[2.] The next step is, 'Whom he hath called, them he hath justi- fied.' Calling is chiefly by the gospel, and the next end of that is faith in Christ, or conversion to God; and certainly none are justified, but those that are called, and all that are called are justified : Acts xxvi. 18, 'To turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.' When we are turned from Satan to God, we receive the forgiveness of sins : Mark iv. 12, ' Lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them ; ' where forgiveness of sins is mentioned as a consequent of their conversion and turning to the Lord : so when we are brought into the kingdom of Christ, then we have redemption by his blood, the remission of sins. Col. i. 13, 14. Till we become Christ's subjects, we cannot have the privileges of Christ's kingdom ; this is the order set down here, of conveying to us the benefits of Christ's death : first called, then justified. They that are yet under the power of sin are under the guilt of it ; as in the fall there was sin before there was guilt, so in our recovery there must be conversion before remission ; a new nature or life from Christ, then a new relative estate. When we are regenerated, we are justified, and adopted into God's family : Heb. viii. 10-12, ' For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people, and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying. Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.' It is fit God's turn should be served before ours, that we should be willing to return to our obedience before we have our discharge.
[3.] The next step is, ' And whom he justified, them he also glorified.'
But you will say, Doth the apostle, in the several links of the golden chain, omit sanctification ?
I answer. No, it is included, as to the beginning, in vocation ; as to the continuance and further degree, it is included in glorification. This, therefore, is the order ; God doth first regenerate, that he may pardon ; and he pardoneth that ho may further sanctify, and so make us ever- lastingly happy. Now regeneration is included in vocation ; for his calling us is all one with his begetting us by the word of truth, James i. 18. But his further sanctifying, which is consequent to justification, is implied in the word glorified; as grace is glory begun, so glorification is sanctification consummate and completed : 2 Cor. i. 22, ' Who hath
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sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts,' which is centesima pars. Here our happiness standeth in loving God and being beloved of him ; there, in the most perfect act of love and recep- tion of his benefits : this love is here enkindled by faith, tliere by vision ; here so far like God that sin is mortified, there nullified.
[4.] Those that are sanctified are glorified in part, there are fully glorified. The apostle speaketh of it as past ; he will certainly and infallibly glorify them as ii they were in heaven already — ' Hath eternal life,' John v. 24. Hath it in the promise, hath it in the pledge, the gift of the sanctifying Spirit. We have small beginnings and earnests and foretastes of everlasting blessedness in this life ; by faith we may foresee what God will be for ever to his saints. Now by being sanctified we are put into a capacity of eternal life — ' Without holiness we can- not see God,' Heb. xii. 14. But holiness maketh us more fit ; and as it is increased in us, so we are nearer to glory, and are more suited to it.
Use 1. Is information. It informeth us of divers truths necessary to be observed by us.
1. In all tliis order and chain of causes there is no mention of merits, but all is ascribed to grace and God's free favour, choosing, calling, justifying, sanctifying, glorifying us ; from the first step to the last it is all grace ; our best works are excluded from having any meritorious influence upon it : Kom. ix. 11, ' Before the children had done either good or evil, it was said, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand.' Mark, there was a voluntas, and voluntas miserendi: 2 Tim. i. 9, ' Not according to works, but according to his purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ before the world began.' Works are still ex- cluded, as they stand in opposition to God's free mercy and goodness ; it is a free act of his disposing, to which only God was induced by his own love.