'' 2 Tiipss. ii. ; Acts iv.
■• " Libi ratur jtais lioniinum, parte perounte. Sod cur honini sit niisertus Deus — illoruin non iniserfus, (jujc scieutia coniprolu'iidero, quiv (lotest iiivcstigare sa- pientia ? Latct discrctiouis istius I'atio, sed non latet ipsa discrutio." — Prosp. de Vocat. (n-n., [lib i. c.ip. 1';.]
UNCHANGEABLE, FREE MERCY. 15
to send them to their own place; — as a king's not sending a pardon to condemned malefactors is an issue of his purpose that they shall die for their faults. When you see the gospel strangely, and through wonderful varieties and unexpected providences, carried away from a people, know that the spirit which moves in those wheels is that purpose of God which we have recounted.
. [2.] To some people, to some nations, the gospel is sent. God calls them to repentance and acknowledgment of the truth, — as in my text, Macedonia : and England, the day wherein we breathe. Now, there is in this a twofold aim. 1. Peculiar, towards some in their conversion. 2. General, towards all, for conviction. And therefore it is acted according to a twofold purpose, which carries it along, and is fulfilled thereby.
First, His purpose of saving^ some in and by Jesus Christ, effec- tually to bring them unto himself, for the praise of his glorious grace. Upon whomsoever the seal of the Lord is stamped, that God knows them, and owns them as his, to them he will cause his gospel to be revealed. Acts xviil 10, Paul is commanded to abide at Corinth, and to preach there, because God had much people in that city. Though the devil had them in present possession,^ yet they were God's in his eternal counsel. And such as these they were for whose sake the man of Macedonia is sent on his message. Have you never seen the gospel hover about a nation, now and then about to settle, and anon scared and upon wing again ; yet working through difficulties, making plains of mountains and filling valleys, overthrow- ing armies, putting aliens to flight, and at length taking fii-m root like the cedars of God ? Truly if you have not, you are strangers to the place wherein you live. Now, what is all this but the working of the purpose of God to attain its proposed end, of gathering his saints to liimself ? In the effectual working of gi'ace also for conversion and salvation, whence do you think it takes its rale and determination, in respect of particular objects, that it should be directed to John, not Judas, — Simon Peter, not Simon Magus? Why, only from this discriminating'' counsel of God from eternity, to bring the one and not the other to himself by Christ. " The Lord added to the church such as should be saved," Acts ii. 47. The purpose of saving is the rule of adding to the church of believers. And Acts xiii. 48, " As many believed as were ordained to eternal life." Their fore-ordain-
' Rom. viii. 28, 29; Eph. i. 4; 2 Tim. ii. 19. 2 Eph. ii. 1, 11.
' " Non ob aliud dicit, non vos me elegistis, sed ego vos elegi, nisi quia non elegerunt eum, ut eligeiet eos; sed ut eligerent eum, elegit eos. Nou quia prae- scivit eos credituros, sed quia facturus ipse fuerit credeutes. Electi sunt itaque ante mundi coustitutionem, ca prscdestinatione, qua Deus ipse sua futura facta proevidit : electi sunt autem de mundo ea vocatione, qua Deus id, quod prtedesti- navit, implevit." — August, de Praedest. Sanctorum, cap. xvi., xvii.
16 A VISION OF
ing to life eternal gives them right to faith and belief The pur- pose of God's election is the rule of dispensing saving grace.
Secondly, His purpose of leaving some inexcusable^ in their sins, for the farther manifestation of his glorious justice, is the rule of dis- pensing the word unto them. Did you never see the gospel sent or continued to an unthankful people,^ bringing forth no fraits meet for it? Wherefore it is so sent, see Isa vi. 9, 10; — which prophecy you have fulfilled, John xii. 37-41 ; in men described, Jude 4, and 1 Pet. ii. 8. But here we must strike sail, the waves swell, and it is no easy task to sail in this gulf The righteousness of God is a great mountain, easy to be seen ; but his judgments are like the great deep : who can search into the bottom thereof? Ps. xxxvi. 6. And so I have, I hope, discovered how all things here below, concerning the promulgation of the gospel, are, in their greatest variety, straightly regulated by the eternal purposes and counsel of God.
The uses of it follow.
Use 1. To discover whence it is that the work of reforming the worship of God, and settling the almost departing gospel, hath so powerfully been carried along in this nation ; — that a beautiful fabric is seen to arise in the midst of all oppositions, with the confusion of axes and hammers sounding about it, though the builders have been forced oftentimes, not only with one hand, but with both, to hold the weapons^ of war ; — that although the wheels of our chai'iots have been knocked off, and they driven heavily, yet the regular motions of the superior wheels of providence have carried on the design towards the resting-place aimed at ; — that the ship hath been duected to the port, tliough the storm had quite puzzled the pilots and manners: — even from hence, that all this great variety was but to work out one cer- tain fore-appointed end, proceeding in the tracts and paths which were traced out for it from eternity ; which, though they have seemed to us a maze or labyiinth, such a world of contingencies and various chances hath the work passed through, yet, indeed, all the passages thereof have been regular and straight, answering the })latform laid down for the whole in the counsel of God. Daniel, chap, ix., makes his supplication for the restoration of Jerusalem; verse 23, an angel is sent to tell him, that " at the beginning of his supplication the commandment came forth," — viz., that it should be accomplished. It was before determined, and is now set on work ; but yet what moun- tains * of opposition, what hinderances lay in the way! Cyrus must come to the crown by the death or slaughter of Darius,* — his heart be moved to send some to the work: in a short time Cynis is cut ofi".