Use 4. It teacheth us to disclaim merit.
1. God's love was before our being and acting. Paul, out of a less circumstance, concludeth election not to be of works : Rom. ix. 11, ' For the children being yet unborn, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said, The elder shall serve the younger.' God's election is before all acts of ours ; therefore we deserve nothing, but all is from God. It is not a thing of yesterday ; our love is not the cause of God's, neither is it a fit reward and satis- faction.
Object. But doth not God foresee our good works, or at least faith and final perseverance ? He knew who would believe the gospel, who would live holy, and who would remain in their sins.
I answer — If this were true, there were not such a gracious freedom in grace. It is true God foreseeth all things that shall be, but first he fore-ordaineth them. Prescience includeth and supposeth preordina- tion. Things are not because they are foreseen ; but they are fore- seen, because they shall be. From predestination issueth faith, sancti- fication, perseverance. So that we are not chosen because we are holy, but to be holy : Eph. i. 4, ' According as he hath chosen us in him
112 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XLII.
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and with- out blame before him in love.' And to be rich in faith : James ii. 5, ' Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him ? ' As Paul saith of himself, 1 Cor. vii. 25, ' I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful ; ' not that God foresaw that he was so. Our ordination to life is the cause of faith : Acts xiii. 48, ' As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.'
2. When we were, we were not lovely ; there was nothing to excite God to show us mercy. Our natural condition is described, Titus iii. 3, ' For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, arvyrjrot, fiiaovvre^; dW7]Xov<;, hateful, and hating one another.' All are abomin- able and worthy of hatred, yet one hateth another, as if he were lovely, and the other only abominable.
There are two causes of self-conceit ;• we have not a spiritual dis- cerning, and are partial in our own cause, and guilty of self-love.
[1.] We have not a spiritual discerning, aTvytjTot ; we are filthy, deformed, hateful in the eyes of God, stink in the nostrils of God. If we see a deformed creature, overgrown with scurf and sores, or a stink- ing carcass, we turn away the head in great abomination, and cry, Oh, filthy ! yet we are all so before God. A toad, a stinking carcass, cannot be so loathsome to us as a sinner is to God. If a man had but a glass to see his own natural face, he would wonder that God should love him. Indeed we have a glass, but we have not eyes. What could God see in us to excite him to show mercy ? God is not blinded with the vehemence of any passion ; yea, the object is uncomely, un- comely to a spiritual eye, much more to the Father of spirits.
[2.] Self-love blindeth us, fiiaovvT6<i aXkrjXov^. If men would hold together, and like one another, all would be well ; but now we cannot love one another and live with one another in safety, we seem such odd creatures. Fratrum concordia vara est. We are hateful creatures to God, to angels, to devils, to ourselves.
Object. But some are more civil and refined.
A71S. It is true natural corruption doth not break out in all with a like violence ; but a benumbed snake is a snake, a sow washed is not changed. As when the liver groweth, other parts languish ; one great lust intercepteth the nourishment of other corruptions.
Object. But do not some use free-will better than others ? Sure God loveth them more !
A?is. No ; ' Not according to the works which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us,' Titus iii. 5. God's original motives to do good are from himself.
Use 5. We are not to measure God's love by temporal accidents. That which cometh from eternity, and tendeth to eternity, that is an evidence of his special love : Eccles. ix. 1, ' No man knoweth either love or hatred, by all that is before him ; ' ' The pleasures of sin are for a season,' Heb. xi. 25, and afflictions are for a season ; but spiritual blessings in heavenly places, which come from heaven, and tend to heaven, which have no dependence upon this world, whether it stand or nO; these evidence the best love, God's special mercy. Why, they
VeU. 24.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 113
were devised before ever the foundations of the world were laid, and it is most of all showed when the world is at an end. Therefore moderate your desires of earthly things, which the apostle calls ' this world's goods,' 1 John iii. 17 ; they are of no use in eternity. And bear afflictions with more patience ; you do but lose a little for the present, that you may be safe for ever. Hie ure, Jiicseca, utin (sternum par cas. Use 6. It presseth us to get an interest in this eternal love. How shall we discern it ?