EFFECTUAL CALLING

The doctrine of Calling, (which I term Effectual, distinguish it from that which is outward only, and prevails not) respects the means whereby, and the manner how, God's elect are actually prepared for that salvation he has chosen them to: it is God's revealing his Son in them; and he doeth it by the Holy Ghost, whose office is to sanctify whom the Father has elected, and Christ redeemed, 1 Peter 1:2, Jude verse 8. These three acts of grace are pe­culiar to the three persons of the sacred Trinity, respective­ly, and are all predicated of the same subjects; and that as a party select, and distinguished from others: they are “chosen out of the world,” John 15:19. “redeemed from among men,” Revelation 14:4, and taken “from among the Gentiles,” Acts 15:14.

Next to the glory of his grace, and the honor of his Son, the Lord has placed the blessedness of his chosen as that principal scope and end of all he has done in the world, or will do. It could not, therefore, stand with his holy wis­dom, to leave those he was pleased to choose to salvation, to the conduct of their own understanding and will, with such means and helps as they have in common with other men, and thereon to suspend the whole of his great design; for by such a course it would not only be liable to frustration, but be certainly defeated. For prevention whereof, and that the purpose of his grace might stand, he has made it of the substance of predestination, to prepare and apply the means, as well as to appoint the end; which in sacred lan­guage is termed a “giving of all things pertaining to life and godliness.” 2 Peter 1:3.

The sum of what I intend on the present subject is comprised of the following proposition; namely,

Prop. That whatever things are requisite to salvation, are given of God freely to all the elect; and wrought in them effectually, by the divine power in order to that salvation to which he has appointed them.

By salvation here, I understand the saints' perfect settlement in blessedness and glory: and, by things requisite thereto, all those gifts, graces, and operations, that are any where necessary to their actual obtainment of that state. The divine power, is that ability of working which God has reserved to himself; and is not moved or governed by the creature's act, but by the good pleasure of his own will.

That divers things are requisite to salvation, needs no proof: my business therefore is to show,

1. What these requisites to salvation are.

2. What root it is they proceed Romans

3. Whom they do belong to, and by what right.

IV. The way and manner of God's dispensing them.

1. What these requisites to salvation are.

They are three sorts; some to be done for us; some on us, or in us; and others by us; yet so as not without the special aid and assistance of the first agent, that good Spirit who began the work, and worketh all in all. The great thing to be done for us (next after election,) is re­demption from sin: this was a work of infinite moment, and as far above the undertaking of creatures,' for, 1. The justice of God that must be satisfied, by bearing the curse due to transgressors: by this we are saved from wrath; and without this, divine justice will not open the house of his prisoners. 2. All righteousness must be fulfilled by an absolute perfect subjection to the law: by this, we are in­terested in eternal life; and without this, there is no enter­ing into rest. 3. The devil, who had the power of death, must be destroyed, and his works of darkness (by which he leads captive at his will) dissolved; that life and immortality might be brought to light, and the prey delivered. None of which works could ever have been effected, but by one of the same nature with the aggressing, and yet equal in power and dignity with the majesty of­fended; for which cause and end, “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, and made under the law,” etc. Galatians 4:4, 5. that what the law could not do, because of its weakness through the flesh, the Son of God, in the likeness of sinful flesh, might perform; and so condemn sin in that flesh which gave it entrance, Romans 8:3. This was the proper subject of the former head, namely redemption: the end of which, partly, was, to bring in the next sort of things re­quisite to salvation, that is, such as are to be done on and in the elect, namely, their reconcilement to God, and receiving the adoption of sons. This is the actual per­formance of what was intentionally in election, and virtu­ally in the death of Christ, as the necessary way and means to their ultimate end. The sum of these requisites consists in faith and sanctification, 2 Thessalonians 2:13. the one imports our right, the other our capacity; faith entitles, and holiness meetens: both which, though expressed as two, go always together, as if but one; and are as insepa­rable as light from the sun: and, without these, our little world would still be in darkness, notwithstanding all the light that shines about us, or within us; neither knowing our danger, nor how to escape it.

1. Faith. This, in general, is that spiritual light in which we see ourselves by nature children of wrath, and wholly unable to change our state, and withal, do appre­hend “God justifying freely by his grace, through the re­demption that is in Jesus Christ,” Romans 3:24, and to that end, do roll ourselves on him, and give up ourselves to his law and government. It is of the essence of faith, to empty the soul of selfability. And, 1. Of its own understanding. It is a beam of divine light, which evidenceth all a man's natural knowledge to be ignorance and dark­ness, as to spiritual things. The apostle speaks of it as of a faculty newly given, 1 John 5:20, and the nature of its new objects requires it; for the natural man cannot discern the things of God, 1 Corinthians 2:14. They that have the best eyes now, were sometimes darkness. Faith empties the soul. Faith empties the soul of its own righteousness, 1. By discovering the uncleanness of it, Isaiah 64:6. 2. By showing the necessity of a better, Romans 3:20. 3. In whom this better righteousness is to be found, chapter 10:4. 4. That it may be attained and had, chapter 3:21. 5. That being attained, the soul is safe, and may triumph over all, chapter 8:34, and chapter 7:25. 6. That this better righte­ousness and its own cannot stand together, Galatians 5:2. Romans 10:3. And then, 3(?). The next work of faith is, to empty the soul of its own strength; that is, of all confidence in himself, as to the obtainment of that better righteousness. He makes it, indeed, his business to get rid of his own, and most gladly would he be invested with the righteous­ness of God; but finds it a matter of transcendent difficulty. Now he is convinced it is no easy matter to be saved; since to believe, and to keep the whole law, are things of an equal facility; that is, they are both alike impossible to him; but nothing, he knows, is too hard for God, and therefore takes hold of his strength, Isaiah 27:5. to work this faith in him; and so, by a faith unseen, believes to a faith that is visible, Romans 1:17. It is faith that is at work all this while, though the soul knows it not till afterwards. 2.(There’s no number 1) The other grand requisite to salvation, is sanctification, or personal inherent holiness. Justification is by a righteousness imputed; sanctification infused; the former is first in order of nature; they commence together in point of time; even as light in the air at the sun's approach; or as the reversing an outlawry instantly reinstates the party in his former privileges; or as the canceling a bill of at tinder(?) restores the blood(?). Sanctification is the divine nature communicated; by which the whole man is expelled, with his deeds, or rather subdued and brought under; for they are not totally nulled in this life; only proud flesh is put down from its seat, and that is a great matter, its do­minion is taken away, and the seed of God enthroned in its stead: and so we are said to be translated out of Satan's kingdom, or government, into Christ's, Colossians 1:13. It is sometimes called regeneration, or a being born again, John 3:3. the separating a man from his wild stock, and grafting him in the true, Romans 11:17. the forming of Christ in us, and the law written in the heart, Hebrews 8:10. that is, dispositions according to God, or a heart after his own. It is also termed, the passing away of old things, and a becom­ing new of all, 2 Corinthians 5:17. there is a change of princi­ples, scope, and end of man's life.  Not that the old faculties are blotted out or destroyed, but reduced or re­newed, according to the “image of him that createth it,” Colossians 3:10. Romans 8:29. As the body, when it is regener­ated, or raised again, shall be the same that was sown; but so changed, and dignified in its qualities, as if it were another; so, in the soul's regeneration, the same under­standing, will, and affections do remain, but quite other­wise disposed and qualified, according to the new objects they are to converse with. And this is so main a requisite to salvation, that we are not capable of heaven without it.

Even the local heaven would not be a place of happiness to a soul unsanctified; no communion there without concord; and that is the reason why spiritual notions are so disgustful to carnal men; and if they cannot endure the shadow, how should they bear the substance and thing itself? In this work the soul is passive; but being thus quickened by the Spirit of life from God, and set on their feet, they are capacitated for action. And now (say they, as Daniel, now) “let my Lord speak, for thou hast strengthened me,” Daniel 10:19. And thenceforth their work and business is, “to walk worthy of the Lord;” to glorify that grace which has saved them; to walk before God in the daily exercise of those graces he has given them; and to press after perfec­tion, that is, a ripeness of grace, or meetness for that state of glory which all these are preparatory to; to show forth his praises; the virtues of him that has called them; making his law their rule, and his glory their end above all; and all in a way of dutiful gratitude. For though ye may, and ought to have respect to your own salvation, peace, and comfort; yet so, as to substitute all to the glory of the grace of God. And take this by the way, to encourage you in your duty, that the glory of God, and his peoples' blessed­ness are so interwoven, as never to be divided: while ye keep that most directly in your eye and scope, your own concerns are most currently going on; they fall in together, and keep in the same channel.

2. Whence these requisites to salvation do proceed.

That men might know themselves to be creatures, it was needful to know the world had a beginning, by whom, and how: and no less needful to know the original of the world renewed. The not minding of which, may have been the occasion of men's ascribing the new creation to the concourse of freewill atoms: which seems at least, as irrational as the contingent coming together of the visible frame.

Our present inquiry therefore is, touching the author of faith and holiness: what root they spring from; who, or what, is the efficient cause of regeneration; what power it is by which the new creature is formed, and brought forth. Our assertion is, that the new creature is God's workman­ship, entirely and alone. This the scripture seems evident for, and delivers in positive terms in James 1:17. “Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights:” which is so full an answer to the question, as one would think admits of no reply. But being a truth unacceptable to nature, and such striving among men to entitle the human power and will to the fatherhood of this new creation, it must be ar­gued: and our argument for it is this; that the new creature must be wrought, either by a divine power, or by a natural power, or a concurrence of both together. But,

First. It cannot be wrought by a natural power, and that for such reasons as these:

Argument 1. Because it is a creature; and, of all creatures, the noblest and most excellent. All the virtuosi in the world are not able to make an atom: they may refine and sublimate things that are, but cannot give being to the least thing that is not. How then should the natural man give being to the new creation! To suppose such a thing would be a degrading to the divine nature; a setting the image of the heavenly below that of the earthly: for he that builds, is worthy of more honor than the thing that is built by him, Hebrews 3:3.

Argument 2. Nothing can afford what it has not in itself. Now, every soul, in nature, is darkness, and possessed with a habitual aversion from God: but light is not brought out of darkness, nor friendship out of enmity: no man will expect grapes from thorns; the product will be according to that of which it is produced; every seed will have its own body, 1 Corinthians 15:38. an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, Matthew 7:18. that which is born of the flesh is flesh, John 3:6, and will never be better: therefore the new creature, being a divine thing, cannot be educed of natural principles.

Argument 3. The natural man is not only void of all vir­tue and property that tends to regeneration; but is opposite thereto. To be grafted into the true olive free, is contrary to nature, Romans 11:24. “the carnal mind is enmi­ty against God,” Romans 8:7, and enmity being a principle uneatable of reconciliation, it cannot be supposed it will help to destroy itself: “they will not so much as seek ;nor(?) God, nor take him into their thoughts,” Psalm 10:4. They follow with natural motion, John 8:44. But as for the word of the Lord, they profess stoutly, they “will hot hearken to it,” Jeremiah 49:6. “They have loved stran­gers, and after them they will go,” chapter 2:25. So despe­rately wicked are the hearts of men, chapter 17:9. they are even made up of fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, and whatever has respect to his happy restoration. And this enmity is maintained and animated, (1.) By the dark­ness that is in them; which all men in nature are filled with; or with false lights, which are equally pernicious and obstructive to this work: by reason whereof; the most glorious objects, though just before them, are hid from their eyes; they do not, nor they cannot discern the things which are of God, 1 Corinthians 2:14. they have false conceptions of every thing; call good evil: and evil good; put light for darkness, and darkness for light; and the most excellent things are commonly farther off their approbation. It is a known experiment, that the more spiritual any truth is, the more will carnal reason object against it: “how can these things be?” John 3:9, and “how can this man give us his flesh to eat?” chapter 6:52. By all the understanding that men have before conversion, they are but more strong­ly prejudiced against the truth, Acts 17:18 1 Corinthians 1:19. 23, (2.) This enmity is further confirmed and fixed by the naturalness of it. If it were an adventitious quality it might possibly be separated; but now it cannot by any human power. And that it is natural, appears, in that the universality of men are infected with it: it is not here and there one, but all and every one, Jews and Gentiles, are all under sin; “none that understandeth; none that seeketh after God; none that doeth good, no, not one,” Romans 3:0— 18. “all flesh had corrupted his ways,” Genesis 6:12. “every imagination of their heart is only evil, and that continually,¹' chapter 8:21. “every man is brutish and altogether filthy,” Jeremiah 10:14. “and this is their root; conceived in sin,” Psalm 51:5. “they go astray from the womb,” Psalm 58:3. It also grows up with them; and the longer it lives, the worse it is, and the more impregnable, Jeremiah 13:23. “it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,” Romans 8:7. And though, at times, they look another way, like bullets of stone or lead, which, actuated by a foreign power, are mounted into the air, their upward motion quick­ly ceaseth, because it was not natural; they come again to their center, of their own accord, and there they live and die: as was verified in Saul, Ahab, Agrippa, and others.

Argument 4. The new creature cannot be the product of natural power, because every thing is received and impro­ved according to the nature of that, which receives it. Plants, and other creatures, turn all their nourishment into their own species and property. A vine and a thistle, both planted in one soil, have the same sun, dew, air, and other influences common to both, yet each one converts the whole of that it receives into its own substance and kind. You may plant and prune, dig and dung an evil tree, be­stow what pains you will on it, it does all but enable the more pregnant production of evil fruit: just so doth the natural man, even turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, Jude verse 8(?) 4. as to the pure all things are pure; so to the impure all things are defiled, Tit. 1:15. “David, by his afflictions, learned to keep God's laws,” Psalm 119:6, 7. but Ahaz trespassed yet more, 2 Chronicles 28:22. Good Josiah's heart melts at reading the law, he humbles him­self, and falls to reforming, chapter 34:27. 31. but wicked Jehoiakim, he cuts the roll in pieces, and bums it, Jeremiah 36:23. thus sin, that is, corrupt nature, works death by that which is good, Romans 7:8, 10.

Secondly. That the new creature is not wrought by the concurrence of divine and natural power together, the fol­lowing arguments shew.

Argument 1. The Holy Ghost needs no assistance in his work: who and where is he that stood up for his help when he moved on the waters, and brought forth this world into form? Genesis 1:2. Job 38:4. when he weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Isaiah 40:12. 14. He that made all things of nothing, cannot be supposed to need the aid of any. As man had nothing to do in the conception of Christ's human nature, but the power of the Most High was alone in that work; so also it is in forming Christ within us. Why should he call in the aid of another, unless deficient in himself? and he must be greatly put to it, that takes in the help of an enemy.

Argument 2. If the Holy Ghost had need of help, the flesh affords not the least help, nor can. For, (1.) The natural man is “without strength,” Romans 5:6. The best natured man in the world (until regenerate) is but flesh; and “all flesh is grass, and the glory of it as the flower of grass,” 1 Peter 1:24. which fades in a moment; it is an arm that has no strength, Job 26:2. makes a show, but can do nothing.

And it is not only weak in itself, but it renders weak and impotent whatever relies on it, or may be used by it, for any spiritual end: a straw in the hand of a giant will make no deeper impression than if in the hand of a strip­ling: the law itself, “which was ordained to life, is made weak through the flesh,” Romans 7:10. with chapter 8:3. The flesh is on an opposite principle, at perfect enmity against the holy seed; as you see before: it answers, as Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him?” Exodus 5:2. its whole business is to crush the workings of the spirit; and the conflict ceaseth not, but in the total overthrow of the one party. The flesh and the spirit al­ways have been, are, and will be two; yea, even where the enmity has lost its dominion, it will maintain a conflict to the last; and if the one fights against the other after the new creature is formed, it will doubtless oppose the first formation of it. (3.) If we should suppose the flesh able, in any respect, to give assistance in this work, the Holy Ghost would none of it: “what concord has Christ with Belial?” 2 Corinthians 6:2. Such mixtures are an abomination to him: he would not permit his people to yoke an ox and an ass together in ploughing, Deuteronomy 22:10. nor to sow their land with divers seeds, verse 9, and if in building an altar their tools were lifted up on it, the Lord reckons it defiled, Exodus 20:'25. (4.) Suppose a possibility of conjunction: what would be the issue of it? “when the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, giants were born to them,” Genesis 6:4. If creatures of several kinds should couple together, what could be produced but a monster in nature? such mon­sters in spirituals are hypocrites and temporary believers: in whom there is something begotten on their wills, by the common strivings and enlightenings of the Spirit, which attains to a kind of formality, but proves, in the end, a lump of dead flesh: it never comes to be a new creature: as you see in Herod and Agrippa. An owl's egg, though hatched by a dove or eagle, will prove but a nightbird: the seed of the bondwoman will be carnal, though Abraham himself be the father of it.

To illustrate this a little farther, I would briefly recount what most probably should influence the hearts of men, and lead them to repentance; with their common, if not con­stant effect, when left to their freewill improvements. I reduce them to five: a prosperous condition; afflictions; the word of God; the strivings of the Spirit; and miracles. 1. Prosperity: this, we find, has not done it. How many have been the worse, and how few, if any, the better for it? even “Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked,” Deuteronomy 32:15. In the time of the Judges, whenever they had respite from trouble, they presently fell to idolatry: “when Uzziah was strong his heart was lifted up to destruction,” 2 Chronicles 26:16. Some there be that are not in trouble like other men; their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than heart can wish, etc. But are they bettered by it? no; “pride compasseth them about like a chain, and they set their mouths against the heavens,” Psalm 73:3-9. so true is that, max­im, “Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly,” Isaiah 26:10.

2. Afflictions and judgments will not do it. It appears by Amos, that that people were loaded with a variety of judgments, “yet they turned not to him that smote them,” Amos 4:&-12(?) “the more they were stricken, the more they revolted,” Isaiah 1:5. “The Lord was wroth with Ephraim, and smote him: he hid his face from him, and was wroth,” (which, if any thing, should have moved him: ) but what cares Ephraim? “he went on frowardly in the way of his heart,” Isaiah 57:7. The Jews continue to this day in their unbelief, though “wrath be come on them to the uttermost.”  The antichristian world, when vials of wrath were poured forth on them, “they blasphemed God, and repented not,” Revelation 16:9-11. Hosea 7:9  10. .thus “bray a fool in a mortar, yet his foolishness will not depart from him,” Proverbs 22:27. it is natural to him, and therefore inseparable.

3. The word of God, and his ordinances.— Neither is it in these to turn the heart back again. Of this, the people of Israel are a pregnant example; “to them were committed the oracles of God,” Romans 3:2. no nation had God so nigh them as they, Deuteronomy 4:7, and yet the most stubborn, stiff-necked people that ever the earth bore. “The Lord sends them his prophets, rising early and sending,” 2 Chronicles 36:15, 16, and see how they are used! first, “they slight his messengers, and send them away empty,” Jeremiah 25:3, 4. they then fall to “beating and imprisoning of them,” Jeremiah 37:15. yea, they proceeded farther (for this enmity knows no bounds,) some they stoned, others they “slew with the sword,” Luke 20:10—15. when was there one that escaped them? At last he sends them his Son; surely “they will reverence him!” No, this is the heir; come, let us kill him, Matthew 21:38, and thus they went on, “until there was no remedy,” 2 Chronicles 36:16.

4. The world of ungodly in Noah's time.—After warn­ing of the flood, they had the “Spirit of God striving with them sixscore years together,” Genesis 6:3, and yet, not a man in the whole universe prevailed on. The people in the wilderness—how many ways did the Lord strive with them, by mighty deliverances, terrible appearances, merci­ful providences, dreadful judgments; and this forty years together! and yet, still they went on “rebelling against him, and vexing his Holy Spirit,” Isaiah 63:10.

5. Miracles will not do it.—What a multitude of these, mingled with judgments, were shewn on Pharaoh! all which did but further harden him, Exodus 7:14—22. chapter 6:19. chapter 9:7, etc. Then the people of the wilderness: take but that one instance of Korah and his company; “the earth clave asunder, and swallowed up the chief of the mu­tineers, with all that they had: they went alive into the pit,'. Numb. 16:32. two hundred and fifty more were consumed by fire from heaven, verse 8(?) 35. which one would think should cause them to fear the Lord, and do no more presumptu­ously; and yet the next thing we hear of them, on the very morrow, they are at it again; and that not a party of them, but the whole congregation, verse 8 41.(punctuation?) All which considered and laid together, it follows, with much evidence,

Thirdly, That the new creature is the product of divine power alone. A point of great concernment, if duly con­sidered.

The evangelist John is clear on our side touching this original and pedigree of it, both whence it is not, and whence it is: “it is born, not of blood;” that is, it belongs not to, nor is brought forth in any, as they are men made of flesh and blood; nor as they are “Abraham's seed ac­cording to the flesh,” Romans 9:7. nor is it born “of the will of the flesh;” the carnal and sensual affections have nothing to do in the spiritual birth: “nor of the will of man;” the rational faculties, by which men are set above the rank of other creatures, even these contribute nothing to our divine sonship: “but it is of God,” John 1:13. that is, it is his work alone; and the natural man has nothing to do in it: he is as perfectly unactive in it, as the dry bones in causing themselves to live, Ezekiel 37:5. 9. 14. or as La­zarus in reviving himself; of whom it is said, “He that was dead came forth bound hand and foot,” John 11:44. which was such a demonstration of divine power, that the Pharisees themselves acknowledge, “if they now let him alone, all men will believe in him,” John 11:48. (And if it were not so, the Lord alone should not be exalted.) And with this falls in the other beloved disciple, James; “Of his own will begat he us,” James 1:11. 2 Peter 1:8. that is, by his own divine power he forms and brings forth the new creation, without any assistance from the old, or cooperation of it: they contribute no more to it, than those who sleep in the dust to their own resurrection. Peter also tells us, “It is born of incorruptible seed,” 8 Peter 1:23, and John, again, “it is born of the Spirit,” John 3:8. which is plainly to be the offspring of God. Of like tenor is that of the prophet, “Thou hast wrought all our works within us,” Isaiah 26:12, and that of Paul, “We are his workmanship,” Ephesians 2:10. as also that of the Psalm­ist, “It is he that has made us, and not we ourselves, his people,” Psalm 100:2. We find it here, and in John, ex­pressed both negatively and positively; as purposely and for ever to exclude whatever is in man from being so much as thought contributary to the new creation; and that the whole work might be fathered on God only; which is, indeed, the natural result of all those scriptures which speak of it under the notion of a creature; which necessarily implies, that the whole of it, both matter and form, is from the Creator: for, in truth, a creature's foundation is nothing, besides the good pleasure of God. It may further be noted, that in James, “the Father of lights” is said to beget it; and in the Galatians, “Jerusalem which is above” to be the mother of it; and in John, as before, that it is born of the Spirit. Now, if father and mother, begetter and bringer forth, are both in heaven, what shall the man of earth found his pretensions on, as to the parentage of the new creature?

And further, it is worthy of remark; 1. What sort of in­struments were mostly used in this work. Not the learned, but illiterate men: and of these, such most eminently as had neither elegancy of speech, nor majestic presence, 2 Corinthians 10:10, and the end of this was, that it might appear, and men might be convinced, that “their faith stood not in (was neither made nor maintained by) the wisdom of men, but the power of God,” 1 Corinthians 2:3, 4, 5.

The natural unaptness of the persons commonly wrought on, to receive those highborn principles: not many of the wise and noble, but the poor, base, and foolish; that is, in comparison of others. And why these? Truly it was to make good the truth that is here asserted, namely, “That no flesh might glory in his presence,” chapter 1:26—29. And yet likewise take notice, that the wise and noble were not excluded; witness the wife of Herod's steward, Joseph, Nicodemus, and Sergius Paulus, a prudent man: which further illustrates the power of God, and that he did, by those weak and contemptible means, bring in also such as these.

3. The scripture is so emphatically ascribing this work to God: which kind of ascription were very improper, if faith and holiness were things so common, and easily at­tained, and the natural man so able and virtuous an engine in that work, as most men imagine. Paul styles it, “The faith of the operation of God,” Colossians 2:12. Isaiah makes it dependant on the “arm of the Lord revealed,” Isaiah 53:1. that is, made bare, and put forth to the utmost. Our Savior attributes it to God the Father, as Lord of heaven and earth, Matthew 11:25. And Paul, again, to the “ex­ceeding greatness of his mighty power, even the same by which he raised Jesus Christ from the dead,” Colossians 1:12. even then, when the sins of all his people lay on him; and all the malice, strength, and subtlety of the powers of darkness were up in arms against it: which was indeed the highest indication of divine power that ever was put forth, or shall be.

3. The next thing to be shown is, who those blessed ones are to whom these requisites to salvation do be­long; and by what title.

The answer is, they all do belong to elect persons, and that in right of their election. Elect and believer are con­vertible terms: every believer is an elect person, and every elect person is a believer, or shall be in his time. This right, indeed, is neatly founded on redemption; but be­ing originally from election, I shall speak here only to that To put effects in the place of causes, and causes of effects, is a great absurdity in natural things, and yet how prone are we to it in matters of divine concernment! which chiefly comes from the pride of our spirits, who fain would be somebody in procuring our own happiness; and do there­fore ascribe it to any cause, rather than that which is proper to it. This is a great evil; and the more perilous and catch­ing, because espoused by some of no common profession, and that with great pretences of reason for it. To refute which, your most rational course will be to search and con­sult the scriptures; whose testimony, and right reason, do always sort together: and if by this ascent you follow salva­tion, and all the conducements thereto, up to their head, you shall find them all to be entirely and absolutely of God, and contained in the same decree; and, consequently, that faith and holiness are the effects and certain consequences of election.

The genuine import of scripture’s salvation is broad and comprehensive, extending to all manner of requisites which any way conduce to the perfect accomplishment of the thing itself. Outward salvation, whatever belongs to the outward man's preservation; as water, bread, walls, bulwarks, etc. Isaiah 26:1. “Salvation will appoint walls and bulwarks;” that is, the promise of salvation implies and carries in it all things pertaining to safety: so spiritual salvation, what­ever pertains to blessedness and glory; as redemption from sin, faith, holiness, and holding out to the end: any of which being absent, would invalidate all the rest, as one round of a ladder plucked out, hinders your ascent to the top. If one gives me a piece of land that is all around enclosed, the law gives me a way to it (though no express mention hereof in my deed,) so as to take the profits; his gift would other­wise little avail me. Salvation is that the elect are en­dowed with; faith and holiness the necessary way to their actual possession; and, therefore, these they must be ordained to, and are, as well as to salvation itself: for, be­ing “predestinate to the adoption of sons,” Ephesians 1:5. “and to be conformed to the image of Christ,” Romans 8:28. (which is not perfectly accomplished until his appear­ing in glory) 1 John 3:2. they must be predestinated also to all those intermediate dispensations and graces which are requisite thereto. For, right to the end, gives right to the means; they are therefore said to be “chosen to salva­tion, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth,” 2 Thessalonians 2:13. In order of intention, God wills the end first, and then the means: in order of execution, the means first, as directive to that end, Romans 8:30. The end is the cause of the means, Ephesians 2:4, 5, and election the cause of them both, chapter 2:8. 10.

The promise of Canaan to Abraham's seed, did virtually contain whatever must come between the making of the promise, and the final performance of it: as, 1. To multiply his seed into a nation. 2. To keep Esau, Laban, and others, from hurting them. 3. To provide for them in time of fa­mine. 4. To preserve and increase them in Egypt, not­withstanding the Egyptians' craft and cruelty to suppress them. 5. To bring them forth with an high hand, in con­tempt of Pharaoh's resolvedness against it, and his potency to withstand it. 6. To divide the sea before them, and pro­vide them a table in the wilderness. 7. To cause their enemies' hearts to faint, and become as water. 8. To send the hornet before them, and to fight for them, etc. (For otherwise the Lord's giving them Canaan, had been but as the pope's giving England to the Spaniard, that, is, if he could get it.) And, lastly, to pardon their manifold great and high provocations; by which they exposed themselves to wrath and extirpation daily. So is it in the case of elec­tion; it draws with it even all that is tendent to the saints' actual investiture with glory. The apostle, therefore, linketh eternity past with eternity to come: he makes election and glorification the two extreme points of the compass; calling and justification (which are parts intermediate) he founds on the first, in order to the last; and gives you their set course. In Romans 8. “Whom he did foreknow, them also he did predestinate (to what?) to be conformed to the image of his Son; and whom he did predestinate, them also he called,” Romans 8:29. And what did he call them to? He called them to holiness, to glory and virtue, 2 Peter 1:3, and “whom he called, them also he justified and glorified,” Romans 8:30. These all do belong to the same persons, and that by virtue of the decree, and no one of them did ever go alone.

The like succession of causes and effects ye have in the 16th of Ezekiel, 6—12. The Lord finds them in their blood, that is, in their natural lost condition: he enters into covenant with them, and makes them his own; there is their election: then he washes them, and that thoroughly; there is their justification: and then adorns them; there is their sanctification, which always is consummated in glory. In the 17th of the Acts, ye have Paul preaching at Thessalonica, verse 8(?) 1—4. The same doctrine was propounded to all indefinitely; and it must be so, for the minister knows not the elect from other men: but the Holy Ghost, who searcheth the deep things of God, and has the manage­ment of this work committed to him, he knew the elect by name, John 10:3, and accordingly took them, “gathered them one by one,” Isaiah  17:12. (each one in his proper time) “and opened their ears to discipline,” Job. 26:10. Making them what they were chosen to be. And the same apostle, in his epistle to the Thessalonians, where he cele­brates the effects of this sermon, brings in their election as the cause of their conversion; “Knowing, brethren, be­loved, your election of God; for our gospel came not to you in word only (as it did to others,) but in power,” 1 Thessalonians 4:5. So in the Acts, “As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed,” Acts 13:48, and “the Lord added to the church daily (whom did he add?) such as should be saved,” chapter 2:47. Effectual calling is a sure de­monstration of election, and the first effect by which it can be known.

That precious faith through which we are saved, is ob­tained “through the righteousness of God, and our Savior Jesus Christ,” 2. Peter 1:1. 1. It is given through the righteousness of God the Father; and so, it either re­spects his ordaining us to eternal life; in which act he did implicitly engage himself to give us faith, which may therefore be “called the faith of God's elect,” Tit. 1:1. or else it respects his promise made to Christ, “that making his soul an offering for sin, he should see his seed,” Isaiah 53:10. Tit. 1:2. with 2 Timothy 1:9, or it may be intended of both. 2. The righteousness of Christ is con­cerned in it two ways: 1. As the meriting or procuring cause thereof; and so this faith belongs of right to every one he died for, Philippians 1:29. Or, 2. As he is that faithful servant, who gives to every one according as he has receiv­ed of the Father for them, Ephesians 4:7,8. in all which re­spects it evidently flows from election. To confirm which, Peter says expressly, in his former epistle, that they were “elected to obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,” 1 Peter 1:2. So the mystery of his will is made known, according to his good pleasure, which he had purposed in himself, Ephesians 1:9. The same intention we have in the Corinthians; “the preaching of the gospel is to them that perish, foolishness: but to us who are saved, it is the power of God,” 1 Corinthians 1:18, and in Timothy, “Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling,” 2 Timothy 1:9. in both places saving is put before calling, and then it must be before faith: and how men are saved before they believe, unless by election, or redemption, which is commensurate with election, doth not appear to us. To this purpose it is further observable, that in Romans 8:30. the apostle sets predestination before calling; as in Timo­thy and the Corinthians, he doth saving: and in Romans 9:23, 24. he puts calling in a tense subsequent to election, or preparing to glory. The apostle Jude, in his sentence also accords with it: he directs his epistle “to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called,” verse 8(?) 1. where, by sanctified he means elected, separated, or set apart: in this sense the word is used else­where, where it will not admit of any other, Exodus 3:13. “I am the Lord that doth sanctify you” and more plainly in Numb. 8:17. “all the firstborn of the children of Isra­el are mine: on the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for myself: “here no other thing but choosing, selecting, or setting apart, can be intended: and I see no reason why it should not be so understood in that of Jude.

And it is termed a holy calling, not only as it calleth us to holiness; but as it is sacred, peculiar, set apart, and ap­propriated to a holy people, namely, those whom the Lord set apart for himself: whose eternal sanctifying them in his decree, was the original cause of their being sanctified actually; “he loved them with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving kindness doth he draw them,” Jeremiah 31:3, and this their actual sanctification is so indubitable a consequent of the decretive, and so appropriate to the same persons, that the same word is used for both; as it is also for redemption: “for their sakes (says Christ) I sanc­tify myself,” John 17:19. A like instance of this we have in Eldad and Medad, who though they came not up to the tabernacle with their brethren, yet, being of them that were written, “the Spirit came on them, and they prophesied in the camp,” Numb. 9:26.. Election finds out men when they think not of it. So the Lord first deter­mines Jeremy to his office; then puts forth his hand, and fits him for his work, Jeremiah 1:9. Even Christ himself was first appointed to his mediatory office; and then the Spirit came on him, because so appointed, Isaiah 61:1.

Quer. In the 1st of John, 16. it is said, that “to them which received him, he gave power to become the sons of God;” which seems to put their believing before their sonship.

Solu. Although faith goes before the manifestation of our sonship, yet not before our sonship itself; “the adop­tion of sons is (hat we were predestinated to before the foundation of the world,” Ephesians 1:4, 5. That therefore in John, must be understood with that of Moses, when he pleads with God for his presence with his people; “so shall we be separated from all the people that are on the face of the earth” Exodus 33:13. not that this separation was now to be made; it was done before, Lev. 20:24. but his meaning is, that by the Lord's going with them, this their separation should be manifested. This sense of the word ye have in Matthew 5: “Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; that ye may be (that is, that ye may appear to be) the children of your father which is in heaven,” Deuteronomy 7:6. Matthew 5:44, 45. in like manner we become “the sons of God by faith,” Galatians 3:26.

The budding of Aaron's rod was not the cause of God's choosing him to the priesthood, Numbers 17:5, 8. nor the fall­ing of the lot on Saul, and afterwards on Matthias, the reason why God designed them, the one to the king­dom, and the other to the apostleship; they were both appointed before, and those events were but the effects of their foreappointment, and evidences of it, 1 Samuel 9:16. with chapter 10:21. Acts 1:24,26. So the giving of the Spirit is that which follows election; “because sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,” Galatians 4:6. Although the manifestation of our adoption, and our actu­al enjoyment of its privileges, are in time; yet the thing itself we u ere(?) predestinated to from everlasting, Ephesians 1. 4, f, 0, 11. (?) Pursuant to this, our Savior manifests the Father's name to the men he had given him out of the and these receive it, John 17:6. 8. The sheep hear his voice, and follow him, chapter 10:27. Of others he saith expressly, “ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep,” verse 8 26. “He that is of God, heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not, because you are not of God,” chapter 8:47. The same reason he gives for his different ministration towards his own and others: to the one it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God; to the other it was not given, Matthew 13:11, and, therefore, having ended his parables, he dismisses the multitude, as having no more for them; but to his disciples he expounded every thing in private, Mark 4:34, and ye see he puts it on election, as that which had invested them with this prerogative above the rest. “To you it is given;” that is, it belonged to them by God's donation and appointment. They are first saints by election, then saints by calling, Romans 1:7.

When Christ appeared to Paul going to Damascus, they that were with him were all in amaze; a voice they heard, but knew not what it spake. Why so, since they were as likely to yield as he? It was not intended for them, and therefore their ears were not bored, nor the speech directed to them, but to Paul, and to Paul by name. But why to Paul above the rest, since he was the ringleader and chief persecutor in the company? Paul was a chosen vessel; and this, in brief, was the reason of it, as you have it recorded in Acts 22:14. “The God of our fathers has chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will.”  The Jews had many means of knowing the Messiah, and inducements to believe in him, which the “Gentiles had not; and yet these embrace the gospel, while the Jews reject it. Those who sought af­ter righteousness, fell short of it; when those who sought it not, attained it, Romans 9:30, 31. For the bottom reason of which different dispensation, we are referred to election; “The election has obtained, and the rest were blinded,” chapter 11:7.

How variously are several men affected in hearing the same word? The sheep and the rest have both the same outward means; one neglects it, attends not at all, or re­gards not what he hears; a second quarrels at it; as the Jews often did; a third is persuaded almost, as Agrippa was, and those that would hear Paul again of that matter: a fourth is pricked in the heart, and persuaded altogether. It is a stumbling block to some, foolishness to others, and to some it is the power of God: and these some were elected; of those to whom the promise was made, Acts 2:39, and are therefore termed the called according to his own purpose, Romans 8:28, and according to his own purpose and grace, which was given them in Christ before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9. they are first chosen, and then caused to approach to God, Psalm 65:4.

There is almost no end of scriptures to this purpose: I shall instance one more, and so close up this particular. All the blessings which the saints are blessed with, in time, are bestowed according to God's decree of election be­fore time; as is manifest from Ephesians 1:3, 4. 5. Where f observe(?), 1. That election goes before the actual donation of spiritual blessings: for these are given in time, that was before time; and that which comes after, cannot be the cause of that which went before it: one effect may be the cause of another; but not the cause of that which causeth itself. 2. That the actual donation of spiritual blessings is according to election; that is, election is the rule by which the dispensation is guided; it is adequate with election, and answerable thereto; even as the impression is to the printing types; or as the fashion of David's body, to the platform thereof in God's book; and the tabernacle, to the pattern shown in the mount, according to which all things are made, as well in respect of number, weight, and measure, as form and figure. Spiritual blessings are not given to one more or fewer, or in other manner, but just, as election had laid it forth: which also is further confirmed by Revelation 21:27. where we find, that none are admitted into the holy city, but such “whose names were written in the book of life; and whoever was not found written in that book, was cast into the lake of fire,” Revelation 20:15. which shows, that at the latter day it will be taken for granted, that “as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed;” and that all and every one without the list of election, died in unbelief; that “the election obtained,” Acts 13:48. “and the rest were blinded,” Romans 11:7. therefore faith and holiness are not the cause, but the certain effects and consequents of election.

Now if any should ask, by the way, where the special love of God to elect persons discovers itself before their conversion? I cannot assign any plain or open discoveries of it, by which the elect may be known from other men, since all outward things fall alike to all: “the heir, while a child, differs nothing from a servant, although he be lord of all,” by election, Galatians 4:1. And yet there are divers gracious operations of that love towards them, even in common providences, although they are not perceived until afterwards: as,

1. In keeping alive the root or stem they were to grow from: this, perhaps, was not the least cause of adding fif­teen years to Hezekiah's life; namely, for Josiah's sake, who was to come of his lineage; Manasseh, who was to be his grandfather, not being yet born: so those days of tribu­lation were shortened, and many of the Jews, by special providence, kept alive, for the elect's sake that should be of their progeny, perhaps two thousand years after.

2. In preserving the elect themselves from many a death they were obnoxious to before their conversion, as he also did Manasseh: and this was the cause, when Satan had them in his net, and had dragged them to the brink of hell, that “the Lord sent from heaven, and saved them,” Psalm 57:3. “Deliver him; I have found a ransom,” Job 33:24. q. d. (?) He is mine, and I have designed him to an­other end.

3. In keeping them from the unpardonable sin. Thus Paul, being a chosen vessel, was kept without that knowl­edge of Christ which some of the Pharisees had; for other­wise his persecuting the church of God had been incapa­ble of pardon, as appears from 1 Timothy 1:3. “I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly.”

4. In casting the lot of their habitation where he has planted, or will plant, the means of grace; or bringing them, providentially, where some effectual word shall be spoken to them: the one is verified in those who dwelt at Corinth, where Paul must preach, and not hold his peace; for, says the Lord, “I have much people in this city,” Acts 18:9,10. the other, in those who were come to Je­rusalem at the feast of Pentecost, from all parts of the world; which gave them the opportunity of coming togeth­er, and of hearing Peter's sermon, by means whereof thous­ands were converted, chapter 2:5. It is further exemplified by the story of the eunuch, chapter 8:27. as also that of Zaccheus, whose intent reached no higher than to what manner of person Christ was, being so much talked of abroad; and being low of stature, he climbs into a tree, and there salvation meets both him and his house, Luke 19:2-9.

IV. Our last inquiry is, Of the way and manner of God's dispensing spiritual blessings: and that is effectually and freely.

First. Effectually. The soul is not turned to God by a twinethread; nor doth the Lord content himself with wish­ing and hoping that it might be so, after the manner of men, who either are somewhat indifferent about the thing, or have not wherewith to effect their desires: nor merely by propounding, moving and striving, by moral suasions, instructions, threatenings, and the like (which are of little avail with a dark understanding, and fixed enmity, which every natural man is actuated by;) but by the putting forth of a power invincible: a power that will not be said nay; but what it wills, that it will do; what it undertakes, it goes through with. To do a thing effectually, is to do it per­fectly, thoroughly, successfully: so to use and apply the means, that the end designed is surely brought to pass; and this, notwithstanding all the weakness, averseness, and re­pugnancy of the carnal mind against it.

I might produce instances not a few, touching God's ef­fectual working to bring about things of lesser moment. How unwilling was Moses to be his messenger to Pharaoh! Exodus 3 and 4: so opposite to it, that when he had no far­ther plea nor excuse to make, he carries it perversely to­wards the Lord; “Send by the hand of him whom thou wilt send,” says he, chapter 4:13. but God having designed him for the work, leaves him not until he had won him to it, verse 18. So Pharaoh resolved he would not let the people go: but “I will stretch out my hand, says God, and he shall let you go.”  Much more will he make his arm bare for the salvation of his chosen, whom he loved from everlasting: and it must be so done.

Argument 1. Because, otherwise, the elect should be in no better condition than other men; for, until conversion, Satan has as fast hold of them as of the rest. Adam's fall was the devil's masterpiece: to bring men into his own con­demnation, is the trophy he glories in; and being a prince, both proud, subtle, and imperious, you may not think he will be baffled or complimented out of his hold: entreaties, menaces, and force of arguments, are of no weight with him; he laughs at your strong reasons, and counts them but rotten wood; Jesus I know, and his Spirit I know, Acts 19:15. but what are these? No; this kind goes not forth by consent; nothing will move him, but that power which hea­ven and earth do bow under: he that made him (and he only) can cause his sword to approach to him, and take the prey from this terrible one. And for this it was, that our Savior tells the apostles (when he sends them to “turn men from Satan to God,”) that “all power in heaven and earth was committed to him,” Matthew 28:18, and that in this power “he will be with them to the end of the world,” Matthew 28:20. Luke 9:1. which was indeed but needful; for they had surely gone on a sleeveless errand (a weak and fruitless design,) if Christ himself thus empowered had not gone with them. And for the elect themselves, they are of themselves, no better disposed to this work than those that never shall be wrought on: they are enemies in their minds, darkness, dead in sin, and children of wrath, even as others: and this they are by nature: their state, therefore could not be changed, if a power invincible, and invincibly resolved in what he undertakes, were not engaged in it. Ephraim, though an elect vessel, yet while in nature, was of so bad a nature, that all moral endeavors were lost on him. Let messengers be sent to him early and late, he pulls away the shoulder: the Lord was wroth with him, smote him, hid his face from him; he still went on frowardly: show him his sickness; so that he cannot but see it; and he sends to king Jareb, takes any course rather than turn to him that smote him, Hosea 5:13. take off the yoke from his jaw, give him the scope of his will, and the first thing he takes to shall be the forbidden fruit: lay meat to his mouth, that which is meat indeed, and he will rather starve than eat; men left to their own will, will rather go to hell, than be beholden to free grace for salvation. But, says God, “Is Ephraim my dear son?” one whom I bought with a price? “Is he a pleasant child?” Jeremiah 31:20. whom I loved from everlasting; and shall I so lose him? shall it be said, that I raised up a creature whom I cannot rule and bring to my bent? or, that I made him for such an end, as that any thing conducible thereto may not be done for him? shall my will be forced rather than his? mine to destroy him, rather than his to be saved? No; I have not done all this to lose him at last; nor have I suffered those unworthy repulses, for want of power to prevent them, but that Ephraim might see what would become of him if left to the conduct of his own will; (free indeed to nothing but his own ruin!) and now I will heal him: and the first effect of this healing was, Ephraim's applying himself to God; “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned,” chapter 31:18. Those cords of love, by which the Lord draws men to himself, are not love and kindness mere­ly propounded, with frustrable motives to persuade accep­tance, but “divine love shed abroad in the heart,” Romans 5:5. not written with ink (a thing of human composition) but by the Spirit and power of God. And hence it is that we find those imperial terms,” I will, and ye shall,” so much in use about this matter. Thus the Lord began with the ser­pent (which was a leading case to all that follows, “It shall bruise thine head;” in which compendious word, the de­struction of Satan and sin is effectually provided for: and elsewhere he speaks as much for quickening the soul, “A new heart also will I give you, and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; ye shall be my people, and I will be your God,” Ezekiel 36:26, 27, 28. “They shall return to me with their whole heart,” Jeremiah 24:7. with many others. The Lord still utters him­self in terms of omnipotency, as putting forth an almightiness of power; which, as it needs not, so it will not (yea, it cannot with a salvo to his honor) admit the least depend­ence on created power to make it successful: “his word shall not return to him void; it shall accomplish that which he pleaseth, and prosper in the thing whereto he sends it,” Isaiah 55:11. “He that was dead, comes forth at his word, though bound hand and foot,” John. 11:44.

Argument 2. Conversion is a creation work; which, though done by degrees, must be gone through with, and that by him who laid the foundation; or all the foregoing parts (as conviction) will molder and come to nothing. As, when Adam was to be made, the Lord first prepares the earth, then moulds it in such a form, and then “breathes into him the breath of life;” else that lump had never been a living soul. So, in the new creation, the Lord works, and goes on to work, and leaves it not, until he has set it going. He doth not only cause the light to shine into darkness, but gives, withal, a suitable understanding, 1 John 5:20. a faculty connatural with the object, as without which the darkness would never comprehend it, John 1:5. Ezekiel might have prophesied till doom's day, ere those dry bones would have lived, if the Lord himself had not caused breath to enter into them; and, probably, he is call­ed “the Father of lights,” James 1:17. (plural) to denote, that as well the light comprehending (or capacitating our comprehension) is from God, as that to be comprehended, 2 Corinthians 4:6. “In his light we see light,” Psalm 36:9.

Argument 3. God's effectual working in this matter, and the necessity of his so working, may also be argued from the common sense of those already wrought on, and brought in; by whose prayers and confessions it is evident, that they still needed a powerful and effectual influence to carry on the work already begun: “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned,” Jeremiah 31:18. “Quicken us, and we will call on thee,” Psalm 80:18. “Draw me, we will run after thee,” Cant.(this should be Song of Soloman)  1:4. “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing, but our sufficiency is of God,” 2 Corinthians 3:5. “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,” etc. Galatians 2:20. Hence it readily follows, that if those already turn­ed, and made partakers of the divine nature, whose hearts are fixed in the good ways of God, and who desire nothing more than to walk in them, cannot yet keep themselves going, without a continued efficacious influx and spring from above; much less can the natural man, without the like supernatural and divine efficacy, effectually bend him­self to a compliance with them: for, “It is an abomina­tion to fools to depart from evil,” Proverbs 13:19.

Argument 4. If the Lord did not work effectually, he should lose the honor of his work. If the efficacy of grace should depend on the human will (that is, if grace should be ren­dered effectual by some motion or act of the will, which grace is not the author of,) then will nature assume the pri­ority; works will glory over grace, and freewill will be said to be better than free grace; for, that the less is bless­ed of the better, is without contradiction, Hebrews 7:1, and; that that which sanctifies, is greater than that which is sanc­tified by it, is so obvious, that Christ appeals it to the rea­son of fools and blind, Matthew chapter 23:19. If, therefore, you will grant, that grace is better than nature; follow it must, that the will is blessed and sanctified by grace, namely, by its powerful and effectual operation on it. And here, indeed, lies the honor and efficacy of grace; not in a vin­cible moving, exciting, persuading, or threatening the will to a compliance; but in taking off its natural bias, and placing it, as it were, on the other side; working the heart into a kindly agreeableness with the divine will, which be­fore was so contrary to it: and thus the Lord doeth, and thus he will do, where so ever he will be gracious; though ever so much against the present mind and natural pro­pensity of the subject: and yet there is no such thing as forcing the will, as ye will see afterwards.

Argument 5. The doctrine of effectual calling is further con­firmed, from the office of Christ as a Redeemer; which was not only to purchase, but to put us in actual possession of the good things he purchased for us. Redemption, forgive­ness of sin, and reconciliation, are relatives, commensu­rate, and inseparable, Ephesians 1:7. chapter 2:13. 16. Heb 2:17. It is not only a reconcilable state that redemption puts us into, but a state of actual reconcilement, Romans 5:8, 9, 10. Colossians 1:20, 21, 22. it “abolishes the enmity,” Ephesians 2:15. “makes an end of sin, and brings in everlasting righteousness,” Daniel 9:24. On this account our Savior bears that glorious title, “Thou shall call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins,” Matthew 1:21, and for “this cause was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil,” 1 John 3:8. Now, of those works, blindness of mind is the firstborn, and foster mother to all the rest, 2 Corinthians 4:4. it is that keeps the soul in unbelief, as under locks and bars; and there­fore must of necessity be dispelled; which can only be done by causing the true light to shine effectually; as he did the light of this world in the first creation, which the scripture resembles it to, verse 8(?) 6. Hence those frequent mentions of his being sent “to open the blind eyes,” Isaiah 43:7. to give light to them that sit in darkness, Luke 1:79, and to bring forth the prisoners from the prison house, Isaiah 49; 9. which may not be valued as things in design, yet liable to obstruction; but to be as certainly performed as that Christ should die. In the 107th Psalm it is spoken of as done, already; “He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder,” Psalm 107:14, and that he speaks it of redeemed ones, ap­pears by verse 8(?) 2. First, take them as in darkness, and he i – so(?) to give them light, as to “guide their feet into the way of peace,” Luke 1:79. The story of the blind man in Mark, is a pertinent shadow of it; Christ spits on his eyes, and puts his hand on him; as yet he saw but darkly, “men as trees walking;” but he puts his hands on him again; and dismisses him not until he has made him see clearly, Mark 8:23, 24,25. Then take them as prisoners, and prisoners in the pit, Zechariah 9:11, and he that will de­liver them must not only open the gate, but disarm their guard, knock off their shackles, and bring them forth as the angel did Peter, even “while the keepers stood before the door,” Acts 12:6, 7. He so calleth his sheep, that he “leadeth them out,” John 10:3, and this he doth by the blood of his covenant; it is that makes those in the pit to be prisoners of hope, Zechariah 9:11, 12. And these ef­fects as duly flow from redemption, as light from the sun; it is therefore expressly said, that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,” 1 John 1:7, and that “we are sanctified through the offering of his body once for all,” Hebrews 10:10. This gave the apostle to argue so positively in Rom 6. that “if planted together in his death, we shall be also in his resurrection,” Romans 6:5, and to put that emphasis on it, that “if reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more shall we be saved by his life,” Romans 5:9,10. That saying of Christ is much to our purpose; and “other sheep I have, them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice,” John 10:16. This must, imports a duty not to be dispensed with; he had “received a com­mandment for it from the Father,” verse 8(?) 18, and this shall, that effectual working, “whereby he subdues all things to himself;” and whereby they are made to believe, Ephesians 1:19. The sheep, of themselves, lie as cross to this work as other men: “What have I to do with thee?” cries the pos­sessed Gadarene, Mark 5:7. but being his sheep, he must make them willing, Peal. 110:3. But suppose they stop their ears; then he is to bore them; for “he received gifts for the rebellious,” Psalm 68:18. Men's averseness does not lose Christ his right; nor shall it render his work inef­fectual. For this very end God raised him up, namely, “to bless his people, in turning them from their iniqui­ties,” Acts 3:26, and to give them repentance, and that such as has forgiveness of sins annexed to it, chapter 5:31. which also he doth as a prince; that is, as one invested with power to remove whatever might hinder the effect of his purpose; to him are committed “the keys of hell and of death,” Revelation 1:18. From these premises I con­clude, that what Christ, as a Redeemer, came to do, that he doeth, and will do; and that none of his work shall fall to the ground. What he saith in the 17th of John, is pro­phetical of what he will say at the latter day: “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do; of all that thou hast given me, I have lost nothing; I have manifested thy name to the men which thou gavest me out of the world; I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them,” John 17:4. 6. 8. More might be added; but by these I hope it is evident, that Jesus Christ was not only a Redeemer to pay our ransom, but the officer appointed of God to set us at liberty, even that glo­rious liberty of the sons of God: and this is that pleasure of the Lord which should prosper in his hands, Isaiah 49:10. as it has done, and doth, and for ever shall: and it is matter of great consolation to them that take hold of his covenant.

Secondly. All that God doeth for men, or gives to them, in order to their salvation, is given and done freely. Now, a thing is then said to be thus given or done, when it pro­ceeds from the mere good will and favor of him that worketh, forgiveth; without respect to any thing done or deserved by the receiver: it is a voluntary act supposing no obliga­tion in him that gives; nor any attractive or obliging virtue in him that receives; nor yet expectation of recompense from him. Much need not be said to prove the free giving of the things we are speaking of, did we duly consider, 1. The sovereign greatness of him that gives: it is the “Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth;” who is infinitely and independently blessed in himself, and therefore cannot be added to, nor receive from any creature. Who can give to him that gives to all their life and breath? 2. The superexcellent, unspeakable worth of the things that are given: the first and chief is our Lord Jesus Christ; whose dignity was such, that heaven and earth were too low a price to set them at, especially to be given as he was; and in him righteousness and strength, adoption and reconcilia­tion, grace and glory. 3. The vanity and wretchedness of those on whom they are bestowed: both scripture and experience speak nothing of them in their natural state, but what bespeaks a condition every way deplorable, and inca­pable of yielding motives for such a gift; as is shown before. But being so greatly in love with ourselves, and fond of our own improvements, and stiffly bent to a covenant of works, to help us off those dangerous shelves, let us dwell awhile on the following arguments.

Argument 1. Is taken from the nature and import of the cov­enant of grace. This covenant is that which all professing Christians profess to be saved by, however they differ about the import and latitude of it. But if we receive the scrip­tural notion (which needs must be the right,) we shall find, that it is of the very nature and substance of this covenant, to give freely and absolutely; without condition­ing for any thing to be done by men, as the ground or mo­tive thereof. All that God doeth for those he will save, is for his name's sake; which name is recorded in Exodus 34:5, 6. “The Lord God, gracious and merciful,” etc. To be gracious, is to do well to one that deserves ill; and if otherwise, it would be but after the covenant of works, or first covenant; which yet was not faulty or defective in it­self, for it gave a sufficiency to obtain the benefits propo­sed by it; which if they had used and improved as they might, there would not have needed a second. But the Lord foreknowing the creature's mutability, and, conse­quently, what need there would be of another kind of power and grace than that Adam was created with, did therefore determine of a second; which in scripture is called “the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began,” Tit. 1:2. It is called the covenant of grace, not only as designing the glory of his grace in the saving of men; but as giving freely, and of mere grace and favor, whatever must bring about that salvation. For where else can lie the difference between the two covenants? It cannot be in respect of the easiness and difficulty of the duties enjoined; for faith and repent­ance are much more above the compass of natural power, than to forbear the forbidden tree: but the difference lies in this, that the new covenant consists in better promises; and this betterness, in the free, absolute, independent engagement of God, to invest his covenant ones with all things conducing to the blessedness held forth; as well that to be done on their part, as on his own on their doing it. That is, plainly, to give to them, and work in them, whatever in this covenant he requires of them. The law shows matter of duty, but gives not wherewith to perform it: the covenant of grace does both, by writing the law in the heart; and without this, it would still have been but a covenant of works, be the duties enjoined what you will. It there­fore runs not on conditional or fallible terms, “I will, if ye will;” but absolute and sovereign, “I will, and ye shall.”  This covenant does not only give life on terms of believing; but faith also and holiness, as the necessary means of attaining that life: and this not on your ingenious compliance, as some term it, or better improve­ment of what you have in common with other men, (such allegations the Lord disallows, and often cautions against,) but of grace, it is a covenant made up of promises; and promise, by scripture intendment, is always free: both freely made, and freely performed, without the desert or procurement of men. Take Isaac for instance: Abraham's body was now dead, and for Sarah, besides her natural barrenness, “it ceased to be with her after the manner of women,” and yet Sarah shall have a son, Genesis 19:11.14. But how? The promise had in it (though Abraham and Sa­rah had not) whatever might tend to Isaac's conception and birth; and for this cause he was called “the son of the promise,” Galatians 4:23, 28. as also believers are, Romans 2:8 Galatians 3:29. they are also termed “heirs of promise;” Hebrews 6:17. And on this account Christ is called the “promised seed;” and the Holy Ghost the “Spirit of promise;” namely, to shew the independent freeness of those divine gifts; the promise of sending them, their actual coming, and ef­fectual operations, are all free, and free in all respects. This “dew from the Lord waiteth not for men,” Micah 5:7. For further illustration, the Jews are a pertinent instance, as ye read in Jeremy, Jeremiah 32:30—35. they had done nothing but evil from their youth up, and were a continual provocation; and when scattered among the nations, were no whit bettered; but caused even the heathen to blaspheme: and yet notwithstanding all this, the Lord will gather them, and “give them an heart to fear him for ever,” verse 8(?) 37—44, and this, even while they were not moved “neither could they blush,” chapter 8:12. See also with what inexpressible freeness of grace the Lord deals with them in the 43d of Isaiah, “I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgres­sion,—and will not remember thy sins,” Isaiah 43:25. But what is the introduction to this so great a promise? see it and wonder at it! “Thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel: thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings: thou hast bought me no sweet cane with thy money . . . but hast made me to serve with thy sins, and wearied me with thine iniquities,” verses 22, 23, 24. “I, even I (whom thou hast dealt so ungratefully with and disingenuously, even I) am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, for mine own sake,” verse 8(?) 25. And this was a great thing they looked not for: as, indeed considering themselves, and what their demeanor had been, they had no reason to look for it. From all which it is clear, that grace respects not the wor­thiness of men in what it does for them; nay, it must re­spect their unworthiness rather, as that by which grace is more illustrated, and the glory thereof more advanced: in that, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,” Romans 5:20. And Paul proclaims it as verified on himself: “I was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy; and the grace of our Lord was exceed­ing abundant,” 1 Timothy 1:13, and hereon he falls to adoring that grace; “Now, to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen,” verse 17.

The riches of mercy is made out by saving the chief of sinners, and in quickening them when dead, Ephesians 2:1. 4, and it is very observable, that the apostles, whenever they mention the grace of God in saving, quickening, they give not the least intimation of men's worthiness, preparedness, compliance, or any such thing, but dead in sins, and quick­ening, come one on the neck of the other, as light does on darkness, which in no sort induces the light, or prepares the dark earth or air for it, as is abundantly evident in all their epistles. And how often does the Lord declare against all the pretensions of men, as to their activity in this matter, in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea? etc, and as a bar to those pretensions, the holy people he calls, “A people sought out;” and proclaims, “I am found of them that sought me not.”  This I shall end with a very observ­able instance within my own memory; and I bring it not in for proof, but illustration. I knew a man, who when he came under convictions, endeavored with all his might to stifle them: his convictions grew stronger, and he harden­ed himself against them: he saw their tendency: but was so opposite to it, that he resolved, in express terms, he would not be a puritan, whatever came of it. To the church he must go, his master would have it so; but this was his wont, to loll over the seat, with his fingers in both his ears: here general or conditional grace was surely non­plussed. But a chosen vessel must not be so lost; now steps in electing grace, and by a casual slip of his elbow, drew out the stoppers, and sent in a word from the pulpit, which, like fire from heaven, melted his heart, and cast it in a new mould. Surely, in this the Lord did not wait for the man's compliance or improvements; his work was not originated thence, nor dependant thereon.

Argument 2. If all that pertains to salvation were not given freely, salvation itself would not be of grace, for “to him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt,” Romans 4:4. but salvation is of grace, Ephesians 2:5. “By grace ye are saved.” And again verse 8. “By grace ye are saved, through faith;” where also, lest the adding of faith should occasion a lessening of that or grace, or seem to detract from the freeness of it, he cau­tiously subjoins, that this faith is the work of that grace, “not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” For if grace be per­fectly free in choosing, it must be answerably free in giving and applying the means to bring about the end it has cho­sen us to: for if the effect of the means should depend on something to be done by men, which grace is not the doer of: then works would put in for a share in the glory of men's salvation; and so the grace of God would be de­throned, and be as if it were not; grace is no more grace, as is argued in Romans 11:16.

Argument 3. Spiritual blessings must be given freely, and of pure grace, because the natural man cannot perform any such act as might be motive for such a gift. Things materially good they may do, as Cain in offering the first fruits; but not acceptable, because not done in a due manner; that is, in faith; the want of which makes incense itself an abomination, Isa. 1:13, 14. If without faith it be impossible to please God, then it must be impossible to do aught before you believe, that may move God to give you faith. Salvation is promised to faith, remission of sins to repentance, the blessed vision to purity of heart: but we find not these graces promised to any act or quali­fication inferior to, or going before the graces themselves; our holy calling, and the washing of regeneration, we are not entitled to by works of our own, 2 Timothy 1:9. Tit. 3:15.

Argument 4. If any of the requisites to salvation should be given on condition, reason would it should be that which in worth and virtue containeth all the rest, and without which the rest had never been, or been of none effect, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ; of whom it is said, that “all the fullness of the godhead dwells in him bodily,” Colossians 2:9. .' and that, out of his fullness all grace is received,” John 1:16. the giving of whom was the most superlative commen­dation of God's love to men, Romans 5:8, and is therefore termed “the,” or “that gift of God,” John 4:10. being such a gift as comprehends all others. And as touching the free and unconditional giving of Christ, see that ancient authentic record in Genesis 3:15. “It shall bruise thy head:” where is contained an absolute free promise to send the Son of God, in human flesh, to be a Redeemer. And we evidently know, that his actual coming and performance thereof, was not suspended on any desert or worthiness of men: how could it, when after the fall they did not, nor could do any thing but what might turn his heart more against them? For evidence hereof, we need not go out of the context: do but observe the first Adam's carriage, and the manner of it, a little before the promise was made: first, they believe the serpent rather than God; then they break the commandment of life, when they had neither need nor occasion so to do. This done, and finding themselves lost, they do not so much as seek after God for help, but rather to hide themselves from him; so far from confessing them selves faulty, that they charge God foolishly, and shift the blame of their miscarriage on him; “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree—and the serpent, which also is a creature of thy making, be­guiled me.” Here is nothing in their deportment that looks like the motive of such a promise. But, though they run from God, he will not so part with them; yea, he fol­lows them, finds them out, and, for a door of hope, freely pronounceth this gracious promise, of sending his Son to destroy this t Id(?) serpent, the devil; and, consequently, the serpentine nature, that had now instilled and mingled itself with theirs. It is the first promulgation of the gospel, and speaks with as much absoluteness as words can express, “It shall bruise thy head.” This I insist the more on, because it is the first that was made in time, and that out of which all following promises are educed.

The intent of this promise, was Adam's recovery and comfort; who, doubtless, at this time, was in a very discon­solate condition; as lying under a fresh sense of the happi­ness he had lost, and the woeful estate he was now plunged into; and therefore it was necessary, if Adam shall have comfort by it, that the terms thereof be altogether free and absolute: for, suppose them to be conditional, as, namely, if Adam shall now repent and convert himself; if he shall better improve a second stock, or rather the cankered rem­nant of that he had at first, my Son then shall come into this lower world, to still that enemy and avenger: his life shall go for thy life; I will be friends with thee, and restore thee to thy former state. AH(Ah!) this, and more of this kind, had yielded but little comfort of hope to a guilty and defi­led conscience, who found itself not only naked, and wholly bereft of its primitive righteousness, but at enmity with its Creator, and a bond slave to Satan: for such reasonings as these would have broken in like a flood, to bear down, and stifle all hopes of future success, especially, if when I was in so blessed a state, and endued with power to keep the law, on so slight a temptation I yielded and fell; how should I rise now I am down, and my strength is gone? If when I had freedom of will, and stood upright, I so easily warped into crooked paths; how can I hope to return, and do better, now my will is so perverted and bent to a contrary course? If whilst I had eyes in my head, and saw things with clearness I yet lost my way, and wandered; how should I think to recover it, being now both sadly be­wildered, and my eyes put out? How should I bring a clean thing out of an unclean, who kept not my heart clean when it was so? How should I gain more with fewer tal­ents, who ran myself out of all when I had abundantly more? Grapes will not grow on thorns, nor figs on this­tles: nay, were my primitive state restored to me on the former terms, I could not expect to keep it, having this woeful experience of so causeless and dreadful an apostasy etc.

It was therefore importantly necessary, that this first promise, made on so great and solemn an occasion, and bearing in it all the hopes and comforts of God's people to eternity, should be thoroughly free and absolute, and not depend, in the least, on any good thing to be done by men as the condition of it. And if Christ be given freely, there is good ground of arguing thence, the free giving of lesser things: for, “he that spared not his own Son, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32. “Is not the life more than meat?” Matthew 6:25. Is not Christ more than faith and all grace? Has God given us the flesh of his Son, which is meat indeed; and will he not restore our withered hand to receive it? It cannot be; especially considering, that this may be done with a word; and without this, the other would be lost, and as water spilt in the ground. But though this promise of Christ be virtually a promise of all grace; yet, because of our slow­ness of heart to believe, and to win us off from our legal­izing notions, the Lord condescends to gratify his people in words, as well as substance: therefore,

Argument 5. To make it expressly evident, that all spiritual blessings are perfectly free, he has put them into absolute promises. Not that all promises run in that tenor: many of them have conditions annexed; which also, in their place, have a very significant usefulness: 1. As proofs of our willing subjection to God, Genesis 22:12. 2. As direc­tives by what mediums we must get to the blessedness de­signed us, John 3:16. John 14:6, and how qualified for the enjoyment of it, Matthew 5:8. 2 Corinthians 7:1. 3. As marks and evidences of our being in the way to it, and of those to whom it doth belong, Mark 15:16. Rom, 8:1. John 10:9. But this annexing of conditions does not im­ply a power in men to perform them; though performed they must be, before we come to the promised reward; nor does the effect of those promises depend on any act to be done by us, which some other promise doth not provide us with. But that great fundamental promise, on which is founded our hopes of eternal life, was absolute; it was given before the world, Tit. 1:2. Though clearly condi­tional to him with whom the compact was made, yet per­fectly free and absolute to us; and, therefore, the adding of conditions to after promises, may not be taken as invali­dating that first promise, or as defiance to it. It is a scripture maxim, that “the covenant which was before confirmed of God in Christ, the law (which was four hund­red and thirty years after) cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect,” Galatians 3:17. The like may be said of promises made in time, namely, that the conditionality of some does not make void the absoluteness of others. As the law was to Christ, such are conditional promises to the absolute; they show what we should be and do; and, by consequence, that we can neither be nor do as we should; and thence infer to us, the necessity of divine grace to undertake for us; and then, indeed, and not till then, is the freeness of grace adorable, which promiseth help in terms of an absolute tenor. And accordingly we find that whatever is in one scripture made the condition of acceptance with God, and eternal life, in other scrip­tures those very conditions are promised without condi­tion; some of which we have a prospect of in the following balance, which being that of the sanctuary, may well be allowed to cast it: nor would it be once debated, if men knew their interest; for interest will not lie.

Conditional Promises 

Promises of the Condition

“Wash ye, make you “Then will I sprinkle clean: cease to do evil; learn clean water on you, and to do well: come now, and ye shall be clean: from all let us reason together; and your filthiness will I cleanse though your sins be as scar you,” Ezekiel 36:25. “I will let, they shall be white as snow,” Isaiah 1:16,17, 18. 

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Try it like this? . . .

“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” Isaiah 1:16,17, 18

“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.” Ezekiel 36:25

All the quotes below are double-spaced with double carriage returns. Some have two or three quotes per line. (Try a simple double space with only one carriage return per quote?)

“Repent and turn; so ini­quity shall not be your ruin,” Ezekiel 18:30.

“Make you a new heart, and a new spirit,” Ezekiel 18:81.

“Hear, and your soul shall live,” Isaiah 55:3.

“If thou shall seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with thy whole heart,” Deuteronomy 4:29.

“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord,” Hosea 6:3.

“Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart,” Deuteronomy 10:16.

“Return, O backsliding children,” Jeremiah 3:14.

“If ye be willing and obe­dient, ye shall eat the good of the land,” Isaiah 1:9.

“I will yet for this be in­quired of by the house of Isra­el,” Ezek. 36:37.

“He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved,” Matthew 24:13.

“forgive your iniquity; and your sin I will remember no more” Jeremiah 31:34.

“I will put a new spirit within you,” Ezekiel 11:19. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you,” Ezekiel 36:26.

“Thou shalt return, and obey the voice of the Lord,” Deuteronomy 30:8. “They shall return to me with their whole heart,” Jeremiah 24:7.

“I am found of them that sought me not,” Isaiah 65:1.

“Thou shalt call me, My Father, and shalt not turn from me,” Jeremiah 3:19.

“The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart,” Deuteronomy 30:6.

“I will heal their backslidings,” Hosea 14:4.

“Thy people shall be wil­ling,” Psalm 110:3. “I will cause you to walk in my statutes,” Ezekiel 36:27. Phil 2:13.

“I will pour on the house of David, the Spirit of grace and supplications,” Zechariah 12:10.

“They shall not depart from me,” Jeremiah 82:40. “Who shall confirm you to the end,” 1 Corinthians 1:8. Jer”