I chose you before all worlds. Here is the reason: 'Hills shall remove, and mountains depart; but my kindness shall not depart, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,' Isa. liv. 10. Why? Because my kindness was before the mountains, and before the hills were brought forth, (as Wisdom speaks, Prov. viii.)

Obs. 5.-Fear not the ruin of kingdoms, nor of the world, for your being depends not on either of them; God chose you before all worlds. Let kingdoms totter, and mountains be thrown into the midst of the sea, 'we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken,' Heb. xii. 28.

And thus much for the time of our election.

III. For the end unto which God chose us. The Apostle saith it is, That we might be holy and unblameable before him in love.

By 'holiness' here is meant, either that imperfect holiness of grace which we have in this life, or that perfect holiness which we are ordained to in the world to come. It is evidently meant of both.

First, Of that perfect holiness in the world to come, and this principally. For, saith the Apostle, he hath chosen us to be holy and blameless. The word signifieth such an innocence as no man can justly carp at; duopovs, such as a captious Momus cannot take exceptions at ; nay, such as God himself, who is more curious than man, shall find no fault with, or blame in ; 'before him.' Therefore it must needs be meant of perfect holiness, which he hath ordained us unto in heaven; and, as I take it, is the same with that in the fifth chapter of this same epistle, ver. 27. Christ will 'sanctify and cleanse his church,' which is for the present but imperfectly holy, that he may present it to himself glorious, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it may be holy, and without blemish.' It is the very same thing that here we are said to be ordained to in the end. And God will do this, to the end that he may look upon us with pleasure. Our imperfect holiness is indeed holiness before him in truth and sincerity; but it is not holiness before him without blame. It is not such as he can fully and perfectly delight in. So that this is the meaning of the place, that God hath ordained unto all those whom he hath chosen a perfect holiness, and that they should be blameless before him; which one day they shall certainly be. Paul, in Phil. iii. 12, wisheth that he might apprehend that for which also he was apprehended of Christ Jesus?' What is that? A perfection in grace. God, says he, gave me to Christ, that I might be perfectly holy. For, says he, ver. 14, 'I press towards the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,' 'if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.' He endeavoured to be as perfect as the just shall be at the resurrection, so ver. 11; for that is it for which God gave him unto Christ. Christ took us to bestow this upon us; and God ordained us unto this. God is so perfect in himself, and in his contrivements, that he looketh and pitcheth upon the perfection of his works at first. When we were chosen by him, we came not up sinful before him, or imperfectly holy as we are here; but God looked at the utmost end, what he would make us at the last; and so presented us unto Christ. Now Christ upon that presentation was so taken with our beauty, that never since can he absolutely delight in us, until he hath sanctified us and cleansed us, and made us perfect, having neither spot nor wrinkle, as at first we were presented to him.

Secondly, As he hath ordained us to perfect holiness in the world to come, to be blameless before him, so he hath ordained us to holiness in this life, or else we shall never come to heaven, 2 Thess. ii. 13, He hath chosen us unto salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit.' You must run

through sanctification of the Spirit, or you shall never come to heaven. You must be pure in heart here, or else you shall never see God. This is the least intended of the two.

But you will say, How can our holiness here be called unblameableness? I answer, Yes, in some sense it may be so called; namely, that evangelically it is such; for you are perfectly holy in desire. You pray that God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is the desire of every good soul to be unblameable. Again, you may be said to be unblameable, because if you sin you make it up again by repentance. So that you see, how by holiness and unblameableness are meant both holiness here and hereafter.

Accordingly 'before him' hath a double sense :—

1. If you understand the holiness mentioned of imperfect holiness here, the meaning is, that true holiness is not before men, it is before God, who approveth of sincerity only; such as your father Abraham was to you an example of, Gen. xvii. 1, 'Walk before me, and be upright.' That expression there is all one with this holiness before God here. If the heart be upright or sincere before God, that is all one as to be holy before him. In Col. iii. 22, servants are bidden to do their masters' service as before God, &c. But I cannot stand upon this now.

2. If that holiness be understood of the holiness of glory, as principally, if not only, it is, then 'before him' hath two meanings, and both good.

The one is this: God hath ordained us to be holy in his presence for ever, and there for ever to enjoy him, and delight ourselves in that enjoyment. In thy presence,' saith the Psalmist, 'there is fulness of joy,' &c. Or, secondly, the meaning is this: that as we might delight in God, and enjoy his face and presence, so he might delight in us, we being perfectly holy before him, or in his account. The end of his choosing us was, that we might be in his presence, and he delight himself in us, and glory in his creatures as made thus holy and thus happy by him. Dulce est amare, et amari,—It is a sweet thing to love, and be beloved again. God, though he loved his children, yet could not rest in that love, nor heighten it to a delight in them, till he had made them blameless in love before him; till he had made them perfectly holy like himself.

And then lastly, 'in love' is added, as meant of perfect holiness in heaven, where there is no faith, nothing but love. And if you take it of imperfect holiness here, so all the principles of true holiness are nothing but love. 'Faith worketh by love.' So that the words may well bear both these senses. I shall now give you some observations out of the words, as taken in either sense :

Obs. 1.-If this holiness here be meant of perfect holiness, (as certainly it is,) see then what heaven is. It is perfect holiness and perfect love to God. To be holy before him in love, this is the foundation of the glory in heaven. If I should spend millions of years in describing heaven unto you, I could say no more, but only open these three things couched in the text, perfect holiness in God's presence, and enjoying and loving of him, even as we are beloved of him. This is heaven, and this is that which God hath pitched upon to bring us to. This is the chief thing in election, in which work of God's he looks to this unblameableness in holiness and love before him, as the end of it.

Obs. 2.-In the second place, whereas the Apostle in the next verse saith, 'He hath predestinated us to the adoption of children;' and in this verse foregoing it he saith, 'He hath chosen us to be holy before him in love,' so

putting holiness before adoption; this is the reason of it: adoption is a privilege of ours, and does indeed contain all the privileges we have, as I may so speak, for ourselves; but holiness is that which is for God-it is to please and glorify him, and therefore it is justly here put before the other. From whence we may observe—

That it is God's first aim that we should be holy before him. Let it therefore be our great care too. That which was first in God's eye, let it be chiefly in ours. Though we be ordained to adoption and glory, yet we were first chosen to be 'holy before him in love.'

Art thou imperfectly holy? Comfort thyself with this, that though thou beest now full of blame, and men may lay many things to thy charge; yet God hath chosen thee to be one day holy and without blame before him. Yea, thou mayest comfort thyself against imperfect holiness in this, that when God chose thee, that first view he took of thee, that first idea wherein thou wert represented to him, was as he meant to make thee, even perfectly holy; such thou camest up before him in his first intention about thee, even clothed with all those jewels and embellishments which he meant one day to bestow upon thee. What is the reason that God is willing to pardon us, and that he pleaseth himself in us now? He knows that though we be sinful now, yet it will not be long ere we shall be perfectly holy before him. Christ cleanseth us, to 'present us to himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle.'

And on the other side, if it be meant of imperfect holiness, as the means to the end, there may these observations be raised from that:

Obs. 1.-Without holiness here, there is no happiness to be expected hereafter. Without God's mercy we cannot be saved; and without holiness we are not under mercy, 1 Pet. i. 2, He hath chosen us to obedience of the truth. And without purity or holiness no man shall see God.

Obs. 2.-The ground of all true obedience is love: To be holy before him in love.' Faith works by love. As no duty is pleasing to God without faith, so neither without love. It was not the reason why God chose us, but the end unto which he chose us. He hath ordained us to be holy before him in love.

Obs. 3.-There remains one observation more, that is general to both interpretations, namely, that the foundation of God's love is not loveliness in us. Though in our love we cannot love a creature (as, not a child) until it is and hath a being,-and not then neither, unless we see something lovely in it which may draw out our affections towards it,-yet God can resolve to love such creatures as he can make thus and thus lovely, and so ordain them to be holy before him, that he may delight in them. He can therefore take things possible, in respect of being, that is, which he can, or hath in his power to make and create, and he can aforehand resolve thus and thus to love them; which we cannot do. And the reason of this is, for that his love is only from his own will, as our being his creatures also is; and so the first objects of election may be res creabiles, non tantum quæ actu creatæ sunt et existunt,-things that are looked upon by him but as yet to be created, not only those that are supposed actually to exist

SERMON VI

Having predestinated us unto adoption by Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.-VER. 5, 6.

THE coherence of these words with the former stands thus: they contain a second instance of that general of his premised, ver. 3, wherein the Apostle had said that God had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ. Now, as in that verse he mentioneth both an act of blessing us, he hath blessed us,' and in the general or total speaks of certain blessings themselves wherewith God hath blessed us, with all spiritual blessing in heavenly things in Christ;' so in these following verses he accordingly instanceth in particulars, namely—

1. Election, ver. 4.

2. Predestination, ver. 5.

Both which are acts of blessing us.

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

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

Now, as an introduction to the opening of these words, you will expect I should first distinguish between chosen and predestinated, or between God's election and predestination. To choose, is to single and cull out from others, or out of a common lump; and to predestinate, is, in English, to foreordain, or fore-appoint to some end. Now, how do these differ, as they were then done by God?

1. It may be there was no difference intended; but the Apostle being to repeat the same thing, or one and the same act, his scope being apart to mention those particular blessings by that one word, as they are bestowed upon us by that one and eternal act of God's love, he takes occasion about them to use two several words or expressions thereof; especially considering that those eternal acts of choosing, predestinating, &c., were all but one entire act in God, even as his essence is one. And yet the Holy Ghost is pleased to express it by two acts; whereof the one notes out one thing more

eminently, and the other another thing, so to convey all of it the fuller unto our apprehensions, according to this latter conception.

2. Some distinguish them thus: that election or choice imports more eminently an act of God's will, for choice is an act of will; but that predestination is an act of his understanding, as working by counsel. So, ver. 11, this seems explained, 'Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will.' But more expressly in Acts iv. 28, 'Whatever thy counsel did fore-determine to be done.' The word is the same that is here, gowgros. So then the difference here should be, that election imports simply his decree to the end; but predestination should further note God's contrivement or preparation of means to the obtaining of that end.

3. But though other scriptures may hold forth this second difference, yet that it should be here in these two verses intended, I see not. For adoption here is set forth to be an end, as well as holiness; nor are there any means in this verse mentioned. And of the two, holiness is rather a means, or a foundation laid to adoption, than è contra; and therefore Rollock rather calls election, as here used, the decree of the means, and predestination the decree of the end. But yet that this notion of his should be the Apostle's scope here, I cannot wholly assent to neither; for the holiness unto which we are here said to be chosen is perfect holiness in heaven, which is the end we are ordained unto, as well as adoption. And, indeed, both of them are decreta finis, decrees about the end, as I shall afterwards shew.

Wherefore, the best difference that I can find out, and that is proper to the scope of the text, is, that election, although it be a decree about the end, or at least one main end concerning what God ultimately meaneth to do with us, as well as in predestination; yet together therewith it does eminently note forth a singling or culling out some persons with a special and peculiar love from others of the same rank and condition ;* both out of things possible, which God had in his knowledge, which his power could have made, but he never decreed a being unto, which are as infinite as his knowledge and power are, (and even out of these there is an election,) as also out of all persons, whom he did make and actually give an existence unto, both men and angels, of whom some he laid aside, as in the case of the angels is undeniable. So that election being a preferring of some before others, doth connotate the terminus à quo, the term or mass of persons from which; but predestination more eminently notes out the terminus ad quem, the ultimate state unto which we are ordained.

And secondly, because by this election, or first calling out from others, we are not ordained to a sole and separate being in ourselves; such as other persons, whom he decreed not to save, are only to have,-they all stand upon their own bottom; but a being in Christ, as a Common Person and root to spring in and out of, and that in him we were considered and chosen to be in the very first act of God's choosing us, (as in God's heart we may be said to have stood, although, until converted, we have not an actual being in Christ, according to the rules of the Word, which God will judge us by, but are 'without God,' and 'without Christ,' as chap. ii. shews;) and therefore unto 'chosen' is added 'in him,' that being the first act that gives us a subsistence thus in God's mind, and that in Christ. Hence therefore election, the first act, having thus singled us out from all things, and decreed us a representative being in Christ as members in a head, together with our being, It is of persons as of persons. He hath chosen us to being us to such an ultimate end, ordained for us

The proper object which election is carried unto are the persons.