There are many profitable points to be handled in the dispatch of this Doctrine I shall onely in this remnant of time prosecute a few And first I shall shew you what election is Secondly whether a man may be sure of his own election seeing election is an act from eternity How can a man be sure of that which was done in Gods counsell before we had a being Thirdly by what discoveries may a man infallibly judge that he is elected Q. 1 In the discussion of this doctrine I begin with the first What election is A. Which that you may know I shall lay down this briefe description of it Election is an eternall decree or purpose of God whereby he hath freely chosen out of the masse of mankind a small company of men and women that shall come to everlasting life and salvation by Jesus Christ This is election And here in this description there are these things to be taken notice of First I call it an eternall purpose because though a man be not justified from eternity yet he is elected from eternity God from eternity had a purpose that man should be justified and should be called and should be saved Election is from eternity though vocation justification and glorification be not so Hence you read in Scripture when it speaks of election Eph. 1.4 He hath elected us in Christ before the foundation of the world But it is never said so of Justification God had a purpose to make us happy and a purpose to call us in time and a purpose to justifie us from eternity though the acting of this purpose is in due time fulfilled Secondly I call it a purpose whereby he doth freely chuse And this I doe in opposition to that Papisticall Tenet that God doth predestinate or elect men to salvation upon the foresight of good works A most abominable opinion and takes off the freeness of this act of Gods election 2 Tim. 1.9 Not according to our works but according to his own purpose grace Eph. 1.5.11 so I say thirdly Whereby God doth freely chuse out of the masse of mankind a few to obtaine life and salvation In opposition to those that hold for universall Redemption and universall Grace As Origen and from him many more have been tainted with this errour to hold Election universall And so many of the Papists Now the Scripture tels us that many are called but few are chosen Election signifies a choice now a choice the very word imports a rejecting of some and a culling out of others The word Election imports that all shall not be saved Origen held this that all men should be saved that Election shall extend to every man Yea the very divels at the day of judgement shall be saved which is an opinion among Christians not to be named for Election belongs but to a few Fourthly I say that t is to bring them to eternall life and salvation therefore called ordination to eternall life Act. 13.48 Q. 2 Secondly Whether may a Christian in this life be assured of his eternall Election for as much as Election was done in the decree of God before ever he had a being or the world was Therefore seeing we are not privy to Gods decree and counsell how can it be said that we may know and be assured of our Eternall Election Indeed the Papists they beat down this doctrine And hence it is that in the Councell of Trent there was this Canon made that if any man should say he was bound to believe that he was of the number of them that God hath predestinate or elected to life let him be an accursed man They did endeavour to beat down assurance and held that all that a man could have must be onely a conjecturall assurance or some kinde of hopes of salvation and no other Now that you might not erre in this point see what the Scripture speaks in this case That though Election be an act of God from eternity yet a believer may firmly and fully know his own election And this I shall make good by severall places of Scripture Read Luke 10.20 Rejoyce not saith Christ to his Disciples that you have power to cast out divels that they are subject to you but rejoyce rather in this that your names are written in the book of life That is rejoyce not that you can work miracles that wicked men can doe that are not elected but rather rejoyce that your names are written in the book of life that is that in Gods decree you are elected to salvation Now how could they rejoyce unlesse they knew this So 1 Thes 1.4 Knowing brethren beloved your election of God The Apostle takes it for granted that believers did know they were elected So Ephes 1.3 4 5. The Lord hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the soundation of the world was having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Many more Scriptures I might urge but in the mouth of two or three witnesses it is enough to confirme every truth But now though the Scripture be thus cleare yet there are some objections that seemingly oppose this truth which I must satisfie The Papists as farre as I have read in their writings I finde five objections they draw from Scripture against this truth that a man may be assured of his Election for say they it was an act of Gods done before we had a being and how can we be assured of that I will therefore beloved first produce those Scriptures that they pretend wil overthrow this point and then take off what seems to make against it The first Text they urge is 1 Pet. 1.17 Passe the time of your sojourning here in feare This Scripture say they bids us passe our time in feare and if so then we cannot be assured of our election but we must feare all the daies of our life whether we are elected or no. To this I shall answer briefly You must know the feare that the holy Ghost here presseth that men should passe their time in feare is not meant of a feare about our election but it is meant of a feare of sinne that we must not sinne against God but feare God and feare to provoke God by our sinne And if you ask how this appeares I make it appeare plainly thus for vers 18. it is said Knowing beloved that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the precious blood of Christ c. Now this verse proves clearly that they knew they were redeemed by Christs bloud and so by consequence knew their election Therefore the Apostle did not presse a feare to beat down the knowledge of their election but passe your time in feare i. e. feare to offend God and feare to sinne against him Another objection they urge is this The Scripture say they doth often commend feare to us and surely feare and assurance
thy mouth Trust to that As if he should say Let no man think to know Gods decrees by going into heaven and there searching into Gods decrees for that he cannot doe but look upon the word and there he shall finde whom God hath elected and decreed to save 1 Cor. 2.16 No man can know by looking barely upon the decree but if we compare Gods decree with his word and from the word look upon them that are elected we may easily know whether we are elected or no. Which puts me upon the third head premised How a man may be assured in his own soule that he is elected to life and salvation by God the Father SERMON XIII 2 PETER 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure IN the prosecution of this subject you may remember the last Doctrine I drew forth was this That Christians should put forth a great deale of diligence to make this sure to their soules that they are eternally elected by God the Father In the handling of which I have shewn you 1. what election is 2. That the people of God may make sure their own election though done from all eternity I come now to shew you how the people of God may be assured in their own hearts that they are eternally elected And here to compasse this knowledge or assurance of our election I doe not onely carry it so farre as the Papists doe that say you may have a perswasion which they call fides conjecturalis a conjecturall faith or hope you may be saved but will not come up so farre as the words of my Text to be sure of it Now should a man use no more then the words of the Text in that it is pressed as a command it is an argument it may be made sure to a mans own selfe For no man is bound to an impossible thing Nemo tenetur ad impossibile and in that it is a thing required to be assured of our election the Scripture would never oblige our obedience to that which is impossible in it selfe I doe not drive so farre onely but further What should an elect man doe to be certainly perswaded that he is eternally elected by God to obtain life and salvation I am now handling a doctrine to be trembled at while you are attending to it And in the resolving of this query you must take this rule that you cannot get assumnce by ascending into Gods decree but by descending into your own hearts searching them by the word whether those saving effects which God doth work in an elect person be wrought in your soules or noâ— and that is the way to come to a sure and certain knowledge of your election The knowledge of your election is not attainable by ascending into Gods decree for who hath made you his Counsellors Nor is it enjoyned you by way of Revelation That is an unsure ground and you may runne into Enthusiasme as well as perswasion about your election It is not done by Revelation neither against nor without the word What ever testimony there is if it come not from the word you may suspect it to be a delusion Now the safest way though I know much cried down for you to goe by in searching whether you are in the number of Gods elect is to search into your own hearts whether those things be wrought in you which are wrought in those whom God hath elected to life and salvation And here I shall content my selfe with the naming of six saving effects First every man that is elected sooner or latter shall be effectually called and savingly converted by the power of the word This the Apostle laies down 1 Thes 1.4 5. Knowing brethren beloved your election of God How should this be known Vers 5. For our word came not to you in word onely but in power and in the holy Ghost that is our Gospel did not come in word onely to affect your eares and rest there but our word came with power being backt with the operation of the Spirit for your conversion This work all men that are elected sooner or latter must come under to have the power of the word come with authority upon Conscience for his effectuall calling So Rom. 8.30 Whom he predestinated whom he appointed to life them he called And therefore Beloved who ever you are if you live and die without having the power of the Word to passe upon your soule for your effectuall Calling you may lay your hearts under this Conclusion that you are not elected by God to obtaine life and salvation For Whom he hath predestinated them he calls Secondly a man that is elected by God to life sooner or latter God will sanctifie him by renewing and regenerating grace And this is onely different from the former in degree for calling is sanctification begun Now when God elects a man he doth not onely begin the work of grace but he carries it on in a course of sanctification And of this you read 2 Thes 2.12 13. We are bold to give thanks to God alwaies for you beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and beliefe of the truth If God hath from the beginning chosen a man to salvation the Lord doth it through sanctification not for sanctification as the Papists say or for faith forseen but it is through it as a means whereby we are brought to salvation sanctification shall runne through your lives as water through a channel So 1 Pet. 1.2 They that are elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by Christ through sanctification So 2 Tim. 2.21 And therefore beloved if men live and die and have not the power of sanctifying grace upon their hearts and consciences and working in their lives doubtlesse those men are not elected because this you see clearly that at one time or other God will work this in such men Jude 4. Thirdly men elected by God to life and salvation shall sooner or latter be brought into a state of believing Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained to eternall life believed No man that is ordained to eternall life but shall be brought to a believing estate And therefore men living and dying in a state of unbeliefe are not elected Hence you read Tit. 1.1 it is called the faith of Gods elect implying that all that are elected before they die shall have faith and none shall have faith but onely they and therefore in a peculiar manner called the faith of Gods elect appropriated onely to them Fourthly That man that is elected sooner or latter before he dies God will work in his heart a speciall delight in and an intire love to the word preached This you have expressed John 8.47 He that is of God heareth Gods word therefore ye are not of God because you heare not his words To be of God that is to belong to God
truth but in their own opinion they thought they were elected and thought their names were written there they had strong conceits of this and though they are now deluded and mistaken yet God will make them know one day when they are in hell that their names are blotted out of the book of life Again Another Scripture they abuse is 1 Cor. 10.12 Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall Now say they if it were not possible for a man elected to fall and fall finally to what end is this caution of the Apostle it were a needlesse caution were it not possible to come to passe To which I answer two things First the Apostle doth not say Let him that stands take heed lest c. but the Apostle saith Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall Intimating that men that think they are elected and think they are in a good condition they should take heed lest they miscarry to all eternity Secondly Take heed lest they fall This falling here is not meant a falling from grace finally and falling into hell and perishing but the falling here is onely a falling into sinne and so an elect man should doe An elect man though he stand firm in Gods decree yet he should take heed all the daies of his life that he fall not into sinne And if you aske me how I make that appeare I answer from the context This is a conclusion or caution the Apostle gives upon the enumeration of severall instances of the people of God that in former ages did sinne against God As some that tempted Christ and sell in one day 23000. Others that fell to fornication and provoked him in the wildernesse With many such sins reckoned up and the summe of all is this that seeing they that were Gods people fell into sinne and were punished therefore you that think you stand and think you are elected you should take heed you fall not into sinne as they did And thus I have done with resolving this second query Thirdly whether doth God elect any man to life and salvation upon foresight of his faith or good works foreseeing that this man will believe therefore I elect him to salvation and the other man doth not believe therefore I chuse him to damnation Whether I say doth God in his eternall decree elect any man to life upon foresight of works Here the Papists and Arminians joyne both together in maintaining of this The reason say they why God elects some and not others is because God did foresee from eternity that that man would be holy and would believe in Christ and therefore God elected him to salvation These are the hard imputations they lay to Gods charge And in the resolving of this I shall answer it in the Negative That God in electing a certain number of men to life and salvation did not doe it upon the foresight of any good works he saw would be in them whether Faith Repentance sanctification or any other grace Indeed it is true the Papists many of them doe not grosly say that it was foresight of good works in generall but the foresight of faith only and so the Arminians But now to overthrow this ungrounded opinion First I shall lay down Scriptures to confirm this that God in electing of men to salvation doth not doe it upon foresight of good workes and then lay down reasons and after that take those objections which seem to darken this truth First for the Scriptures that confirm this we have Rom. 11.5 He hath saved a remnant according to the election of grace Intimating that the remnant that are saved it is onely of grace not of foreseen works So Eph. 1.5 11. He hath elected us according to the good pleasure of his own will Gods meere good will was the impulsive cause of mans election and nothing in man So likewise Rom. 9.11 That Gods election might stand not according to our works but according to the good pleasure of him that called us So 2 Tim. 1.9 Not of works but according to his own purpose and grace Upon his good pleasure and his good will to mankind upon that ground election stands But now to adde some reasons why it cannot be that God should determine in his own counsell to save man upon the foresight of his works I shall name three or foure As First because the inferiour priviledges that God bestows upon his people as vocation and justification though they are in actuall being are not for their good works therefore much lesse is election for good works onely foreseen First for Vocation 2 Tim. 1.19 We are called not according to our own works but according to the purpose of his own grace And then for justification we are not justified for works neither Rom. 3.34 We are justified freely by his grace for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified Now if vocation and justification be not for works much lesse is election for works and for works foreseen not in being in us Secondly because then it would follow that children dying in infancy could not be electedâ— for the child being in the mothers wombe if it hath life it hath a soule and so must either be saved or damned But a child while it is in the womb neither acts good or evill Now if God did elect persons to life upon foresight of works then children dying in the wombe could not be elected because there are no works God could foresee in them And then this would be a very uncomfortable doctrine for parents that have children dying young Thirdly then would man have somewhat whereof to boast before his God as if he could lay claime to salvation from him If God were bound to choose men to salvation upon foresight of good works then man might say I thank not God but I thank my believing and thank my good works for these were the motives for which he chose me to glory and thus would poore man boast against his Maker Fourthly Because God hath elected the worst of men when others that have more naturall worth and goodnesse are passed by 1 Cor. 1.27 28. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weake things of the world c. and base things of the world and things that are despised hath God chosen c. And Matth. 11.25 I thank thee O Father that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Those that had the greatest worldly wisdome and naturall abilities that most excelled in outward strictnesse and morall vertues are rejected when those that are but babes in understanding who many times are the worst for their moralities are elected which is a cleare demonstration that election is not grounded upon faith or works foreseen for then the best had been chosen before the rest Fifthly Our works carry no proportion to what God hath elected us
read 1 Pet. 3.8 9. Be pitiful be compassionate to your Brethren love as Brethren Now upon what ground doth the Apostle presse this compassion Read verse 9. Knowing saith he that you are hereunto called that you should inherit a blessing As if he should say upon this ground I woo you to be compassionate because you are called to inherit a blessing that is you know and are assured that you are a blessed people and you shall be a saved people therefore have compassion on your brethren who are tempted and troubled that you might bring them to the same pitch of comfort you are brought to Eighthly Assurance should be managed with chearfulnesse of heart Assured Christians should be chearful Christians We read Nehem. 2.1 2. That Nehemiah all the while he was before the face of the King and in the presence of the King the Text saith Nehemiah for a long time was not sad the Kings presence did so cheare up Nehemiahs heart Now to this I would allude If the presence and face of King Artaxerxes did make Nehemiah that for a long time he was not sad before him Oh how much more should the face of God and the presence of God in a mans soul and the favour of God towards a man how much more should this keep thee from being sad in Gods presence from a lumpish and Melancholy and sad spirit Thou art in the presence of a King in the favour of God and this should keep thee from being sad and heavy None in the world have greater grounds of joy then those that live in a constant assurance of the love of God towards them It is for condemned men that are condemned to the Gallows to hang down their heads and wring their hands but let the pardoned people of the Lord rejoyce The man that is condemned he hangs down his head but the man that comes pardoned from the barre with what a chearful countenance will that man come you are all a people pardoned by your God you may well be a rejoycing people I remember a passage I have read in D. Halls Works in his Meditations upon the Creatures speaking of a little Bird called Robbin-red-brest that when he was in his study came chirping at the window and leaping upon his book and singing a great while together upon this sight he breaks out into this contemplation O this little silly Bird that doth not know where to pick up the next crum that doth not know where to pitch and rest it selfe for the next night yet behold how chearfully doth this Bird sing when man and a Christian man that knows God to be his Father that hath not only crumbs of ourward blessings but whole morsels of inward comfort and can drink draughts of inward consolation Christians that have a God and a heaven that have Christ and glory yet they cannot be merry as a poor Bird can be and truly it is a good Meditation Many times people that are called by Jesus Christ and have ground and assurance of their everlasting happinesse by him yet they cannot be so merry as a poor Bird will be Birds in the morning will be chirping and singing as if nothing lay at the heart when a Christian is sad and vexing and wearying out his life in discontents and sorrowes this becomes not a Christian Assured Christians they should be chearful Christians Ninthly Assured Christians they should be thankful Christians For one to give a man a promise it is worth thanks but when a man shall not onely give but assure that Promise that he will make it good that is more thanks-worthy Beloved if God had only promised you a heaven and had given no assurance it was thanks-worthy but when God shall give thee his Broad Seal that shall seal thee up to the day of Redemption and when God shall give thee an assurance in thy own brest thou shalt go to heaven and go to God this should much more make thee in thy Spirit blesse thy God It is a speech of the Prophet David My soule blesse thou the Lord for his marvellous loving kindnesse Thou hast kindnesse and thou hast marvellous loving kindnesse My soul blesse God for this David would not keep back Gods praises seeing God would not keep back Davids comforts In heaven we shall break forth into admiration because we have good things in possession here we should break forth into thanksgiving because we have them in expectation And thus I have done with the first part of my direction to you that are assured Christians you should labour first rightly to use your assurance Secondly All you that are assured Christians you are to be directed carefully to keep and preserve your assurance There is no lesse skill saith the Poet to be put forth in keeping vertue Non minor est virtus quà m quaerere parta tueri then in getting of it It is said of Hannibal he was a skilful souldier to get victories but he had no skill to keep them when gotten It may be said so of us Christians can get assurance but they have not the skill to keep it when they have got it This therefore I am now to press that you would be careful to preserve your assurance And here in speaking of this I shall lay down two particulars that in case you would keep your assurance there are some things you must do and some things you must avoid and take heed of First There are some things you must do and those I shall comprize under 2 or 3 heads First In case you would keep assurance you are to keep close in communion with your God in the exercise of the duty of godlinesse The more you keep grace the more you will keep your comforts And here that I may branch out this direction I shall comprize these duties under four heads and shew you from Scripture that keeping close to God in the use of four duties will be a ready way to keep your assurance in you As first keep close to God in the duty of prayer John 16.24 Ask saith Christ and your joy shall be full Ask that your joy may be full implying that if you keep close to God in the duty of prayer after assurance your spirits shall be compleat and full Secondly Keep close to God in the duty of reading the Word often By often reading the Word you will often meet with Promises and supports for your comfort That 's the reason men lessen in comforts because men do not frequently read the Word you cannot read a Chapter but you will finde there a prop for faith and a prop for assurance Keeping constant to the Word and that 's the way to keep your assurance 1 John 5.13 These things have I written to you that believe that you might know that you have eternal life These things have I writ not onely that you have life but that you might know it By reading the writings of John John tells them they might
their soules which words clearly import that men that draw back without returning they draw back to perdition to damnation but we are not of them saith the Apostle And here then beloved doth this word fall upon any man before God this day Hast thou left a course of strictnesse and fallen into a course of prophanenesse and loosenesse Hast thou fallen from thy God and never thinkest of a returning I shall not censure thee now but if thou livest and diest in this estate it is an undoubted argument thou art not within the compasse of Gods decree to save Secondly Men that doe make the mercies and goodnesse of God as arguments to embolden them the more in sinne such men are not likely to be the persons whom God hath elected to life and glory In the Epistle of Jude v. 4. It is spoken there of men that turned the grace of God into wantonnesse And what saith the Apostle of them they are men that are ordained of old to condemnation The Scripture there makes it the badge of a man ordained of old to condemnation when he shal persist in this sinfull temper to turn Gods grace into lasciviousnesse that is to take arguments from the grace and mercy and goodnesse of God to walk in waies of sinne And therefore look to it and with your hearts bewaile it all you that are apt to abuse doctrines of grace and because God is good you will be evil because God is mercifull therefore you will be sinful if you die in this temper the Scripture declares that you are the men ordained of old to condemnation Thirdly a man that doth walk in a course of sinne wilfully with malice and knowingly against conscience and obstinately without reluctancy and persist in this and live and die thus that man is not within the compasse of Gods election There is a phrase Psal 59.5 Be not mercifull O Lord unto wicked transgressors It is in some translations Be not mercifull to them that sinne of wicked malice or of malicious wickednesse Now there is this rule which Divines give that those prayers which were made by David they are rather Prophecies of what should be then meere prayers that this might be As David prayed against the Jewes Psal 69.22 that their table might be a snare to them and that they should alway bow down under their burden which was a prophecie and they did so And so he prayes here that God would not be mercifull to men that sinne of wicked malice which is as much as a prophecie that God will not be mercifull to men that sinne of malicious wickednesse And therefore beloved all you that so live and resolve you will die and haply doe die who sinne obstinately that let God command what he can you will do what you please let the Minister say what he will you will doe as you list that sinne against knowledge and against conscience and without any reluctancy resolve to live and die in a course of sinne the Lord be mercifull to such persons for certainly there must be no Bible if such men fall within the compasse of Gods election Fourthly That man that by living under the powerfull Ministry of the Word is more hard in heart and worse in life if a man grows thus it is an argument he is not within the purpose of Gods election Matth. 13.14 15. By hearing you shall heare but not understand by seeing you shall see but not perceive this peoples heart is waxed grosse their eares dull in hearing their eyes shut lest at any time they should see with their eyes heare with their eares understand with their hearts and be converted and I should save them Here is the judgement God laies upon such sinners that they shall have eyes and not see they shall be ignorant their hearts shall waxe grosse they shall be uncapable of taking any impression of the word upon them And what 's the end of all this lest they should be converted and I should save them implying that if God lets you that live under the Ministry to have dark eyes and hard hearts it is an argument God hath no intent to save you and therefore his purpose is to condemne you So John 12.40 He hath blinded their eyes and hardned their hearts lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and be converted Here it is laid down as an act of Gods that God did harden their hearts and God did blind their eyes lest they should be converted Implying that if men doe live and die in this temper that they have lived yeere after yeere under a powerfull Ministry and yet they grow more blind in judgement and more profane in life and more hard in heart after 20 30 40 yeeres hearing then they were before that the word doth but draw out their wickednesse and makes them more prophane and more to oppose godlinesse the Lord have mercy upon such soules for certainly if God leave you thus it is an argument he never intends to save you for the Lord doth thus with such that they might not be saved There is a passage Rom. 11.7 Israel hath not obtained that which he seeks for but the election hath obtained and the rest were hardned By election is meant the elected the Abstract put for the Concrete As often in Scripture Circumcision put for Circumcised and so here Election put for elected The elected have obtained it what did they obtaine they obtained salvation and glory but the rest that were not elected they were hardned The Lord there makes it the badge of them that are not elected that they are a blinded people and a hardned people Intimating that men that are not elected they shall live under the word yet shall be blind in mind shall be hard in heart shall be wicked in life and the Ministry of the word shall never reforme them And if any of you be such O that the Lord would make you tremble this day tremble lest you are not in Gods thoughts to doe you any good another day Fifthly when God doth give up men to strong delusions not onely to believe lies themselves but to teach lies to seduce others when the Lord leaves men to live and die in that estate the Scripture makes it an argument of them that are not chosen by God to life and glory You shall read therefore in that great delusion of Antichrist 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. God gave them up to strong delusions to believe lies that all might be damned that believe not the truth It is made a brand of damnation when God shall give them over to believe lies Though a godly man may die in a corrupt opinion for every errour is not a badge of damnation but errours that are fundamentall that strike at the foundation of Religion wherein men runne so far as never to repent of their errour that the Scripture makes the badge of a man whose soule is in a world of danger Read
nor shall his justice intrench upon his mercy one Attribute shall not clash with another he is no more mercifull then he is just nor is he more just then he is mercifull Secondly though God be a mercifull God yet Gods saving mercy is not so large as to extend to all creatures that live that he hath made You read Esay 27.11 This is a people of no understanding therefore hee that made them will not have mercy upon them and he that formed them will shew them no favour Here you see the Prophet tels them that that God that made them will damne them and that God that formed them that God will shew them no favour So that Gods mercy extends not so farre as to reach to all the works of his hands for if so the divels might claime salvation as well as man for God made them when they were glorious Angels as well as man and therefore if all the works of Gods hands should plead for salvation they might as well come within the compasse of Gods election as wicked men doe And thus you see in these severall Sermons I have finished the Doctrines of Effectuall Vocation and Eternall election I will now a little illustrate the point by laying down ten Propositions which will serve to cleare the Doctrine of Election in many points about it and so conclude First That all men are not the objects of Gods election or of Gods choice And this proposition doth confute the opinion of Origen Origen was of this mind that all mankind should be saved nay the very divels themselves they should all be saved by Christ A most groundlesse and unheard of opinion for all men are not elected to salvation Jude tels us in his Epistle there were some of old ordained to condemnation and if so surely they could not fall within the compasse of Gods election 1 Thes 5.9 There are some ordained to wrath but we are not amongst them saith the Apostle but we are ordained to obtaine salvation by Jesus Christ All are not objects of Gods election to life Secondly that the fewest sort of men and women that God hath made are the the objects of his election God in his own counsell hath elected to life and salvation the fewest sort of men and women in the world And this is a very dreadfull point Many are called but few are chosen Matth. 22.14 Rom. 11.5 A remnant according to the election of grace And here in pursuing this head I shall lay down two things under this proposition First that there are but few rich men chosen by God to life and salvation Secondly there are but few civill honest men chosen by God to life and salvation There are but few rich men that fall within the compasse of Gods purpose to save 1 Cor. 1.26 Not many mighty he doth not say not any but not many mighty not many Noble not many great ones of the world are chosen You read Matth. 19.24 That it is as easie for a Camell to goe thorough a Needles eye as for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of God As easie for a Camell It is not meant in this sence as some expound it That there was a gate in Hierusalem called the Needles eye a little and low gate which their Camels being laden could not goe through and therefore they must unload the burden and the Camell stoop before they could enter Some think Christs speech had relation to that Beza saith that instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Camel they read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cable which if untwisted may be put through the eye of a Needle but the knot is not untied but cut by this exposition But the words were a proverbiall speech among the Jewes who had this proverb amongst them that when any one spake things either unlikely or unprobable they would say This can be as easily done as a Camel can goe through a Needles eye And Christ alluding to this Proverb saith that rich men that dote upon their riches and cleave to their wealth and rather part with heaven and Christ and soule and all then part with their riches Christ makes it an unpossible thing for such rich men to come into heaven As I once told what Buchanan said lying upon his death-bed in a message to King James I am going to that place where few Kings come And beloved the speech is true for not many wise not many mighty not many Noble hath the Lord chosen Secondly few civill honest men doe fall within the compasse of Gods choyce to save Morall men that trust upon their civility and morall honesty and plain dealing few or none of these come to Heaven Publicans and Harlots shall come to Heaven before you Matth. 21.32 Whores and harlots believe in me when you doe not saith Christ Thirdly that though God in his own counsell hath determined or made choice but of the fewest number of men and women to life and salvation yet this doth no way intrench upon the mercy of God this doth no way lessen or impeach the mercy of God Men may think as if surely God had cast off all bowels and cast off all mercy What God make such a world of men as he hath done and save but a few of these Man might think as if God were a hard master that delighted in the destruction of man that had forgotten to be gracious such a hard charge will they be apt to lay upon God But now beloved that God hath elected so few a number to life this doth no way impeach the mercy of God And this I make appeare thus because God was bound to save none at all therefore you cannot challenge God either with unmercifulnesse or unfaithfulnesse if he should save none It was a meer act of his bounty and good will that he would save any Nay secondly there is that in man in the best of men that might justly provoke God not to save any And therefore if God save any it is of grace And this is a certain rule that God doth shew more mercy in saving of one then he would have done rigour of justice had he damned all As may be made plain by this comparison Suppose fourty men guilty of Rebellion were arraigned for their lives and were condemned to die by the Law if the Prince pardon foure of these forty he shewes more mercy in pardoning the foure then he doth rigour of justice in condemning the forty Why because the fact deserved death in all alike So it is with God every man upon earth deserves death and damnation if God cull out any of the masse of mankind to save them he shewes more mercy then he had done rigorous justice should he have destroyed all because he is bound to save none at all Fourthly God in electing a certain number to life doth it without foresight of any good works which he saw would be in them Indeed the Papists and Arminians joyn their
strength to maintaine this God say they foresaw men would believe in Christ and would be holy in their lives and therefore God did chuse them to life This you may remember I spent some time in overthrowing formerly and therefore pass it over now viz. That God did not chuse men to life with reference to any good works he foresaw in them This indeed is an undoubted truth All men whom God did elect to life he foresaw they would have good works in them but Gods foreseeing of this was not the cause for which God did elect them No the motive was his own will according to the pleasure of his own grace Rom. 9.11 and Rom. 11.5 A remnant are saved according to the election of grace for if it were of works grace is no more grace Were election upon foresight of good workes then it would follow that infants dying in infancy were not within the compasse of Gods election because an infant so dying could not performe any good works and so their case would be most miserable Besides we are not justified by actuall workes therefore not elected upon works foreseen Rom. 3.24 for there is the like reason of these two Fifthly That Gods election is so free that in chusing and electing men to life and salvation he doth not doe it for the sake of Jesus Christ himselfe Understand this well that therein you might both give Christ his due and God the father his due for mistake me not God doth save none but by Christ but God did elect men without reference to Jesus Christ as the motive of election meerly according to the purpose of his own will All modern and latter Divines lay down this for a truth that it was the meere pleasure and good will of God to man that was the motive of Gods electing us and not Christ Christ could not be the cause because he was the effect Now what is the effect cannot be the cause Gods love in electing mankind did produce Jesus Christ to be the meanes of our salvation and of bringing about Gods election therefore he being the effect of election cannot be the cause The cause of election was eternall but the merits of Christ were not so Again Christ was elected himselfe 1 Pet. 1.20 He was preordained of God before the World was Now he that was elected himself could not be the cause of our election Besides the elect are said to be given to Christ to be saved John 17.2 therefore he was not the cause of our election It is true the Scripture tels us Eph. 1.4 We are elected in Christ i. we are elected in Christ as a common person God first chose Christ and then believers in Christ as menbers of his body But God elects no man for Christs sake but man is chosen meerly of Gods bounty without reference to Jesus Christ And here Divines say Gods love in electing man to life was as free as if Christ had never died and it was so free that man was not beholding to Christ for his election and yet Christs sufferings were so full as if men were not bound to God for their election Thus they are pleased to expresse it And the reason why the Scripture speakes thâ—s that we are onely chosen in Christ not for Christ is to give God the Father his due in electing men to life that God did it meerly of his own grace and therein Gods love and favour is apparent to all the world that he did elect man without Christ as the motive of his election and yet Jesus Christ being come into the world he carries on our salvation and he is the cause of it though he was not the cause of Gods first thoughts in electing man to life 6. All men that are elected by God to life and salvation shall sooner or later before they die be called into a state of conversion and believing Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called and Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained to eternall life believed So that God the father in ordaining man to life hath ordained this also that before they die they shall be a converted and believing people and therfore men remaining unconverted uncalled unbelieving they are not the objects of Gods election Seventhly that God in chusing or electing men to life doth let his election runne ordinarily unto the meanest and unto the worst sort of men in the world men that have least naturall endowments lest morall excellencies least worldly gallantry ordinarily election runs that way God hath chosen the poore things of this world and things despised and things that are not hath he chosen 1 Cor. 1.27 Jam. 2.5 Hath not God chosen the poore of this world to be rich in faith Ordinarily the Lord chuseth poor and meane men that have no naturall or morall excellencies Hence it was that when Christ left the learned Pharisees and Doctors among the Jewes the ignorant and poore people they flocked after Jesus Christ they looked after Jesus Christ when the rich and great men of the world had no share in him Eighthly that a man may be an elect child of God and yet not expresse the fruit of his election in many yeeres here in the world and this is a very comfortable point An instance you have of this in Paul It is observable of Paul the Scripture tels us he was a chosen vessell Acts 9.15 and yet Paul lived many yeeres before the fruit of his election appeared in him Some Historians say Paul lived 37. the least say 30 yeers before the fruit of election appeared in him for he was converted the very yeere after Christs death and all the while before he did expresse fruit that was seemingly repugnant to an elect estate as if a man could not be an elect vessell that was so vile as he he was a blaspheme a persecuter injurious to the Church haled men to prison mad with rage against the professors of Jesus Christ Nay he was a man that had a hand in putting Steven the first Martyr to death So long he lived in a course of iniquity for 30. yeeres together and yet this man was an elect vessell then So the Thiefe upon the Crosse an elect child of God yet did not expresse the fruit of his election in repentance and conversion untill the last houre of his life So that I say a man may be an elect childe of God and yet not expresse the fruit of his election in his life for many yeeres Ninthly that God for the great love he beares to his elect that are in the world lets Reprobates and wicked men enjoy many mercies and outward deliverances for their sakes Mark 13.19 20. There shall be tribulation saith Christ such as was not from the beginning of the world nor shall be to the end thereof but for the elect sake those daies shall be shortned For his elect sake God did mitigate did shorten God did take away that trouble from them So Esa 1.9 Had
It is good to be sure and may not I much more say to you It is good to be sure of heaven it is good to be sure you are effectually called by Jesus Christ it is good to be sure that you are Christians in truth not in name only that you are Christians in Deed not in Profession only O it is good to make your Calling and Election sure Reas 3 Thirdly Christians should labour to assure this because the more assured you are of your Effectual Calling the more it wil heighten and increase your inward peace and comfort 1 Pet. 1.8 In whom believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakeable and full of glory It is verie observable that in all the Epistles of the New Testament where the Apostle speaks of their effectual calling to be Saints in the very next verse he salutes them with these words Grace and Peace be towards you 1 Cor. 1.2 You are called to be Saints Grace and peace be towards you Rom. 1 6 7. Called to be Saints grace and peace be multiplied towards you and so in everie Epistle besides to note that when a man is effectually called the more assurance he hath of his calling the more peace he hath in his own conscience It wil greaten your peace and greaten your inward comforts therefore you should labour after this assurance of your effectual Calling And thus having shewn you what Effectual Calling is and why you must give diligence to make this sure I now pass to a third Querie What are the Characters or discoveries whereby my soul may be assured that I am effectually called by Jesus Christ And in the dispatch of this I shal resolve it only by these two general heads First You may be assured of your effectual Calling if God hath taken that method with your souls which he doth ordinarily take with those whom he doth effectually call Secondly If the Lord hath wrought in you those saving effects or concomitants which do ordinarily accompanie those that are thus effectually called if these two things be done you may have a seal and assurance in your own hearts that you also are effectually called Beloved it is not for Ministers to flatter you there are among many in the world but few that are called among many that are called but few elected and therefore do not flatter your selves If upon trial you find you are not in the number of Gods Called ones go home and bewail your unregerierate and unconverted estate But before I can speak of this method I must first lay down some mistakes that are held by erroneous minds about the method God takes in calling a sinner home to himself A first mistake is of the Pelagians who hold this that a man is able to call and convert himself Now this opinion doth quite exclude and justle out God from having any hand therein they say A Christian is able to call and convert himself having only a general concurrence and assistance from God 2. Of the Arminians and they hold this That Effectual Calling consists only in moral perswasions and may be resisted by the person that is thus called and that a man being called into a state of grace may fall from his Calling and fall from his grace and so have no profit by his Calling at all which is a most uncomfortable opinion and surely God would never take this method in calling of his people 3. That of the Papists they say That God cals ordains a sinner to glorie but it is upon the foresight of his good works God foresaw how good and holie the man would be and therefore God would chuse and call him to glorie But this hath no ground from Scripture neither 4. That of the Familists and they hold this That Gods method in calling a sinner is not by the outward Ministrie of the word but it is by raptures and revelations and by divine inspirations and extraordinarie waies of working but this is not Gods usual method though God sometimes take this way as he did by Paul who was called this way after an extraordinarie manner Yet this is not Gods odinarie rule 5. There is another Mistake and that is of those who press a necessitie of such measures of legal horrour and terror upon the consciences of men else they can never be saved Sometimes Ministers have been so harsh now and then though indeed no such cause to blame them as is pretended yet sometimes lashes break out that men must be so and so humbled in such a measure and so long for duration Now this is not Gods method to press for measure but a great mistake about Gods manner of calling a sinner though I must confess this is the nearest of all the five to that rule God takes in calling a sinner to glorie Having thus laid down the mistakes 't is the easier now to find out the truth I come now to speak of that method God takes in calling a sinner And here I shall lay down a sixfold method in which God proceeds with those whom he doth effectually call which if he doth so with you you may go home with a seal upon your hearts that you are effectually called to grace and you shall one day come to glorie First When God goes about effectually to call a poor sinner into a state of grace he puts a clear light into his soul whereby he may see the hainous and aggravated nature of all his sins more then ever he did before Rom. 7.8 8 13. Paul tels you Before the commandment came he was alive and sin was dead that is before the power of the word came upon his conscience to convert him he was alive i e. he thought he was a good man and a just man and he thought sin was dead sin was destroied he never knew sin so sinful but when the commandment came sin revived and I died but when the word of God came with power upon my conscience and light upon my judgment then I saw I was a dead man sin had kild me and I saw sin was raigning and sin was raging in me and what then ver 13. I saw sin exceeding sinful he never saw sin so before conversion before his Call when he was a Pharisee but when the word of God came with power upon his conscience to call him then saith he I saw sin to be exceeding sinful Now O Beloved hath ever God done thus with your souls may be you look upon sin with a transient and general view but do you look upon sin so as to see more evil in sin then ever you saw before This is the course God usually takes Me thinks God deals with a converted sinner as it is spoken in Job 33.27 28. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it doth not profit me he will deliver his soul from going down into the pit and his life shall see the light that is God looks
a gainsaying heart thou hast a stout spirit against God thy heart is as hard as an Adamant as hard as the Rocks yet here is thy comfort all the gain-sayings of thy spirit and all the stubbornnesse of thy will it shall not be able to keep off converting mercy and shall not be able to keep off calling grace from thee When God hath an intent to call thee he will come with Power by his call and make thee do what he commands thee and make thee imbrace what he cals thee to Did not Jesus Christ use an operative call as well as a significative call no man in the world would ever be called And this is the reason that in hearing the same Sermon and following the same Preacher one man is converted the other is not The reason is this The call of the Ministry is onely a significative call of a Reprobate onely signifying what God would have him do But there is no power conveyed with the invitation to make the man able to do what Christ cals him to and therefore one is called the other is not Thus much in Answer to the first case Case 2 Secondly What temptations doth the Devil suggest to men who are uncalled that they should not give entertainment to or embrace the call of Jesus Christ unto grace and glory And in answer to this I shall lay down onely four suggestions of the Devil wherewith he entangles a man that he should not yeeld to the call of Jesus Christ And as I lay them down I shall labour to take them away As 1. The first temptation the Devil will suggest is to you that are young men and to you he will suggest that you are yet too young to imbrace the call of Jesus Christ 't will be time enough hereafter and you may do it soon enough hereafter you are too young now to be abridg'd of your pleasure and to mortifie your lusts and to betake your selves unto so serious a course as Christ cals you to and by this temptation the Devil prevails with young men more especially And I remember Austin saith that this temptation of the Devil made him keep off for seven years together from embracing the call of Jesus Christ the Devil would still tell him in his heart thou art too young to leave thy Drunkennesse and too young to leave thy Harlots till at last he cryed out How long shall I say it is too soon Why may I not repent to day This temptation I say it hath fastened upon many before you that they were too young to come in to Jesus Christ and to this end the Devil will suggest to you that old and false Proverb A young Saint and an old Devil Whereas indeed if you are young Devils you will be old Beelzebubs And therefore this being a suggestion prevailing with many hearts I shall lay down six considerations to take off this temptation that it may not prevail with you First If the Devil tempt you that you are yet too yong to hearken to Christs call consider That the Devil cannot give you a Lease of your lives if the Devil could give you a Lease of your lives and tell you you should live till old age you might then with more safety hearken to his temptation but your lives are not at the Devils disposal God is the Author of your life the issues of life and death are in his hands you may dye in youth and if you die in youth uncalled you may be damned as well as dead You may be as these men Job 36.14 That shall dye in their youth and their lives shall be among the unclean And therefore though the Devil tempt you that you are too young seeing he cannot assure you of your lives you have no reason to hearken to his temptation Secondly Suppose the Devil could assure you you should live till old age yet take this consideration that in putting off your calling and the work of conversion from your youth this may so provoke God that he may harden your hearts in your old dayes that you shall have no heart to think of and imbrace the call and invitation of Jesus Christ Jer. 22.21 I spake to thee in thy prosperity but thou wouldst not hear and this hath been thy manner from thy youth Thou wouldst not obey my voyce God spake but they would not hear and it was from their youth that they did thus therefore God would never speak more God hardened their hearts that they should never receive or imbrace the call of Jesus Christ So Isa 6.9.10 Seeing the Jewes from their youth were obstinate against the word of God Go saith God make their ears heavy and their hearts fat and their eyes blind that they should not be called and converted and I should save them Let this therefore be a second consideration that the putting off your call till your old age may so provoke God as never to give you hearts to imbrace his call Thirdly Suppose all this that you could have a Lease of your lives and you could be assured that when you come to old age your hearts should not be hardened yet consider this that the more sinful and evil the dayes of your youth have been the more disquietness of mind and horror of conscience will this breed in you when you are old though you should be called and converted by Jesus Christ Job 13.24 25 26. Thou hidest thy face thou holdest me as thy Enemy Thou dost drive me as a leaf to and fro and thou dost pursue me like dry stubble Now why doth Job complain thus Mark the next words For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth Job when he was a young man it seems he was a wicked man and had many sins in his youth and this in his old age made him cry out and say that God took him for his Enemy and that God brake him like a leaf driven with the wind O beloved the sins of your youth though you should be Jobs converted yet they wil bring great disquietness and great horror when you come to age the lusts of youth and the vanities of youth and the sensual pleasures of your youthful dayes they will lay a foundation of sorrow when you come to gray hairs to be neare your graves so Job 20.11 And therefore put the case you should repent and should be called when you are old you have no cause to put off the call of Jesus Christ seeing sins of youth will fill you with horror and disquietness of mind Hence it is that David after he was call'd by the power of the word cryes out Psal 25. Lord remember not the sins of my youth that gravelled and gall'd his conscience the sins of his youth before his call Quae fuerunt inaenia juventut is gaudia haec sunt acerba senectutis gravamina It is the speech of an Author that to look on the pleasurable vanities
though they wanted these poor outward comforts they did not want Christs comfort and Christs graces and therefore when they had neither purse scrip nor shoos they wanted nothing Why O Beloved if you were of the temper of these gracious Disciples you would say so too that if you can find a grounded and real interest in Christ though you want many of the Comforts of this world you will say you want nothing Wanted yee any thing and they said Nothing 5. You that make povertie and persecution a plea Consider this that the poor are ordinarily the most people that Jesus Christ doth cal to imbrace his Gospel The poor receive the Gospel saith Christ and blessed are you that are not offended at it Not many wise not many noble are called but the poor things of the world hath God chosen 1 Cor. 1.26 And in James God hath chose the poor of this world to be rich in faith Do not therefore Beloved make this a plea to keep off from Christ because ordinarily they are the people Christ pitcheth most love upon and doth delight to make them rich in grace who are poor in goods 6. Consider That if upon this ground you refuse the call of Iesus Christ you are exposed to more Povertie and to worse persecution then ever you could be exposed to in the entertaining of Christ In the following of Christ you are only exposed to an outward povertie but in neglecting the cal of Christ you are exposed to be poor in faith and to be such a beggar as not to be endowed with one dram of grace and then you are beggars indeed As we say he is a poor man that God hates he that hath not Christ and hath not the treasures of heaven in him he is exposed to worse povertie a thousand times then he can be for embraceing the cal of Iesus Christ Rev. 3.17 Yea and he is exposed to worse persecution also that for fear of persecution neglects Iesus Christ Psal 83.5 The Lord will persecute them saith David with furie and wrath speaking of wicked men All persecution from man reaches but to the body but this from God reacheth to the soul 7. And then lastly This should not hinder you from following Iesus Christ considering that though you should be poor and should be persecuted yet heaven wil make you amends for al Heb. 11.35 Heavē wil make amends for poverty when you are indowed with all the riches of Christ and Heaven wil make amends for persecution when there the weary shal be at rest and there the troubled shal be at ease And thus much be spoken of the third suggestion of the Devil that if you entertain the cal of Jesus Christ you shal be exposed to much poverty and persecution here in the world SERMON VI. 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure THe Doctrine I am yet upon is this That Christians ought to put forth a great deal of diligence to make this sure to their souls that they are effectually called by Jesus Christ In the prosecution of which I have resolved one case of conscience and am yet upon the second case namely what suggestions the Devil doth use to keep men off from imbracing the call of Jesus Christ I have laid down and answered three already 4. Now there is one suggestion more when the Devil sees neither of these wil take place then he comes in with a fourth to disswade men from imbracing the call of Christ and that is this Why saith the Devil if you will entertain the call of Christ you will abridge your selves of all the joy and comfort of your lives you will never have merry daies while you live upon earth You see men that pretend to be converted and do hear Sermons what lumpish and melancholy men they are not so jocund and jolly as others are that walk not so precisely if you follow Christ and his Gospel this wil casheer all your merry daies and this wil put you into a sad temper all your jovial daies are gone Therefore to take off this aspersion that the wais of Christ are sad and melancholy waies which hath been an aspersion that from age to age generation to generation hath been as a Gin the Devil hath used to keep men from Christianity And I remember it is one of the great Engines Antichrist useth to support and uphold his Kingdome The Papists to deter men from Christianity and the Protestant Religion they would hold their Disciples in hand with this that the spirit of a Calvinist is a sad and lumpish spirit and therefore they would disswade all Nations from turning to their Religion and this the Priests were to tel in all the Churches of Rome how sad and melancholy they were that turned to the Calvinists Religion and this did mightily stay the people from imbracing the truth And this aspersion hath passed from hand to hand and is many times prevalent upon the spirits of men that are of the true Religion that they must not be too forward in the practice of Religion fearing lest this should work melancholy and sad thoughts in them Now to take off this I shal onely urge four or five heads briefly First Whereas you say they are melancholy and sad that are called by Christ to a profession of his waies I would answer thus That they of all people in the world have most cause of mirth and gladnes and they are the most truly joyful people in the world That they have most cause of rejoycing is apparent When the Disciples came triumphing that they could cast out Devils heal the diseased and work Miracles O but saith Christ Rejoyce not in this but rejoyce that your names are written in the book of Life Luke 10.20 As much as if Christ should say All the indowments and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit they are no such grounds of joy if you had them all but here is your joy and cause of rejoycing that your names are written in the book of Life that you are in Christ and your souls shal be saved And so Paul tels us Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alwaies again I say rejoyce The Apostle would not speak it to them with a single command but doubles his expression to shew that they that are people that have their sins pardoned that have their souls reconciled that have a Title to glory whose names are written in the book of Life these of all men in the world have most cause of joy and gladness And they have not onely most cause but they do most truly rejoyce and have more real joy in their hearts in one day then the wicked can have all their lives 1 Pet. 1.8 They rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory What joy you have in the world the tongue is able to speak of it but the tongue is not able to speak of that inward joy that godly men have in their hearts
upon the apprehension of the interest they have in Jesus Christ Psal 4.6 Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance And Thou shalt put more gladness in mine heart c. Prov. 14.13 A good conscience is a continual feast Men are never more merrie then when they are at a feast godly men they carry clear consciences about them and that makes them as ioyous and pleasant as if they were alwaies at a great and sumptuous feast Indeed this is true they do not rejoyce with such exorbitancies of joy as wicked men do Wicked men rejoyce in sin that they cannot do wicked men rejoyce in their lusts in their drunkenness and their adulteries and waies of sin that godly men dare not do Such a rejoycing as this is the foundation of sorrow This rejoycing like the Prodigal in a riotous course of living is the foundation of sorrow and wil meet with you when you are to die Secondly Grant this should be true yet consider that this sorrow that godly people have it is such a sorrow that they shal have no cause to repent thereof but it is a foundation of future joy to them 2 Cor. 7.9 10. I rejoyce saith the Apostle in that I have made you sorrowful What rejoyce to see them a sad people Yes for the sorrow I made you sorrowful with was a sorrow never to be repented of you wil never repent of that sorrow and therefore Paul would do it Psal 126. because it was a sorrow never to be sorrowed for nay it is not only such a sorrow as is not to be repented of but it is a sorrow that laies a foundation to a great deal of future joy They that sow in tears shall reap in joy But now all the joy of wicked men is a joy to be repented of They must repent of all their jovial bouts and repent of all their merrie pastimes this wil be sadness to their remembrance wheras the sorrow of the godly is ne'er to be sorrow'd for Thirdly It is true it may be they are sorrowful but they are sorrowful for sin which you have cause to be that are uncalled as wel as they and more Now if a godly man be sorrowful for sin this wil never prejudice him Indeed Worldly sorrow brings forth death saith the Apostle but godly sorrow brings forth salvation never to be repented of Fourthly It may be they are sorrowful but how is it They are not sorrowful because they are good but they are sorrowful because they are so bad It is not profession makes them sorrowful but it is because they can profess Christ no better and profess him no more zealously this is their sorrow and this sorrow should be in all of us that we can serve God no better and bring God no more glory Fifthly They are sorrowful but it is not for themselves but for thee they are not sorry because they are good but because thou art so bad they are sorry because of thy sins because they see thee an uncalled man stil and they see thee drunk and see thee profane and see thee dishonour God and damn thy soul and this makes them more sad then they would be Lot his righteous soul was vext within him for the wickednesse of the Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.8 And Jeremiah his eyes run down with tears for the iniquity of the people he lived amongst And so Paul I told you before and now tell you weeping there are wicked livers among you that walk not according to the truth Phil. 3.17 18. Paul did not weep because he was miserable but because he saw so many wicked and abominable in their lives So David Psal 119.136 Mine eyes run down with water because men keep not thy Law Ezek. 9.4 And lastly Though you see some men sad and melancholy yet think not ill of the waies of God because this way of all other doth most invite to joy and gladness in the Lord. Rejoyce evermore and again I say rejoyce Phil. 4.4 And John 16. These things I speak saith Christ that your joy might be full In the profession and following of Christ it is the intendment of Christ to give you more joy then ever you had before there is no such cause therefore to entertain a prejudice by the Divels temptation against the waies of Jesus Christ when he cals you to professe his Gospel And thus much be spoken to the second case of conscience in reference to wicked men There is a third case touching men uncalled and that is What delusions doth the Divell deceive hypocrites by to make them nourish presumptuous perswasions that they are effectually called when they are not And I intreat you give me your attentions a little in the dispatch of this material question I shall only lay down four Delusions whereby the Divel deceives many Delus 1. The Divel may delude men by this because they do delight to hear the word preacht therefore the Divel would egg on this perswasion surely your delighting to hear the word and your following of Sermons this must needs be an evidence of your effectual calling And here the Divel would misapply Scripture as John 8.47 He that heareth not my words saith Christ is not of God he that is of God heareth my words Now here thâ— Divel would misapply this Scripture and tel you you that hear Gods word and delight to hear Sermons this can be no other then an infallible evidence of your effectual calling Now I beseech you to follow me in the taking off this delusion and shewing you wherein and in what cases this wil prove but a broken reed unto you And I shall shew you that in five cases hearing the word of God with delight is no evidence of effectual calling but may be a meer delusion of Satan As 1. If your hearing the word be but a bare hearing and not a hearing with practice if you have not practice joyned with what you hear and know your thus hearing the word with delight is no evidence of your effectual calling Ezek. 33.31 They come before thee as my people cometh thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voyce as one that can play well upon an instrument of musick Here the Lord sets forth with what delight they heard Ezekiel preach they heard him as a man that had a very lovely voice and they heard him as a man that plaied upon an Instrument of Musick much delight they took in hearing Yet saith God they hear thy words but do them not Beloved though you take as much delight in hearing a Sermon as to hear the most melodious musick a cunning hand can make yet if you barely hear with delight not joyning practice with your hearing this is no evidence of effectual calling Hence it is James saith James 1.21 Be not hearers of the word only but doers also lest you deceive your own souls Implying that you wil deceive your souls about effectual calling
impossible and therefore in that we are commanded and bound to do it it is clear that it is possible and may be made sure Secondly Because it is the office of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to work this particular assurance in the hearts of those that are effectually called that they are in the state of grace and shall be brought to glory 1 Cor. 2.12 We have received not the spirit of this world but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God 1 John 5.10 He that believeth he hath a witnesse in himselfe a witnesse to his own soul that he doth believe Eph. 1.13 14. There the Spirit is called a Seal you are sealed by the Spirit of Promise and verse 14. It is called the earnest of our inheritance Now a seal and earnest is to give more assurance to a Promise and here the Spirit of God is given to Believers as a Seal and earnest-Penny that as they have the first fruits in grace they shall have their harvest in glory 1 John 4.13 Hereby we know we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us his Spirit It is the office of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to assure our hearts in this particular Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth witnes with our spirits that we are the children of God Thirdly Particular servants of God in Scripture that have been partakers of this mercy they have had this firm assurance of their effectual calling I shall instance in three First in Paul and the Scripture tells us of him that he had a clear evidence of his effectual calling Gal. 2.20 I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me who loved me and gave himself for me There he had a particular assurance that Christ loved him and gave himself for him So 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded also that what I have committed to him he will keep till the last day So 2 Tim. 4.8 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is a Crown laid up for me Nay not onely Paul but Job also Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and I shall stand up before him at the last day he knew Jesus Christ was his Redeemer And so David also saith Thou art my God and I will praise thee Psal 118.28 and Psal 23.6 Surely the goodnesse and merey of God shall follow me all the dayes of my life So that put these together God commands it it is the spirits office to work assurance in the heart and particular servants of God have had this assurance therefore why may it not be obtained But if you say these were not ordinary servants of God these were servants of a higher rank and form but may ordinary weak Christians know this also Yes Therefore Fourthly Not only particular Saints have had this but the people of God in General they have declared in Scripture that they have injoyed this particular assurance of their effectual Calling and safety of their condition by Christ Instance in a few Isa 63.16 Doubtlesse thou art our Father They made no doubt of it they were so perswaded they feared it not Isa 45.24 Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousnesse and strength Surely a word of confidence they were assured they had righteousnesse for their justification in Christ Jesus So 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God eternal in the heavens They knew that when they died they should see God in heaven not only Paul but other godly Christians with him So Heb. 10.34 You know in your selves that God hath provided for you a better and more induring substance They were assured within themselves that when they should die or lose their estates here God had provided for them a more enduring substance So 1 John 3.19 Hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before God So verse 14. We know we are translated from death to life c. So that what can be more clearly proved then this that this assurance is to be attained in this life because God commands it it is the spirits office to work it particular Christians have had it and the people of God in general they have enjoyed and profest this Temper Vse Is it so then that assurance is attainable in this life Then how much to blame are our adversaries the Papists who hold their followers in suspense that they must live without the assurance of their own estate that their soules must hang in feares and doubts all their dayes that the most they can have is only a conjecture oh into what a gulph of discomforts do they plunge them Beloved the Lord in the Book of Deuteronomy chap. 29. did pronounce it as a curse that their lives should hang in suspense it 's a greater curse that mens souls should hang in suspense that men shall not know whether they shall be saved or damned it 's a hell on this side hell and therefore they are much to be blamed that hold their followers in hand with a peradventure they shall be saved peradventure not when the Scripture is so clear in this thing Secondly Let not the thoughts either of the impossibility or the difficulty of attaining this assurance discourage you from looking after it It is not impossible though it is difficult indeed and the difficulty should be so farre from discouraging you that it should quicken your endeavours to make your calling and election sure Thirdly Seeing assurance is attainable in this life inquire into the cause why you who are effectually called have not attained this assurance before now And this puts me upon handling of the second case of conscience seeing this assurance is attainable Therefore Answ Secondly what is the reason that many Christians who are called effectually by Jesus Christ do live in many doubts and feares about their effectual calling Doubt In answer to this I shall lay down these three particulars that the doubts that do arise in Christians about their calling they flow from this threefold fountain Either first from some seeming defect they apprehend in the manner of their calling Or Secondly some seeming defect they apprehend to be in the meanes of their calling Or else Thirdly some seeming defects they apprehend in the effects of their calling and these three grounds are the rise from whence many Christians effectually called do doubt of their call and are not assured of it First It doth arise from some seeming defect they apprehend to be in the manner of their calling They say I am not called in such a manner as I see others are As thus Think they I see other men when they are converted that their humiliations are great I see that they have horror of conscience that they are wrought upon by the terrors of the law
and that first wrought upon me Or saith a third It may be if it was the Word it was the Word preached by a wicked man that is now turned either erroneous in judgement or prophane in practice and this occasioneth a great deal of Jealousie The Word preacht by the mouth of a godly Minister is Gods ordinary way but I was altogether out of this way and therefore this doth make him suspect the truth of his effectual calling Now Beloved I beseech you lend me your thoughts a little for I would fain make this Doctrine as comfortable to every called one as I can I shall speak of all these in order and shew you that put case either of these have been the means of thy calling yet thou hast no reason to doubt of thine effectual calling First thou suspectest thy call because the meanes hath been sayest thou not by hearing a Sermon or the Word preacht but by living among good Christians and seeing their example and their living thou camest by this meanes to love the wayes of God and this was the first meanes that converted thee Beloved I doubt not but I speak to a great many that cannot say a Sermon ever converted them but onely that they were gained to Gods wayes to imbrace the truth this way now what shall I say to such men as these why I would say thus much that though the Lord did not use his Word preached the ordinary meanes of converting soules in calling thee yet God is not tied and bound up to his Word preacht but he may use other meanes to convert thy soule Secondly and more particularly that living among good people and seeing of their example both in life and worship we finde in Scripture to be a very efficacious means oftentimes to convince sometimes to convert and if you can finde out this in Scripture you may have abundance of comfort It hath been a meanes oftentimes to convince 1 Pet. 3.16 They shall be ashamed to speak evill of you while they behold your conversation in Christ When they shall see that you live in Christ and walk according to Christ they shall be ashamed ashamed of what they have done and what they have spoken it shall convince them So 1 Pet. 2.15 And the Apostle when he speaks of the orderly and regular managing the worship of God 1 Cor. 14.24 25. If there comes an unbeliever among you he sees your order saith he he shall fall down in the midst of you he shall be convinced and shall say Of a truth God is among you Seeing this saith the Apostle godly men holy in their lives and holy in their worship though he be an unbeliever he shall fall down and say Of a truth God is among you that is by way of conviction Nay further sometimes God doth blesse the gracious lives and blamelesse example of Christians to be a means to convert some when the Gospel cannot do it and you would think this very comfortable could it be made good I would commend but one Text of Scripture to you to prove what a blessing it is to live in a good family where either husband or wife or any one in the family is godly 1 Pet. 3.1 Wives be subject to your husbands what then that your husbands who are not wonne by the Word may be wonne without the Word whilest they behold the conversation of their wives A notable text There were many wicked Husbands that all the Sermons they heard would not convert them yet the Apostle tells them that if the wife did live a godly and holy life their lives sometimes should be more efficacious to convert their Husbands then the Word should be And this Beloved doth clearly take off this first plea of yours that because you were converted by example and by living among good Christians and seeing their walkings this gained upon you this is no cause of discouragement because sometimes I say the Lord doth blesse examples of gracious lives to make them winne and gain upon men that are brought home to Jesus Christ Secondly they go yet further There is another poore soul brought home to Jesus Christ and what saith he I do misdoubt the means of my call for a Sermon never wrought upon me the first thing of all that ever gained upon me it was the reading of some Chapters in the Bible or some other holy mans book and that made me first to hate sin and love the wayes of God and look after his Word for my salvation And here I doubt not but many Christians have found the Word read the first means of gaining upon their hearts And therefore to take off this likewise I shall speak two or three things in way of Answer As First that God is not tied to any means but can work with the meanest means to bring home people to Jesus Christ If Peters conversion was by a Cock a Cock crowing and a look of Christs eye why may not Christ use the Scriptures read to be a means of a mans call If from stones God can raise up children to Abraham why cannot God do it by the Word also to make the Word read a means in his own hands to effect it God that can do all things with nothing without means can bring to passe great things by weak means Secondly and more particularly That though ordinarily preaching and hearing of the Word preached be ordained by God and crowned by him chiefly to be a means instrumental to convert souls yet God sometimes hath blessed the reading of the Word to be a means of converting souls likewise Yet Beloved I would not do as the Prelates did who would fain have brought in reading to justle out preaching Preaching is the more noble work and must be highest in our thoughts yet if God will go out in an unusual way who can controll him If God will do it by a Chapter read when not by a Sermon preached who can resist God if he will shew his power by weaker means Who shall gainsay it God sometimes honours the reading of the Word to give encouragement to reading to be a means of some mens call I have read of S. Austin that he was converted not by hearing a Sermon but by opening the Bible and reading that place Rom 13.13 Let us walk honestly as in the day time not in rioting and drunkennesse not in chambering and wantonnesse and the reading of this verse wrought upon him I have read of Cyprian that he was converted by reading the Prophecie of Jonas hearing of Gods mercy to save such a wicked people and of Gods mercy to Jonas when he was in so pettish a mood as to be angry with God I have known likewise another famous Minister that going by a Book-binders shop he was converted by reading a Sermon of Repentance that cost but two pence hath bin a famous Minister since for the conversion of many hundreds to Jesus Christ Junius was converted by reading the first
eclipse your comforts to you Nothing in the world doth so impede your comfort in assurance as incumbring and carking cares about the things of this world Thirdly Take heed you do not harbour the guilt of any one known sin upon your conscience Keeping of sin upon the conscience is a great impediment to your inward comforts You will never be assured while you do thus and therefore if ever you would have assurance remove this It is an observation of Mr Hildersham upon Psal 51.12 14. What doth David do when he prayes for assurance saying Restore to me the joyes of thy salvation establish me with thy free Spirit Restore my comforts and my evidences to me And what course doth he take Read verse 14. Deliver me from blood-guiltinesse O Lord. As much as if he should say All the while that sin lay upon conscience unrepented of as it did for nine monthes together all that while David lost the joyes of the Spirit and lost the comforts of Heaven And therefore when he comes to renew his comforts and restore his assurance he doth with begging of God for assurance beg of God also to deliver him from blood-guiltinesse as knowing that if this sin should be upon conscience unrepented of and unpardoned he should never have the joyes of Gods Spirit restored Beloved you will never have assurance of your effectual calling till your consciences are freed from having sin upon them with approbation It is an observation that Aristotle hath about earth-quakes that they are occasioned by reason of winde got into the Caverns and hollow places of the earth which having no place for vent again it makes ruptures and overturnes houses and mountaines and all before it Sin upon the conscience unrepented of is like winde in the earth it will make a heart quake there that there shall not be that calmnesse and quietnesse and setlednesse of minde which there would be were sinne away Hence we read Esa 33.16 The sinners in Sion are afraid and fearfulnesse hath surprised the Hypocrite The sinners are afraid those who had guilt upon them their sins bred terrour and seare and hypocrites that are conscious to themselves of their own guilt fearfulnesse surprizeth them but the upright and sincere in heart were not so To note that this is a great enemy to inward peace and to assurance about your everlasting estate if so be you harbour sin upon the conscience unrepented of And it is just with God it should be so because if you keep sin in your hearts that will be ever jarring with heaven it is just with God to be at oddes with you Fourthly Avoid the casting of your eye in a way of dejection upon others who are more eminent in grace then you and have got a precedencie of you in the wayes of godlinesse 'T is true indeed a man that is given to spiritual pride and selfe-conceitednesse touching his own goodnesse it is fit that he should look upon those that have a precedencie before him in grace the more to humble him But for a man that lies under trouble of minde and doubtings touching his everlasting estate that man should not look upon others more eminent then he in grace because it will rather increase discomforts then any way work assurance in you If you look upon the glittering beames of the Sun shining in its full strength the more you look upon that orient and resplendent body the more it will dazle your eyes that you can behold but dimly things upon the earth It is so with Christians some Christians they shine like so many Suns in the firmament their graces do so shine and sparkle that if you look upon them they will even dazle your eyes and make you blinde that you cannot see those small scantlings and sparks of grace that are in your own hearts In case therefore you would get assurance avoid the casting of your eye too much upon those that have a precedencie in grace before you Fifthly Take heed you make not sense and feeling the Touchstone to try your effectual calling by sense and feeling will deceive you in the matters of your calling I may allude to that passage in the book of Genesis you know old Isaac was dimme-sighted and by reason of his old age he ran into a mistake by feeling He had Jacob by the hand and by feeling thought it had been Esau Beloved many of us are dimme-sighted in our comforts and in our graces and if we trust to feeling we may be deceived as Isaac was You may think when you have Jacob by the hand I mean grace in the heart that it is but an Esau it is but a reprobate Therefore take heed of making sense and feeling the Touchstone to try your calling by A childe is born yet knowes not that it is born lives yet knowes not that it lives but those about it do so a Christian may be born again live the life of grace and yet not be sensible of it Sixthly Give diligence to remove this hinderance to wit Pride in your gifts and dependance upon your graces Pride and dependance they are not onely murderers of comforts but they murder our graces also and if God sees you swell with pride because you abound in grace he will soon prick that swelling bladder It is the observation of a Modern Divine that exaltings of spirit after assurance attained it will inevitably expose a Christian either to great discomforts or to great sins Hence the Scripture makes mention that Pride of your gifts is not onely an enemy to comfort but an enemy to grace not onely an enemy to the comforts from grace but to the very having of grace Hab. 2.4 If a mans heart be exalted his spirit is not upright within him James 4.6 God resists the proud Job 40.7 and gives grace to the humble So that pride is not onely an enemy to your comforts but to the very getting of grace likewise when the branches of a vine grow luxuriant they shall have the pruning hook And thus you have the first sort of helps laid down to you In case you would get assurance you must use diligence to avoid those things that may be a hinderance to you in getting assurance of your call Secondly A second sort of helps in case you would get assurance is to use diligence in the practice of those things that may be helps and furtherances to the obtaining of assurance about your effectual calling And here I shall name onely six or seven particulars First Exalt arguments of faith against present feelings If so be that you will once enter the lists to dispute with the devil he will out-cavill you and Non-plus you The devil is a cunning Logician and it is not safe saith Dr Preston to argue with the devil the devil will out-dispute and out-argue you It is a Christians work to exalt arguments of Faith against present feelings In case you would get assurance you are to do as Abraham
run to the worst of men that are in the world And this should be great comfort to you though you have been drunkards and though you have been Sabbath breakers and adulterers and though you have been profane yet if you can but now close in with Jesus Christ and looke after heaven if you can but now mourn over your condition and repent of your former failings and come in to Jesus Christ Election hath runne unto men as bad as you and though you may be now men profane in your lives yet you may be objects of Gods election SERMON XIV 2 PETER 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure THe last Doctrine I drew from these words was this That Christians should put forth a great deale of diligence to make this sure to their soules that they are eternally elected by God to life and glory In the prosecution of which I have gone over some queries There are four difficulties or queries I am further to insist upon in treating of this point As namely First whether this election be universall or no Secondly whether a man that is once elected by God to salvation may come to be damned yea or no Thirdly whether God in electing a man to life and glory doth it out of any foresight of faith or any other grace he sees in man And fourthly whether this doctrine of election that God in his own counsell hath determined who shall be damned and who saved doth not take men off from any endeavours after their own salvation to make them desperate and neglect the use of means that they shall say if I shall be damned I shall be damned and if saved I shall be saved let me live as I list whether this doctrine will favour this desperate conclusion yea or no First whether election be universall or no This is that the Arminians and Papists doe mightily drive at And here they lay down this conclusion which they make unquestionable That there is such a thing as a certain universall election of God without limitation or restraint of persons whereby God did determine to save all mankind by Christ who were fallen in Adam This opinion was first drawn from Origen who held that all creatures should be saved and the Papists and Arminians mincing the matter to make it a little more plausible then he did they say that God in his purpose did intend to save all mankind by Jesus Christ but man falling away and walking contrary to their principles the defect lies in them that they are not saved and this Divines call universall redemption Now against this I shall lay down severall Scriptures and then take off the objections that seems to strengthen this opinion First for Scriptures In the Epistle of Jude vers 3. you read of some that were ordained of old to condemnation Therefore sure all could not be saved 1 Thes 5.9 Some men are appointed to wrath but we to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ Therefore all men could not be within the purpose of Gods first intention to save Matth. 22.14 Many are called but few are chosen So Rom. 11.7 The Jewes did not obtaine what they sought for but the elect obtained it and the rest were hardned 2 Tim. 2.20 There are vessels of honour and vessels of dishonour The Scripture makes it a discriminating act in God that some he chose to life and others from eternity in his councell he chose to wrath and condemnation And these Scriptures will fully overthrow this opinion And indeed the very word chusing confutes it which intimates a taking of some with an overlooking of others But now let us view a little the Arguments or Scriptures they abuse to strengthen this unsound opinion of theirs One is 1 Cor. 15.22 As in Adant all died even so in Christ shall all be made alive Now say they Every man did die in Adam every mothers child by Adams fall became subject to death even so in Christ shall every man be made alive the Lord did intend that every man should have benefit by Jesus Christ Now to take off this I shall answer it in shewing you the true intent and scope of this Scripture This universall phrase of making alive hath not reference to the saving of the soule but to the resurrection of the body And so the sence is this That as in Adam by vertue of his sinne every man came to die a naturall death So in Christ shall all be made alive that is so by Christs power shall every man rise from the dead And if you aske how I make that appeare to be the intendment of the Text. I answer the words themselves will make it plaine Vers 11. It is said By man came death by man also came the resurrection from the dead that is as by that man Adam came death so by that man Christ shall come the resurrection from the dead for as in Adam all died c. so that here you see this is brought in as a proofe of the 21. verse Intimating that this being made alive hath no reference to the life of the soule but onely to the Resurrection of the body that as Adam by his sinne brought death to all men so Christ by his power shall raise all men from the dead every man in his own order However should this be granted that this making alive should have reference to the life of the soul it would beare no more but this that all that are damned are damned as in Adams loynes and all that are saved shall be saved as in the loynes of Jesus Christ And so make nothing at all to prove this which they call universall election Another Scripture undeniable they think is Rom. 11.32 where it is said God hath concluded all men under unbeliefe that he might have mercy upon all Now say they If God did doe an act to make men see their unbeliefe and did intend by this action to have mercy upon all then God in his counsell intended to save all Now to this that he might have mercy upon all I answer This phrase all is not to be taken in an unlimited sence as if he would have mercy upon all mankind but it is to be taken in a restrained sence that God shut up all men in unbeliefe that is God made all believers see their own misery that he might have mercy on all them that believe And if you ask how I prove this to be the meaning of the Text I answer The Scripture makes it cleare Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all men under sinne The very words fore-quoted But what 's the limitation Shall all men be saved No. For mark the next words The Scripture hath concluded all men under sinne that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ should be given to them that believe Now though Paul doth not say thus to the Romans yet the words being the same the Restriction holds good in both
spirituall As now for instance God hath determined from all eternity how long every one of us shall live in the world our daies are numbred in his counsell Now though God hath determined how long we shall live this no way gives us encouragement to say therefore I will never put on a rag of cloathes to cover me in Winter and I will never put a morsell of meat in my mouth for God hath determined how long I shall live and therefore whether I eate or no till then I shall not die Again God hath determined from all eternity touching every one of us whether we shall be poore or rich in this world and therefore to draw this conclusion that it is no matter whether I be industrious in following my calling and looking after my trade or whether I spend my estate in rioting and drunkennesse God hath determined whether I shall be rich or poore if he hath decreed I shall be poore I shall be poore or that I shall be rich I shall be rich let me live as I please this reasoning is very fond and foolish in Temporall things therefore much more in Spirituall God hath determined from all eternity whether thou shalt be saved or damned and the decree of God cannot be changed but now to draw hence that it is no matter how I live whether in waies of holinesse or in waies of sinne this is an abusive collection from Gods decree Because as Dr. Preston saith if a man doth not use those means that may evidence to his soule that he is elected it is an argument he is not elected If thou say if God hath determined it he will save me whether I am holy or prophane and therefore I will never heare Sermon never pray in my family never use holy duties Saith Preston if thou neglect these means it is an argument thou art not elected because as God hath elected thee to the end he hath also ordained thee to use the means I have read a story of an Italian who lying upon his death-bed sent for a Physician the most exquisite and exact Artist in all Italy and this man held this opinion I am now speaking of that seeing Gods decrees were unalterable a man might live as he list and yet be saved that let a man be as holy as he could be if God had decreed his damnation he should be damned and let a man be never so wicked if God have decreed his salvation hee should be saved and that the decree of God tooke off the use of all means that a man need not use any meanes but onely trust in God The Physician being a man acquainted in the mysteries of Religion after he had asked him the state of his body and where the disease lay the party desiring him to prescribe some phisick the Phisician gave him this answer saith he God hath determined how long you shall live therefore if I give you physick if God hath determined you shall die you shall die for all that and if he hath decreed you shall live though I give you no physick yet you shall live And this answer saith the Historian took such place with the Italian that it converted him in this very principle and he became a man very diligent in following the means of grace upon this very saying And indeed a just grounded speech it is This therefore is my first answer that if such reasonings as these in temporall things are unreasonable they are much more in spirituall Secondly to you that make this plea I would say this That at that very same instant wherein God did decree or determine to bring any man to life at that very instant God did decree likewise that that man should be holy before hee died he shall use all sanctified and holy means conducible to his salvation Rom. 8.29 Whom he did predestinate them he did predestinate to be conformable to the Image of his sonne God the Father in that very decree wherein he did ordain man to life did ordaine that those men elected should live conformable to Jesus Christ Ephes 1.4 He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world was laid that we should be holy and blamelesse before him in love God did decree that our lives should be holy he ordaines holinesse as the means as well as heaven as the end So Ephes 2.10 God hath created us in Christ Jesus unto good works which he hath before ordained that we should walke in them 2 Thes 2.13 God before the world was at that very instant wherein he ordained and chose men to life did also ordaine that men should live a holy and blamelesse life here upon earth Now then for men to make this objection that seeing God hath decreed men to life therefore men may live as they list is absurd for if men doe live as they list it is an argument God did not decree them to life because God in decreeing men to life and salvation did decree they should walk in a course of sanctification and holy living in this world Thirdly suppose this should be taken for granted that God had decreed to damne thee or me that God in his purpose had appointed he would not save us yet God as a Creator deserves thy service God as Creator may lay claime to thy duties Though God should condemne us yet he making us deserves obedience and deserves duties of thankfulnesse from us And therefore under this notion onely though no other consideration be looked after this should engage you to righteous living and this should engage you in a way of duties though he never save you Adam though he never should come to heaven being in innocency yet being made and created by God was engaged to live a holy life And so it is with every man alive as we are creatures and have a being from God and the comforts of this life from God all this doth oblige us to a course of obedience and righteous living toward God though he should throw us into hell when we have done And thus much for resolving the fourth Query that the decree of God touching mans election to life doth no way give encouragement to men to live as they list upon the forementioned grounds I now passe to the fifth Query Fifthly what temptations doth the divell suggest into the minds of godly men to make them doubt within themselves that they are not elected by God when indeed they are to make them thinke they are reprobate silver when they are vessels of honour meet for their Masters use Happily I may speak to some whose spirits are perplexed in this case And the answer hereunto I shall reduce to three heads and as I lay them down labour to take them off that they may be no just ground or reason to make you doubt of your election First the divell tempts a godly man with this that sure you cannot be elected Because that before your calling you were so exceeding
of their election because God pursues them with continuall afflictions and layes the continued strokes of his heavy wrath upon them and this makes many a godly man thinke that he is not in the number of Gods elect ones To which I shall briefly answer That this is nothing else but a temptation and not a truth and it was the very controversie that Jobs friends had with him they would fasten this upon Job that he was a Reprobate and an Hypocrite because God did so afflict him yet Job maintained his sincerity and shewes his grounds that God was his friend and that he did not reject him though he did afflict him But to speake more particularly First no man can infallibly and certainly judge of Gods purposes about mans election or reprobation by any of the dispensations of God toward their bodies in the things of this life Eccles 9.1 2. No man knows either love or hatred by any thing that is before him All things fall alike to all The same event to him that feareth God and to him that feareth him not to him that sweareth and to him that feareth an Oath Secondly Afflictions from God are so farre from being grounds or evidences that a man is not elected that in some cases they may prove evidences that they are the very elect of God Heb. 12.6 7. He chasteneth every sonne whom he receiveth they are bastards and not sonnes whom he chastiseth not As many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent Revel 3.19 In some cases afflictions from God are rather tokens of love from God then the contrary As now in case afflictions be as a spur to you to make you quicken your pace in heaven way 2. In case your afflictions be as pruning-hookes to you to cut and lop off the luxuriant buddings and workings of sinne in the heart 3. In case affliction be as a hedge to you to keep you in and to make you walke in a close communion with God and not to wander or goe astray from him 4. In case affliction be as a file to you to file off that rust that cleaves to your nature 5. In case affliction proves a furnace to refine you from that drosse of corruption that is mixt with your services In these cases afflictions are so farre from being grounds to doubt of your election that they may rather give you evidence you are the very elect of God Thirdly that God in his wisdome doth many times expose his own people to greater troubles in this life then he lets wicked and reprobate men undergoe God will not give reprobates their hell here that so he might give them hell hereafter God will not give the elect heaven here to make heaven more desirable to them while they live here and more welcome when they come there It is Gods pleasure in the dispensations of his providence amongst men to let his own people lie under more outward sorrows then wicked men shall doe Psal 73.5 Their eyes burst out with fatnesse they are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued as other men are The Lord in his dispensations doth so deale with wicked men that they are not plagued they are not troubled as godly men are in this world And therefore surely affliction is no argument of Gods displeasure or of their not being within the compasse of Gods purpose to doe them good SERMON XVI 2 PETER 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure THe Doctrine I am yet upon is this That Christians should put forth a great deale of diligence to make this sure to their soules that they are eternally elected by God to life and salvation In the prosecution of which Doctrine I have gone over severall particulars and have now only one Querie more to satisfie about election and then to winde up this Doctrine in laying down some explicatory propositions very conducible to illustrate this Doctrine of Election And the Quere to be resolved is this What are those delusions of the divell whereby he nourisheth presumptuous perswasions in the minds of men that they are elected by God when they are not And to answer this I shall reduce all I have to say under these three heads First the divell perswades wicked men that they are elected upon this ground Because they doe not break forth into such grosse and scandalous enormities in their lives as many men that live about them doe and therefore the divell boulsters them up in this Surely if you were not elected you would be as bad as any and as vile and exorbitant as any Now seeing God keepes you in that you act not such things in your lives as other men doe this may be a comfortable evidence to you that you are in the number of Gods elect ones And this delusion deceives thousands of people especially morallized and civillized men they runne hoodwinkt to hell nourishing hopes of life and salvation and never feele the contrary till they come to death and hell I shall declare this to be a delusion in laying down four or five particulars As First That there are many men that are mentioned in Scripture not to have been within the compasse of Gods election who yet were men of very blamelesse and honest lives not blemished with any grosse and scandalous evils Read Luke 18.11 14. of the Pharisee He tels you he thanks God he was no extortioner no adulterer no covetous person no drunkard nor was he as wicked as the Publican was Here you see a man that spake vauntingly and truely that he was not a man that broke out into those miscarriages other men did yet what was this man An elect vessell No. Read vers 14. and the Text tels you the Publican went away justified rather then the other the Pharisee though he was free from scandalous and grosse enormities in his life yet he was not a justified man and so by consequence not an elect man You read of Hypocrites Matth. 23. that cleansed the outside of the cup and of the platter that is cleansed their conversations and cleansed the outward man of grosse scandals and yet within were full of filth and Christ tels us they were hypocrites that should have their portion in hell And should you view over Historians that write of the Scribes and Pharisees and strict men among the Jewes they will tell you what wonderfull holy-lived men they were they were often in duties fasted twice a week prayed every day in the corners of the streets none so strict as they in observing the Sabbath would goe vailed lest they should be ensnared by lascivious objects and yet these very men so wonderfull strict and cautious were men that had no dram of grace in them at all Though they were a people thus well dressed in their lives yet the Scripture tels us of them that Whores and Harlots should goe to Heaven before them This therefore is the