMON VI.

within ourselves/ says the Apostle, Kom. viii. 23, waiting for the adoption,

to wit, the redemption of our bodies ; that is, till we shall be brought to

heaven and to that full and consummate glory there, which not only the

soul, now made perfect, hath, but which the soul and body together shall

have when that last part of our redemption is finished, in the resurrection of

the body. And therefore it is expressed by the redemption of the body, it

beinothat glorious state that follows thereupon. And this we are by

predestination ordained to, as the end that God would bring us unto. And

so, some conjoin those two, adoption and glory, Kom. ix. 4, that is, glorious

adoption, or adoption to glory. And if you look into 1 John iii. 2,^you shall

then see another place, where being the sons of God, or adopted, is put for

heaven. Behold, says the Apostle, what manner of love the Father hath

shewed us, that we should be called the sons of God ! Beloved, we are now

the sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; for we know

that, when he shall appear, we shall be like unto him ; ior we shall see him

as he is / even the Lord Jesus Christ in glory. So then, adoption contains

all the great dignity of a Christian in this life ;* but ultimately, and more

especially, as here, that fulness of glory whereby we shall be like to Christ

in his glory ; according to that in John xvii. 22, The glory thou hast given

me, I have given them. In a word, adoption and holiness here are all one

with what the Psalmist speaks, He will give grace and glory ; and n.o good

&lt;fec. Perfect grace and holiness, that is

thing will he withhold from them,

the fruit of election ; and glory added to grace (that is the varnish of it)

is meant by adoption. And so you have the first thing, the difference between perfect holiness and adoption.

But then the main question remaineth, Why is holiness made the fruit

of putting us into Christ, or choosing us ; and why is adoption or glory made

the fruit of predestinating us ? for so you see the words carry it. You shall see a clear reason for this. Holiness must needs be the fruit

or consequent of our being chosen in Christ ; for it is essential to a being in

Christ. It were an absurdity to say that God did ordain a man to be in

Christ, and not ordain him to be holy. Because if God ordains him to be

in Christ, he ordains him to be a member of Christ, and the spouse of Christ. Now the head and members must be homogeneal, and husband and spouse must be of the same kind and image. "When Adam was to have a wife, she must be of the same species, she must have the same image upon her. None of the beasts was fit to be a wife for Adam. God brought them all unto him ; but among them all

* there was not found a meet help for him, Gen. ii. 20, because they had not the same image that he had. And who

ever has his being from Adam, must likewise have reason from him, as a

necessary concomitant of such a being. So if God chooseth a man in Christ, he must necessarily be holy. And this is the reason why holiness is annexed to our being chosen in him, the ordaining us to be holy being a natural and absolutely essential consequent of our being elected in him.

But then, why is glory the fruit of predestination 1 Now I have given you the reason of the first, the second will easily follow. God might have made us perfectly holy in Christ, and not have added glory to it : Rom. vi. 22, You have your frait unto holiness, says the Apostle. If there had been holiness, there had been fruit enough ; but here is more, and the end everlasting life. So likewise, here is glory added to holiness as a further frait and privilege. Therefore, as God by election * There is adoptio imperfecta or incompleta, namely in the jus and title to it that is now bestowed.

EPH. I. 5, 6.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 87

putteth us into Christ, so lie hath a further business about us ; he predesti nated us to glory and to the adoption of sons in him. It is a new grace, and therefore it is expressed to be the fruit of a new and second act, even

predestination. Plus est nos esse Jilios quam esse sanctos, (it is Zanchy s

speech,) It is a further thing to be sons than to be holy, to have heaven, and be received to the glory of God, than to be partaker of the holiness of

God. Predestination therefore is here said to come over us after election a

second time. God addeth thereby glory to grace, (as the Psalmist speaks,) as

a fresh, new, and second gift ; for gifts both and each are by the Psalmist said

to be, He will give grace and glory. Grace or holiness by election, glory by predestination.

And here, ere we go any further, let us pause a little, and view the har

mony that is between these things here in the 4th and 5th verses, with

what the Apostle had said before and ushered this in by. He began in the

3d verse, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When

I opened those words, I gave this meaning of them, that God is first and

originally the God and Father of Christ, and so becomes our God and our

Father, according to that in John xx. 17, I ascend to my God and your

God, to my Father and your Father. When I shewed you how he is the God and the Father of Jesus Christ himself, I gave this difference, that he

was the God of Christ as man, because he chose the human nature unto

that dignity. Nay, he chose the second Person to be the Mediator, 1 Peter

i 20, and so was the God of Christ by election. But supposing that man

to have been once chosen and united to the Son of God, and he becomes his

Father by the relation of having begotten his Son ; and that relation becomes

natural between his Father and him. But he is not thus to us a Father by a natural relation as to Christ, but wholly by adoption, which of Christ must

not be said, and so by predestination only, who hath predestinated us to

the adoption of sons, with difference from Christ. Adoption in us depends

wholly and merely upon predestination and no natural relation. Again, as

he is our God so considered, he chooseth us to be holy before him, according

to that express saying, Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy, Lev.

xix. 2. As he becometh our Father in Christ, he predestinateth us to adop

tion of sons. Here are two relations God beareth unto us in Christ ; he is

our God, and he is our Father, so ver. 3. And here are two acts of God to

wards us from everlasting that proceed from these : namely, election, ordain

ing us to be holy in conformity to him as our God ; and predestination

to the adoption of children, as he that thereby would and did become a

Father to us. , I conclude this with what Zanchy observes, with what follows after. The

two (saith he) acts of God for us, in this ver. 4 and 5, agree with those

words which follow in ver. 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace. That God should choose us in Christ to be perfectly holy, there was grace; but that he should add glory and heaven and sonship unto it too, this, says

he, is to the glory of his grace. And so he makes an auxesis of it, a fur

ther heightening of his love, that he not only chose us to be holy, but also

: to the shewing forth, not only

predestinated us unto adoption and glory

of grace, as in holiness he did, that being the image of his grace ; but the

glory of his grace, as in adoption, that being the image of his glory. I

will not much urge this, as here intended ; I mention it only because he

adds it ; and certainly some such aim there might be, in that aspect which

these words have to the former. And so I pass to some observations.

Obs. 1. In the first place, from what hath been said, take notice how

gg AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SERMON VI.

absolutely necessary holiness is unto salvation, which will appear to you, out

of what I have said, by these four things

First, Not only that in these thoughts which God had towards us, he did

first pitch upon holiness, and then upon adoption or glory; and so he pre

ferred holiness to glory, and so should we prefer it to all other privileges which we have by Christ ;

But, secondly, that holiness is a necessary and essential concomitant to being

in Christ, and all other privileges superadded. There was no thought to be

had of being in Christ, without being holy. Look how incongruous and

absurd it were to make a beast a son and member of Adam ; so incongruous and absurd were it to make one that is unholy to be a member of Christ. God never at first cast a thought on us to be in Christ, but with an inten

tion that we should be holy. He hath chosen us in him to be holy, saith

ver. 4.

: Be

Yea, in the third place, God is not your God, unless you be holy

ye holy, as the Lord your God is holy. God, as I told you, becomes your God by election, as he becomes your Father by predestination. If, there

fore, God be your God, then be you holy as he is holy.

And, fourthly, grace is the foundation of glory. There is not a thought to be had of going to heaven without it ; you must first be holy, ere you can be so much as capable of that glory ; for the height and top of it is communion with God, and God is holy.

So you see, from what hath been said of predestination, he hath predesti nated us unto adoption ; that is, a sonship in law, in and through Christ, his

natural Son. Do but think with yourselves, by way of inference, you that

are believers indeed, what your privileges by your being in Christ will rise

unto, by considering what is and needs must be included in this little word,

sonship and adoption. No less than all privileges in this world and the world to come, every one of them in the present right to them ; now, says the Apostle, now at present, we are the sons of God, but what we, by virtue of this our being sons,

* shall be, none in the world, nor we ourselves, can know ; none do or can come to know the consequents hereof. As we

say of a mighty rich man, he knows not the end of his wealth ; so we may

say of a man s being an adopted son of God, none knows what this will

bring a man to in the end. If a son then an heir, a co-heir with Christ,

yea, an heir of God ; to possess and enjoy God, as Christ doth. I say as

Christ doth ; for so it follows in that of John, When Christ shall appear, we shall be like unto him ; just like in our proportion ; as he enjoys God, so

shall we. Yea, and over and above, he shall have all things into boot. I

will be his God, and he shall be my son ; and what further follows upon being a son ? He shall inherit all things. God himself hath but all

things, and thou shalt have all things too ; and this is to be predestinated unto adoption. Brethren, think of your privileges. I have expounded what it is to be chosen in him, and what to be predestinated to adoption.

The division of the fifth verse : The rest that follows in the oth and 6th verses is to set forth the causes

of this our predestination. I call them causes in a large sense.

1. The instrumental cause, Christ : by (or through) Jesus Christ; for in and through a relation unto him it is that we are sons and heirs of heaven, as in that Rom. viii. 17 it is declared, co-heirs with Christ.

2. You have the principal efficient cause, and, in him, the mover of God

thereunto, viz., the good pleasure of his will : according, saith he, to the

EPH. I. 5, 6.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 89

good pleasure of his will. All is resolved into that, as the supreme first mover of all, and you in your thoughts are to attribute all to that, when you think of your being made holy or happy.

3. The final cause, both for whom and for what.

(1.) For ivliom ; and the word tig avrov is such as will serve either to sig nify

* for himself, and so referring unto God the Father, or for him, that

is, for Jesus Christ the Son of God, who is also together with the Father one end of this our predestination unto adoption ; therefore that which our

translators translate to himself/ as referring to the person of God the Father, I would likewise render for him ; that is, for Jesus Christ ; reading the words thus, who hath predestinated us to adoption by Jesus Christ, for him

as the second end ; for whom.

(2.) For what ; to the praise of the glory of his grace, so ver. G ; that is, for the glory of his grace who did predestinate, which is God the Father.

And so you have the rest of these verses analysed to you. There is nothing questionable herein, but only that I should translate it

predestinated to adoption for him, and so to carry it to Christ, that he was intended as one final cause of our predestination to adoption, as well as the instrumental ; that is, that it was intended by God that contrived all in it, so as that it should be for him as well as by him.

I will give you the several interpretations or readings of the words

(for himself?

1. There are some would interpret it by sv saurti ; to this sense, that he hath

predestinated us in himself, to shew that it was God s sole act immanent within himself, and in that respect to give him the glory of it as the con

triver, &c., within himself. But this will not hold ; for, first, it is harsh in the phraseology of it, to render sis ectvrbv by sv iaurw.

2. That God was the cause of predestination, we see how that followeth

after, for the Apostle attributeth it unto his will in the next words, accord

ing to the good pleasure of his will/ And certainly, in so brief an enumera tion of causes, he could not use a repetition. And therefore

3. Others read it, as here our translators have also turned it, unto him

* Having predestinated us unto adoption to himself, that

self, to this sense :

is, to be children adopted to himself.

Holy Baines, not being satisfied with this last reading of it, gives two rea sons against this interpretation. First, saith he, that God did predestinate us to be children to himself, is sufficiently implied in the sole word adop tion; for to whom should we be children but to him? Not to Christ.

Again, secondly, the Apostle, saith he, doth not say that He hath chosen us to be sons in the concrete, but he hath chosen us unto adoption in the ab

stract ; so the words in the original do run. Now, says he, to add to him

self unto adoption in the abstract, that is not proper. If indeed he had

said, He hath chosen us to be sons to himself, that had been proper ; but the words run in that tenor : and therefore Mr Baines, to avoid this, rather chose that interpretation, which yet of all is the worst, He predestinated us in himself/

That translation and interpretation therefore which remaineth is this, that God hath predestinated us either for himself as the end thereof, or

for him, namely Christ, as the end of predestinating us to this adoption. And the words will fully bear the one as well as the other ; for the preposi tion tic, doth oft-times signify for, as it doth denote the end or final cause ; as in the very next verse, ver. 6, sh svaum dofys rrt g y^aotroq aOrou, to, or

for, the praise of the glory of his grace, as noting out the final cause. It is

90 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SERMOJN VI.

the same preposition there that is here used, as likewise in that Eom. xi. 36,

All things are of him, and through him, and for him, zk aitrbv ; they are the same words.

But then, if that particle e/s be admitted to signify for, as importing a

final cause, the question will be, whether it be for himself, that is, for God the Father, that he should make himself the end, or whether it be for Christ, whom the Apostle had mentioned in the words immediately foregoing.

I confess, that when I expounded that verse in my lecture, and long after

that, when I first perfected my notes upon that verse, I observed it not, as to such a purpose and issue as I shall now further drive at. But I under stood it then as only to intend that we were predestinated to and for Christ, and to the glory of Christ, and so I handled it at large. But seeing the Greek word may as indifferently, with a variation of the aspirate, be rendered

to himself, and so refer unto God the Father ; and finding that the Scrip tures do frequently express God s electing of us by choosing us to himself and for himself, as I found when I lately handled the doctrine of election, (upon Kom. ii. 4-6,) and that there was so much and so great a matter comprehended and contained in that expression; I have been thereby moved to take that interpretation in also, it being a rule I have always mea sured the interpretation of Scripture by, as I have oft professed, to take

Scripture phrases and words in the most comprehensive sense j yea, and in two senses, or more, that will stand together with the context and analogy of faith.

Junius, in his conference with Arminius, apprehended some great matter, beyond what was ordinarily pitched on, to lie intended in that small word. But he not explaining what, but groping at it, Dr Twiss, who wrote the de fence of that conference, yet finds fault with him for obscurity, as not know

ing what to make of Junius meaning.

Others, to whose interpretation our translators seem to incline, do give this as the sole sense of these words, that God predestinated us unto adop tion of children to himself : so as the whole intendment should be taken up in this particular, that he hath chosen us to be children to himself : the word to himself referring only unto our being children to him; that is, his children.

But, says holy Baines, as I observed, it is not in the Greek said that he

predestinated us to be sons to himself in the concrete ; but that he chose us to adoption in the abstract. Now, says he, to have added to adoption in the abstract to himself, is not so proper. Of which I have spoke before.

So that I understand the word to himself not primarily or alone to refer to adoption of children to him, but to refer distinctly and as immediately unto his having predestinated us, and separated us to his own great and

glorious self, and for and to his great and blessed Son. And that to have been another distinct and larger end of his predestinating us than adop tion, over and above, and beyond that. And though that be as a special end mentioned first, yet that is but a more particular and lower end in com

parison of this other, of God s predestinating us to himself.

Let us take up his meaning thus, as if he had said, He hath predesti nated us to adoption, that is one end, or benefit rather. But, which is more and further than that, he hath predestinated us even to himself also, in the

full extent of what that will bear and hold forth. And truly, that which would further persuade unto this is, not only that it enlargeth the scope of the text to the utmost amplitude, but also, that by Jesus Christ comes in

EPH. I. 5, 6.] TO THE EPHESIANS. gj

between unto adoption and to himself. Whereas, if he had only intended that we were chosen unto adoption, that is, of children to himself he would have placed them immediately together, and said, He hath predestinated us unto adoption to himself by Jesus Christ; but he puts by Jesus Christ between the one and the other.

FOE HIMSELF : THE END OP ELECTION.

I shall, for an enlargement and confirmation of this, run over some places in the Old and New Testament wherein the same expression is singly and in this general sense used, that God chose us for himself, and not limitedly unto this one particular, unto adoption to himself.

1. In the Old Testament, Ps. iv. 3, Know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. What is it to set apart, but to choose and sever from the rest, even as here in the text, to reserve, doth imply ?

2. And, secondly, Who was it that he speaks of? David himself, whom elsewhere God had chosen, Ps. Ixxxix. 19, 20.

3. And, thirdly, For what or whom did God choose him ? Not to king ship only, but for himself, says that text. And therein consists the height, the top-glory of our election, as it was of his. The word set apart in the Hebrew signifies magnifying or exalting ; and Ainsworth puts both together, and translates it thus, hath marvellously or wonderfully separated. Now this great and wonderful exaltation lies in his separating, choosing us for himself. To have set us apart for kingdoms, for all the glories found in heaven and earth, had not been so much as to separate us for himself. And

agreeing with this is that Isa. xliii. 20, My people, my chosen ; so he had

styled them. And it immediately follows, ver. 21, This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise ; which latter words are

explicative of the former, My chosen. There is a double formation, one in and by regeneration, &c., as that phrase, till Christ be formed in you, shews. But this is but an imperfect formation, as those words also imply. Nor is it all the forming of Christ in us that is yet to be, for it is to be per fected in glory. But there was a foregoing one in God s everlasting decree of choosing us, My people, my chosen ; and that is the greatest formation of all. God s eternal choice was the womb wherein this birth was first con

ceived, and therein perfectly formed as to what we should be for ever.

David, speaking of his body, maketh a double formation of it, Ps. cxxxix.,

first, one in the womb, which God saw and had an eye upon, that it should be done according to his mind and model ; and of this he speaks, ver. 15, My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. The other in God s decree, ver.

16, In thy book all my members were written. In like manner there is a

double spiritual formation of the elect, and of their souls. One in election, which was the whole of what they should be to his praise ; therein it was

that we were blessed with all spiritual blessings at once. God cast the mould of all that we should be. All formations in this life are but imper

fect draughts wrought by piecemeal, according to that pattern; they are

all, to eternity, but several degrees of perfecting and filling up the idea of

that first draught in God s heart of what he chose us to be, which he pur

posed within himself, Eph. i. 11. In that mould were all the prints en

graven which we were, by being cast in, to bear the image of. And in this

respect he is said in Isaiah to have formed them, They shall shew forth my

praise ; which is the same tenor of language with Eph. i. 5, 6, Having

predestinated us to himself, to the praise of the glory of his grace.

94: AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SERMON VI.

service, and the like. It is in such choices for himself, in which the grace and favour of a king in choosing is most seen and shewn ; that is a choice indeed !

2. For him; that is, for Jesus Christ. In the interpretation before, I said

the words tic, avrov would bear either for himself/ as referring to the

Father, or for him, referring to Jesus Christ, last mentioned. And the

Holy Ghost intended both these senses ; but yet, if we were to choose but

one, this would make me think Christ rather to be here intended than God

the Father, because the Father s being the end of predestination unto adop

tion, follows after to the praise of the glory of his grace, namely, of the

Father, whose free grace is thereby magnified; although it must be also

acknowledged that his ordaining us for Christ is to the glory of his grace also.

So then let us consider whether it may not be intended of Christ, tic, XP/CTOK, for Christ, for which there are these reasons :

1. The words avrbv and aurbv are promiscuously used, either for him or

himself.

2. I find that many copies do so read it, sig aro, for him, even for Christ. So the Vulgar edition, and so some interpreters of all sorts do carry it, as

Cornelius a Lapide, the Jesuit ; Vorstius, Stapulensis, Castilio, Lubin, and

others.

3. And, to conclude all, there is this reason for it : If Jesus Christ were

in predestinating us aimed at by God, as an end thereof, as I shall presently make good unto you, then certainly he may be supposed to come in here. And so he doth. Where the Holy Ghost sets himself to enumerate all the

causes of predestination, he mentioneth God the Father as the end of it, over and above, or besides, in those words, to the praise of the glory of his

grace ; and if Christ should not come in here, he should come in nowhere, as a final cause. He cometh in as a Common Person, that is, as our Head, in those words, having elected us in him / also, as a means, in those words, having predestinated us unto adoption by him ; but as an end, together with his Father, nowhere cometh in, unless here, by translating these words,

/ aurov, for him. I come now to some observations, the first of which shall be a general one ; there being three following more particular, to make up this general one, which is this :

Obs. See here the fulness of Jesus Christ. We are elected in him, so says ver. 4, as a Common Head; so we are predestinated to adoption by or

through him, so saith ver. 5 ; and we are predestinated likewise for him, as

it follows in the same verse. He is made in God s aim the end for which he did predestinate us, as well as the glory of his own grace. Take notice

of Christ s fulness, these three things being attributed unto him in him, through him, and for him ; that is his honour. But the Father hath this

l of him : so, Horn,

peculiar honour above him, that all things are said to be

xi. 36, Of him, and through him, and to him are all things. Now, in

Christ, and through Christ, and for Christ are all things, but not of Christ. God the Father, as he is Fons Personarum, the fountain of the other two

Persons, so he is the fountain and first mover of all the works of the other Persons their motion comes from him. You have the same thing expressed, by way of difference, between God the Father and Christ, 1 Cor. viii. 6, There is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. So

also, 2 Cor. v. 18, All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself

EPH. I. 5, 6.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 95

by Jesus Christ. I will only cast in this further observation, that as hein the matter of election about our salvation, the honour of these three are given Christ, in him, through him, and for him, so the same three are like wise attributed to him to express his influence into the matter of creation and common providence towards all creatures. In that Col. i. 16 (an epistle of kin unto this,) b aSrp, / aurou, ,ie aMv mrfcm him, for him , and through him aU things are said to be created; of which I have spoken elsewhere.

This general being premised, I come to the particulars that here make up Christ s fulness.

I have before explained to you how we are chosen in him, and shall now further open what these two hold forth of glory unto Christ, that we are pre destinated to adoption through him, and for him. These words, t ,$ afob, wiU first of all bear this sense, ad illius exemplum after his example or pattern; and if that phrase should not bear so much yet this will, being predestinated to adoption through him. The meanin&lt;*

is, that Christ being the natural Son, we are made sons like him, even as, in many other things, in that which he is in himself, we are made the like in him, and conformed therein to him. Is he chosen ? so are we, thus ver. 4. Is he beloved ? so are we, ver. 6. He first, and then we in a conformity to him ; even as he is a Son, so are we in him, ver. 5.

1. The first particular then is, that Jesus Christ was set up by God as the exemplary cause of us in our predestination. The meaning whereof is this : I will (says God) make those whom I choose in Christ to be like unto him ; he shall be their pattern. He is my natural Son, and I will make them my sons through him.

To prove that this is intended in this our being predestinated to adoption through him, I will only give that place in Rom. viii. 29, "Whom he fore knew, he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son ; that

is, God did set up Christ as the prototype and principal masterpiece, and made us as little copies and models of him. That Christ came, and took frail flesh in this world, and suffered unto death as he did, therein we were his

patterns ; he was conformed unto us in that. He had never come into this world had we not first fallen into sin, and brought a frailty upon our nature : Heb. ii. 14, Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, (that is, of the frailty of man s nature, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,) he himself likewise took part of the same. Here now our frailty is made the pattern of his. So likewise, Rom. viii. 3, He sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Because we sinned, and so subjected ourselves to frailty, therefore God made his Son like us. Mark the phrase there used, God sent him in the likeness of sinful flesh. But though we were patterns to Jesus Christ himself in all matters of frailty that befell him in his way to heaven, wherein yet, in another sense, he is a pattern to us, in

regard of the measure of afflictions wherein he exceeded, and therefore we are said to be conformed to him in sufferings, yet I speak in respect of what was the consideration upon which God s ordaining of Christ unto afflictions and frailties was first founded, and that was, because we had sinned and become frail ; and so, forasmuch as we partook of flesh and blood, he took

part of the same. But take Christ as now in his glory, and invested with

all his privileges as he is the Son of God, and as perfectly holy, &c., and thus he is our pattern. We are now the sons of God, saith the apostle, but it appears not what we shall be; but this we know, we shall be like him when he shall appear. I could amplify this unto you in the first and

96 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SERMON VI.

second Adam s conformity one to the other, from that place, 1 Cor. xv. 49 : as we are conformed to the image of the first Adam he was earthly and we are earthly ; so we are to be conformed to the image of the second Adam he

is heavenly, and so are we to be.

And as Christ was thus set up by God, as our pattern and exemplar in our predestination, so

2. He was set up as the means or virtual cause through whom, that is, by virtue of whom, God would adopt us by union with him. Jesus Christ, you know, is himself God s natural Son ; but how shall we come to be sons ? God putteth us into Christ, he chooseth us to be in Christ, to be married to him, and he betrothed us to him from everlasting ; for Jesus Christ then betrothed himself unto us, when in election he undertook for us with his Father ; and so we become sons-in-law unto God. So that Jesus Christ is the instrument, or rather virtual cause by or through whom God makes us sons. Even as a woman comes to be a man s daughter-in-law by marrying his son, or by his son s betrothing himself to her; so are we sons-in-law unto God, as the word adoption plainly signifieth, even by a positive law ; and this by marriage with his Son, which makes the rela tion nearer and stronger than those kind of adoptions among men do, when

marriage with a child is not added to it. Now, how is this being adopted through him to be understood 1 Of

being made sons through his merits, or through the mere relation to his

person ?

I answer, through the relation to his person, and Christ s being a Son. I am in this of learned Mr Forbes s mind, that adoption, as primitively it was in predestination bestowed upon us, was not founded upon redemption, or Christ s obedience, but on Christ s personally being God s natural Son. Our justification indeed is built upon his obedience and sufferings, as ver. 7 hath it, in whom we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins, through his blood. But our adoption is through his being the natural Son of God, and we his brethren in relation to his person. To explain this : God or dained us to communion or fellowship with Jesus Christ in all things, so

1 Cor. i. 9, and so to partake of all his dignities, and whatever else in him we were capable of ; as of all things in him, so likewise things even as they are in him, both in respect of order, that in that order they are in him, are they also intended unto us, and also in such manner as that which is bestowed on us doth answer to what is in him ; and likewise in respect of

causation, that anything which we have answering unto what is in him, is

still founded upon that which is in Christ answering thereunto.

Now, as this privilege, to be the natural Son of God, was first in Christ

himself, and was the foundation of merit in him ; so this grace, to be God s

adopted son, is first intended and founded upon his being God s natural Son; and then after that was intended what is the fruit of Christ s merit, namely

justification founded upon his obedience.

Only let me add this caution, that we having indeed lost all our privi

leges, Christ was fain to purchase them anew. And so indeed it is true that adoption and all the rest are the fruits of his merits, as actually they come to be bestowed. Therefore the Apostle, Gal. iv. 5, saith, that he re deemed us, that we might receive the adoption of sons ; mark the phrase, that we might receive adoption. Our sins and bondage under the law and curse of it were an obstacle and impediment why God could not actually bestow adoption. And so indeed it is true, that our receiving adoption depends upon redemption ; yet still intended it was, and founded upon our

EPH. I. 5, 6.] TO THE EPHESIANS. ^

relation to Christ s person as he is God s natural Son, and we married unto him. And so, when sins are by his merits done out of the way then thk comes to take place. And so justification is by Junius rightly called via aaoptioms.

Now then, election that gave us relation to Christ, did put us into him

&gt;d chose us in him. And then came predestination, and gave us this

they shall be like him. Is he my heir ? They shall be helrs^ co-heirs with him. And this may help to solve that question among divines whether adoption or justification be the first benefit. For, I answer, that in God s intention of bestowing it from everlasting in predestination, adoption is the first, as being founded upon our mere relation to the person of Christ and this without the consideration of merit. But for the actual bestowing it upon us, pardon of sins goes first. We are redeemed from under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons, and that God might own us as such so, John i. 12, to as many as believed he gave this privilege, that they should be the sons of God.

Now, take notice of this difference, to see your privilege yet further, as you are in Christ. Adam was created holy, perfectly holy ; and, Luke iii. 38, we read that he was the son of God, but nowhere that he was the son of God by adoption through Christ. In the 38th of Job, the angels are called morning stars and sons of God; but nowhere are they called such by adoption through Christ. They were sons indeed, per gratiam creationis, because God made them, and in his own likeness, and so by creation was their Father. But they are not sons per gratiam adoptionis, especially not In Christo, vel per Christum, as divines speak. They are not sons by the yrace of adoption, nor sons-in-law of God by being married unto Christ. No, this is proper only to believers. Now consider the greatness of this

privilege. What, says David, is it a small thing to be son-in-law to a king? STou may haply be a king s favourite or creature, as the term is ; he may nake you great ; but to make you his son-in-law by marriage of his daughter, ;his is a further and more royal privilege. The angels are God s favourites md creatures ; he made them what they are. But we exceed them ; we are

lis sons, by being put into his Son Christ, and by a relation to his person. Fo which of all the angels hath it at any time been said, You are adopted ions through Christ ? And which of them hath Christ called brethren ? I

vill not say it is the meaning of that place, Heb. xii. 22, (I will but suggest

{ You are come, says the Apostle, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an imiunerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-

t,)

&gt;orn that are written in heaven. Why are we called God s first-born, for he Apostle seems to intend the church of elect men as distinct from the

mgels, for he had mentioned them before, but because that as Jesus Christ

s called God s first-born comparatively unto us, he being God s natural

Jon, so it may be that we are called God s first-born in comparison of the

,ngels, in regard that we have a higher privilege of sonship than they have ?

ror we are sons through Christ. God hath predestinated us unto the adopion of sons through Christ.

And so I come to the third thing in the text, that as we are predestinated into adoption through Christ, so also for Christ. So that Jesus Christ is

ikewise the end which God set up in predestinating us to this adoption and

;lory, and to perfect holiness. And this is the highest honour of the Lord

resus Christ. It is a point of some difficulty, and therefore I shall some

what the longer insist upon it.

VOL. i. G

98 AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SERMON VI.

The meaning of it is this. God having a natural Son, the second Person

in the Trinity, whom he would make visibly glorious in a human nature,

through an union of it with this divine nature, or second Person, which human nature should by that union become his natural Son, now upon the

glorifying this second Person did God s decree primarily pitch ; and for his

greater glory, ordained us to be adopted sons through him, and as brethren unto him ; for should he be alone 1 No ; God will have his natural Son to

have fellows; and therefore he predestinateth others for him, to be his com

panions ; thus, Ps. xlv. 7, they are called. God, saith the Psalmist unto

Christ, hath anointed thee above thy fellows, or peers. As, Zech. xiii. 7, the man Christ Jesus is called God s fellow, so in this psalm we are called

Christ s fellows. And therefore God hath predestinated us to adoption of

sons, as through him, so for him, that he might have company in heaven

to what end you shall see by and by. He is God s fellow; we are his

fellows. He is God s natural son ; we are sons by marriage with him. John xii. 24, Jesus Christ compares himself to a seed, which, saith he, if it

dies not, it remains alone. His speech implies, that he was loth and had no mind to be in heaven alone ; No, says he, I will have fellows there.

Christ was to have company in heaven with him. And you shall see how

this tended to the glory of Christ ; for he is made the end of this decree of

us and our adoption

1. To greaten his glory and excellency the more, by comparison with

younger brethren, that his glory might the more appear, as by comparison

things do; in that he is, as Bom. viii. 29, the first-born among many brethren.

2. God did ordain other sons besides him, for him as the end, that there

might be those about him who might see his glory and magnify him, as you have it John xvii. 24. God had given Jesus Christ, by choosing him to the union with our nature, an infinite glory. Now, says Christ there, Father, I

will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. And, in 2 Thess. i. 10, it is said that Christ shall be

glorified in his saints, and made wonderful in them that believe. Those

that believe are for this end, that Christ may be made wonderful in them, and also to them. And at the 10th verse of that 17th of John, I am, says

Christ, glorified in them.

3. God thus ordained us to adoption that Christ might be glorified by being the cause of all our glory by adoption, and in that all we have, we have it through him, as it is here. And reason good that he should be the end of all, through whom we were to have all, and that we should be for him. So, Kom. xi. 36, they are conjoined, Through him, and for him, are

all things namely, through and for God, of whom the apostle there speaks. And so it is said of Christ, dta avrov, and ei$ aurov, as being therefore for him, because through him. In Col. i. 16, you read that God created all things in him and for him. I have shewed, in another place, that it is meant of Christ, as supposed to have a human nature. And it followeth at the 18th verse of that chapter, that he is the head of the body, the church, who

is the beginning, the first-born from the dead ; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. God set him up to be the head of the body ; and

if he be the head of his members, he is then their end. This I gather out of 1 Cor. xi. 3, compared with ver. 9 : The head of every man is Christ ; and the head of the woman is the man ; and the head of Christ is God. Part of the meaning whereof is, that God ordained Christ for himself, man

for Christ, and woman for man ; which is manifest by comparing this with

EPH. I. 5, 6.] TO THE EPHESIANS. 99

what is said at ver. 9, The man was not created for the woman but the woman for the man ; he having said before, that the head of the woman is the man. He speaks this indeed of Christ s priority to man in common by the law of creation. Therefore he says, The head of every man is Christ not believers only. Yet I may well draw the like argument from that his common natural relation of headship to every man, into this his special rela tion of being a head to his Church : that if he be their head, that then they were created for him ; they were ordained for him, and not he for them. Adam, you know, was Christ s type. Now he was not made for Eve, but Eve for him. And look what Adam was in creation, that was Christ in election, when we were put into him. God first made Adam ; and then, seeing it was not fit for Adam to be alone, he brought Eve as a companion for him. So

_ did God bring the Church unto Christ as a meet companion for him, for it was not meet that he should be alone ; and so we were chosen for him. As therefore the woman is called the glory of the man, in the same 1 Cor. XL 7, so are the saints called the glory of Christ, 2 Cor. viii. 23; and John xvii. 10, I am glorified in them, says Christ, &c. So that in election Christ held the primacy, the firsthood, as in dignity, so in order, in that we were ordained for him. And so it follows in the con clusion of all, in that Col. i 18, that in all things he might have the pre eminence.

Now to enlarge this a little. In the decrees of election, the consideration of Christ, as to assume man s nature, was not simply or only founded upon the supposition or the foresight of the Fall, as if occasioned only thereupon. For besides what the former explication of those words, that we were chosen in him, does afford; this also, that we are predestinated for him as the end of all, gives a sufficient ground against such an assertion. Now, mark my expression. I say, not only upon the consideration and foresight of the Fall ; and that upon this ground, that all things were predestinated and created for him. Whereas to bring him into the world only upon occasion of man s sin, and for the work of redemption, were to subject Christ unto us, as he was to be incarnate and hypostatically united to a human

nature, and to make us the end of that union, and of his personal dwelling in that nature. Whereas he, as so considered, is the end of us, and of all

things else. This were also to have the person ordained for the benefits (as redemption, heaven, &c.) which we were to have by him, which are all

far inferior to the gift of his person unto us, and much more to the glory of his person itself. His person is of infinite more worth than they all can be of.

Neither yet, on the other side, do I, or dare I, affirm that Christ should have been incarnate, and assumed our nature, though man had never fallen ; because all things are ordained to fall out no otherwise than they do. God therefore never made such a single decree alone, that Christ should come into the world, but as always having the Fall in his eye, and his coming to redeem also. I account that opinion as great a chimera and fiction as many of those school questions and disputes, What should have fallen out ifAdam had stood ? &c., which are cut off with this, That God never ordained his

standing. This is all that I affirm in this point, that God, in ordaining

Christ, the second Person, to assume a human nature, had not Christ in his

eye only or chiefly as a redeemer, but withal looked upon that infinite glory of the second Person to be manifested in that nature through this assumption. Both these ends moved him ; and of the two, the glory of Christ s person, in and through that union, had the greatest sway, and that so as even re-

98 AX EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE [SEEMON VI.

The meaning of it is this. God having. a natural Son, the second Person

in the Trinity, whom he would make visibly glorious in a human nature, through an union of it with this divine nature, or second Person, which human nature should by that union become his natural Son, now upon the

glorifying this second Person did God s decree primarily pitch ; and for his

greater glory, ordained us to be adopted sons through him, and as brethren unto him ; for should he be alone ? No ; God will have his natural Son to have fellows; and therefore he predestinateth others for him, to be his com