Many notes might be observed in this clause.
1. We are behokUng to God's eternal election and purpose for all the good that we get by affliction and other providences ; for God's purpose is the supreme reason assigned in the description of the per- sons who have an interest in this privilege. We love God because we believe his goodness in Christ ; we believe his goodness in Christ because he hath called us ; and he hath called us because of his eternal purpose ; and thence it is that all this good cometh to us.
2. The purpose of God concerning our eternal salvation is mani- fested in our being called : that is the first eruption of God's elective love ; we are in the dark before.
3. Those that continue in their final unbelief and impenitency are called only by the bye ; the elect, with a purpose to save them. God raineth on the rocks as well as on the new-mown grass.
But I will content myself with one point —
VeR. 28.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 295
That there are certain persons before all time elected of God accord- ing to his mere good pleasure and grace, that in time they may be effectually called and saved.
For some persons here are said to be the called according to pur- pose. Let me .explain, and then confirm it.
1. The object of this purpose are certain definite and individual persons ; Jacob, not Esau ; Peter, not Judas ; man by man, or by head and poll they are known to God, 2 Tim. ii. 19. Put into the hands of Clirist, that he may redeem them, and give an account of them at the last day : John xvii. 6, ' I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world ; thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word ; ' John vi. 40, ' And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him'up at the last day.' And they do all believe, and are infallibly converted : John vi. 37, ' All that tlie Father giveth me shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast off.'
2. The reason of this purpose is only the Lord's grace and good pleasure. Christ, debating the matter, giveth no other account of the gospel's being hid from the wise and prudent, and revealed unto babes, but this only : Mat. xi. 2.5, ' Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy siglit.' The cause is only God's pleasure ; the reason of this can be found nowhere else, but only in the bosom of God himself. There is nothing before, or above, or without his purpose, as the first cause of all that good which cometh to us ; he doth not foresee any merit or motive in us ; as Christ telleth his disciples, John xv. 10, ' I have chosen you, you have not chosen me ; ' his choice is antecedent to ours. The person.? that are singled out to be objects of this special grace were a part of lost mankind, by nature the same that others are, some of the world that lay in wickedness ; but when God had all Adam's posterity under the prospect of his all-seeing eye, he chose some, and passed by others ; he found all guilty, but doth not punish all, but spare some ; and found nothing in the creature to cast the balance of his choice, or to determine it to one more tiian to another. Others were as eligible as they, God created them all ; all were alike obnoxious to him. The prophet argueth, Mai. i. 2, ' Was not Esau Jacob's brother ? ' It was grace alone did put the difference.
3. This purpose noteth the sure and powerful efficacy of this grace. God will not be disappointed in his purpose, for there is nothing that can be imagined that should occasion the alteration of it. Men are forced to alter their purposes, either out of a natural levity that is in them, or some impediment falleth out which they foresaw not, or through defect of power they cannot do what they intend to do ; but none of these things are in God, no levity and unstability, for he is Jehovah that changeth not, Mai. iii. 6. And the apostle speaketh of the immutability of his counsel. God's purpose is both an act of his understanding, and therefore called counsel, and also his will, there- fore called his decree ; and therefore being once set, it cannot be altered or revoked ; no cause of revocation can be imagined either in God or out of God ; not in God, nothing can fall out but what God foresaw at first ; nor can be frustrated for any defect of power, for he is almighty,
296 SERMONS UPON ROMANS vm. [Ser. XXXVIIL
angels, devils, and men being subject to him as the supreme and uni- versal Lord.
4. This grace is brought about in a way most convenient for the honour of God and the good of the creature : in a way of faith and holiness. Faith : John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world, that he gave Lis only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' Holiness : Eph. i. 4, ' 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.' Now faith is his gift : Eph. ii. 8, ' We are saved by grace through faith ; and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.' And holiness is wrought in us by the Spirit of sanctification, and that with a respect to his election : 2 Thes. ii. 13, ' He hath chosen j^ou to salvation through the sanctifi- cation of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.' God did not choose us because he did foresee that we should be believers, or would be holy, but that we might believe, and might be holy ; he could not foresee any faith or holiness in us but what was the fruit of his own grace and elective love to us ; all is still according to his purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ before the world began. Faith and holiness is the way and means of bringing about his purpose, not the foreseen cause and reason, or the end ; the fruit of it, not the motive to induce God to show us mercy.