: mind; and the greatest judgment is also inflicted and incurred by a very small act of the mind. It seems to be no very great matter, when a poor sinner is reading, thinking, and hearing of Jesus Christ in the gospel; it seems to be no great matter, when their hearts begin to grow warm within them, and this Saviour and his salvation appears to be lovely to him, and the poor creature resolves to venture his all on the Son of God; there seems to be no great matter in this; it is quietly and silently done and yet this may be the subscribing of the everlasting marriage-covenant between Christ and the soul. So, on the other side, a poor sinner under the gospel, is calm in making slight of all that he hears, he only stands remote and aloof from all; you would think there is no great matter here: only they do not mind, only they do not think; Is there any great fault here? Alas! the poor creature is hereby ripening his condemnation more than you can imagine. Sirs, take heed to yourselves; a poor creature may run faster to hell in an hour spent in hearing a gospel-sermon, than in a whole week's profane walking. A person may make a greater leap to the pit by a silent rejecting of the offer of the gospel, than by all his law-transgressions. So much for the third thing in the text, the sanctification of the Spirit to obedience. It would follow now, to speak of the respect that electing grace hath, in this text, to the sanctification of the Spirit, and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus: for though they are all absolutely necessary in order to salvation, yet there is a becoming order. Election leads the van, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus follows next; and, in the third place, the sanctification of the Spirit; and then, in God's good time, everlasting glory. But I cannot enter on any of these things at present, only a word or two in general. It is, it should be, and it will be the everlasting wonder of our hearts, that God should take so much pains to save sinners; that he thought of them from eternity; that he sent his Son to redeem them by his blood, and that he sends his Spirit to sanctify them by his grace; and that he keeps his hand about them with so much tenderness and care, till he has brought them into his kingdom and glory. If we had faith, we would wonder at it now, but we shall wonder better at it when we come to lea ven. When at any time we are awakened and enlightened to see what vile creatures we are, how incredible is it that God should take any pains about us! Why should not God frown such wretches as we are into eternal ruin? It is an easy thing with God to send a sinner to hell; for we all deserve it; but God waits upon us, and strives and labours with us, as if we were worth the having: but, alas! we are worth nothing, only as grace makes us the field from whence the praise and glory of grace shall spring up to eternity. When we come to heaven, if the inhabitants there knew what we had been upon earth, would they not wonder that ever we should come there? But they are all saved by the same grace, all the redeemed offspring of fallen Adam are saved the same way. Will not the angels wonder, that sinners of mankind are saved, and their brethren passed by? that so many of Adam's Jost seed should be brought to that upper house above, and the fallen angels are left to eternal ruin? We have nothing to say to this, but Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. The Lord will give no man a reason of his doings; but they are all done in wisdom, and the wisdom of them will appear in his due time. SERMON VIII. 1 PETER i. 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. WHEN I first entered on the preface to this epistle, con tained in these verses, I took it up in three things; 1st, A description of the writer of it, Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ. 2dly, A description of the parties that he writes to, and they are described two ways; as to their outward condition before the world, strangers, and scattered abroad through several countries. Again, they are described as to their state before God, Elect according to his forekowledge, through sanctification of the Spirit, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. To this I have spoken all that I intend, saving one thing I promised to speak to, and would now remember, and then proceed to the last clause of the verse, Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. I have spoken a little respecting election according to the foreknowledge of God the Father; and also to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and to the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience. That which now remains for me to speak to, is the respect, interest, and influence, that the first blessing hath on all the rest. This is plainly hinted in the text, that election is unto sanctification of the Spirit, and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus; all the grand blessings of justification by the virtue of Christ's blood, and sanctification by the power of his Spirit, these all flow from election. This now I would say something to; that election is the grand leading benefit to all the rest which flow from it: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, and them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified, Rom. viii. 29, 30. Effectual calling, justification, and eternal glory, all flow from predestination. I would, therefore, in discoursing on this point, take a sober and wary view of the fountain itself, and then come down to the streams that flow from this fountain; to electing grace, and to what it produces and brings forth. 1st, Then, as to this fountain-grace of election, we find concerning it in the word, that is eternal; all other graces we partake of in time; pardon of sin is a time-blessing; sanctification of the Spirit is a time-blessing; glory in heaven is a time-blessing; that is, there was a time when it began, though there be no time when it shall end. It is called Eternal life, Matth. xxv. 46.; it is eternal life in the duration of it, but it is not eternal life in the rise of it: for we are but of yesterday, and had our natural lives but a little while since; and eternal life, in the strictest sense, we do not possess till our natural life in this world is at an end. Saith the apostle, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places, in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, Eph. i. 3, 4. Electing grace is eternal, it had no beginning; and therefore it must have the precedency, and must have its influence upon all time-grace. 2dly, Election-grace is the purest grace, the most pure unmixed grace; there is no pretence of mixture here. A believer in Christ Jesus doth receive grace and peace multiplied to him, and I know that this grace is all free; but, if I may so say, it is not so purely free as electing grace is. That grace which was shown to a number of Adam's offspring in the purpose of God from eternity, if I may so express it, eternally, long before they began to be; certainly that must be pure grace. If we receive mercy from the Lord on our praying, or on our performances, though they deserve nothing at all, yet we are apt to put a bad sense on it, and are apt to think, "This blessing I had because I sought it earnestly;" but in election-grace there can be no pretence for this: for that was long before we were; long before the foundation of the world, as the apostle expresses it, Eph. i. 4. 3dly, The grace of election is most Ged-like; take heed to this, the grace of election is, I say, most God-like; it becomes him, and his glory shines most eminently in it. He acts like a God in electing, and so like a God, that there is no pretence of likeness to it amongst any of the actions of creatures; and therefore it is resolved finally into this by. the apostle, when he speaks so much of it; Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? Rom. ix. 20, 21. God acted like him- ̧ self, when from eternity he foresaw all the work of his hands, and set apart some to honour, and some to dishonour: there was sovereignty in it; and the more sovereignty in God's acts, the more he acts like himself. 4thly, Election grace is a pregnant one, a large grace, a bigbellied grace, if I may so express it; all things else flow from it, all the grace that we partake of in this world, and in the next, comes from the womb of election: our pardoned state, our renewed pardons day by day, they all flow from the grace of election; election begins, and all the rest follow. But before I come to speak how they follow, I would take notice of two things that seem contrary to this election. Election is a decree and purpose of God in his own heart, about the eternal salvation of a company of Adam's offspring; this is revealed to us in the word, to be the thought and purpose of God before the world began, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord—according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, Eph. iii. 11. 2 Tim. i. 9. Therefore, before I come to speak of the streams flowing from election, I would speak a little to those two grand impediments that seemed to lie in its way. 1st, The first thing that God did, seems to be a grand impediment laid in the way of election. God's creating man, and making the first man and woman perfectly holy, and entering into a covenant with them, on these terms, that upon their own perfect obedience, (for which they were well qualified) they and all their posterity should be perfectly happy. Now who would have thought here, but that all mankind should have been thus happy? there appears nothing like election here. God makes man perfectly holy, and perfectly happy, and enables him so to continue; and he makes a covenant with him securing that happy state, only upon the condition of his perfect obedience: Now, would any man imagine, that when God made these transactions at first with his creatures, that there was any thing like election here; that a company only of this man's posterity should be saved, and a great company of them lost? Election seemed to be clouded by the first creation; nothing like it appeared, and yet it remained firm in the purpose of God: for God never meant to save any one man by the first Adam's standing; no, nor to save the man himself that way. I say, God never meant to save any man in the world by his own perfect obedience. He demanded perfect obedience from the first Adam, and qualified and fitted him for it, and he was able to yield it; but God knew that no man would yield it. And this seems to be |