free and happy condition, the glorious liberty of the fons of God, the riches of their prefent enjoyment, and their far larger and affured hopes for hereafter. 3. Making the beauty of Jefus Chrift vifible to the foul; which ftraight way takes it fo, that it cannot be stayed from coming to him, though its most beloved friends, moft beloved fins lie in the way, and hang about it and cry, Will you leave us fo? It will tread upon all to come within the embraces of Jefus Chrift, and fay with St Paul, I was not disobedient to, or unperfuaded by the heavenly vifion.

It is no wonder that the godly are by fome called fingular and precife; they are so, fingular, a few selected ones, picked out by God's own hand for himfelf, Pfal. iv. 3. Know that the Lord hath fet apart him that is godly for himself: Therefore, faith our Saviour, the world hates you, because I have chofen you out of the world. For the world lies in unholinefs, and wickedness is buried in it. And as living men can have no pleasure among the dead, neither can thefe elected ones amongst the ungodly; they walk in the world as warily as a man or woman, neatly apparelled, would do amongst a multitude that are all fullied and bemired.

Endeavour to have this fanctifying Spirit in yourfelves; pray much for it; for his promife is past to us, that he will give this Holy Spirit to them that ask it. And fhall we be fuch fools as to want it, for want of afking? When we find heavy fetters on our fouls and much weakness, yea averfenefs to follow the voice of God calling us to his obedience, then let us pray with the fpoufe, draw me. She can not go nor ftir without that drawing; and yet with it, not only goes, but runs: We will run after thee.

Think it not enough that you hear the word, and ufe the outward ordinances of God, and profefs his name; for many are thus called, and yet but a few of them are chofen. There is but a fmall part of the world outwardly called, in comparison of the reft that

is

is not fo, and yet the number of the true elect is fo small, that it gains the number of these that are called, the name of many. They that are in the vifible church, and partake of external vocation, are but like a large lift of names, as in civil elections is ufual, out of which a small number is chofen to the dignity of true Christians, and invested into their privilege. Some men in nomination to offices or employments, think it a worse disappointment and difgrace to have been in the lift, and yet not chofen, than if their names had not been mentioned at all. Certainly it is a greater unhappiness to have been not far from the kingdom of God, as our Saviour speaks, and miss of it, than ftill to have remained in the furtheft diftance; to have been at the mouth of the haven, the fair bavens indeed, and yet driven back and fhipwrecked. Your labour is moft prepofterous, you feck to ascertain and make fure things that cannot be made fure, and that which is both more worth, and may be made furer than them all, you will not endeavour to make fure. Hearken to the Apoftle's advice, and at length fet about this in earnest, to make your calling and election fure; make fure this election, as it is here, for that is the order, your effectual calling fure, and that will bring with it affurance of the other, the eternal election and love of God towards you, which follows to be confidered.

According to the foreknowledge of God the Father.] Known unto God are all his works from the beginning, faith the Apostle James, Acts xv. 18. He fees all things from the beginning of time to the end of it, and beyond to all eternity, and from all eternity he did forefee them. But this foreknowledge here, is peculiar to the elect, Verba fenfus in facra fcriptura denotant affectus, as the Rabbins remark; fo in man, Pf. lxvi. If I fee iniquity; and in God, Pfal. i. ult. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, &c. Amos iii. 2. You nly have I known of all the families of the earth, &c. And in that fpeech of our Saviour, relating it

as

as the terrible doom of reprobates at the laft day, Depart, &c. I know you not, I never knew you; fo St Paul, Rom. vii. 15. For that which I do, I allow [Gr. know] not. And Beza obferves, that yoxe is, by the Greeks, fometimes taken for decernere, judicare; thus fome speak, to cognofce upon a bufinefs. So then, this foreknowledge is no other but that eternal love of God, or decree of election, by which fome are appointed unto life, and being foreknown or elected. to that end, they are predeftinate to the way to it, Rom. viii. 29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predeftinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren.

it is moft vain to imagine a forefight of faith in men, and that God in the view of that, as the condition of election itself, as it is called, has chofen them: For, 1. Nothing at all is futurum, or can have that imagined futurition, but as it is, and because it is decreed by God to be; and therefore, (as fays the Apoftle St James, in the paffage before cited), Known unto God are all his works, becaufe his works in time were his purpofe from eternity. 2. It is moft abfurd to give any reafon of Divine will without himself. 3. This eatily tolves all that difficulty that the ApoAle fpeaks of; and yet he never thought of fuch a folution, but runs high for an anfwer, not to fatisfy cavilling reafon, but to filence it, and ftop its mouth; For thus the Apoftle argues, Rom. ix. 19, 20. Thou wilt fay then unto me, Why doth be yet find fault; for who bath refifted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Who can conceive whence this should be, that any man fhould believe unlets it be given him of God; and if given him, then it was his purpofe to give it him; and if fo, then it is evident that he had a purpose to fave him; and for that end he gives faith, not therefore purposes to fave, becaute man fhall believe, 4. This seems cross to thefe fcriptures, where they fpeak of the fubordination, or rather co-ordination of these two, as here, foreknown

foreknown and elect, not because of obedience, or fprinkling, or any fuch thing, but to obedience and Sprinkling, which is by faith. So he predeftinated, not becaufe he forefaw men would be conform to Chrift, but that they might be fo, as Rom. viii. 29. For whom be did foreknow, be alfo did predeflinate: And the fame order, Acts ii. 47. And the Lord added to the Church daily fuch as should be faved. And, xiii. 48. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

This foreknowledge then, is his eternal and unchangeable love; and that thus he chufeth fome, and rejecteth others, is for that great end, to manifeft and magnify his mercy and juftice: But why be appointed this man for the one, and the other for the other, made Peter a veffel of this mercy, and Judas of wrath, this is even fo, because it seemed good to him. This, if it be harsh, yet is apoftolic doctrine. Hath not the potter (faith St Paul) power over the fame lump, to make one veffel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? This deep we must admire, and always in confidering it, close with this, O the depth of the riches, both of the wifdom and knowledge of God!

Now the connection of thefe, we are for our profit to take notice of, that effectual calling is infeparably tied to this eternal foreknowledge or election on the one fide, and salvation on the other. These two links of the chain are up in heaven, in God's own hand; but this middle one is let down to earth, into the hearts of his children, and they laying hold on it, have fure hold on the other two, for no power can fever them; if therefore they can read the characters of God's image in their own fouls, thofe are the counter part of the golden characters of his love, in which their names are written in the book of life. Their believing writes their names under the promises of the revealed book of life, the Scriptures; and fo afcertains them, that the fame names are in the fecret book of life that God hath by himfelf from eternity. So, finding the ftream of grace in their hearts, though

they

they see not the fountain whence it flows, nor the ocean into which it returns, yet they know that it hath its fource, and shall return to that ocean which arifeth from their eternal election, and fhall empty itself into that eternity of happiness and falvation.

Hence much joy arifeth to the believer; this tie is indiffolvable, as the agents are, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit: So are election, and vocation, and fanctification, and juftification, and glory. Therefore in all conditions believers may, from the fense of the working of the Spirit in them, look back to that election, and forward to that falvation: But they that remain unholy and disobedient, have as yet no evidence of this love; and therefore cannot, without vain prefumptions and felf- delufion, judge thus of themselves, that they are within the peculiar love of God: But in this, let the righteous be glad, and let them sbout for joy all that are upright in heart.

It is one main point in happiness, that he that is happy doth know, and judge himself to be fo; this being the peculiar good of a reasonable creature, it is to be enjoyed in a reasonable way; it is not as the dull refting of a stone, or any other natural body in its natural place; but the knowledge and confideration of it, is the fruition of it, the very relishing and tafting its sweetness.

The perfect bleffedness of the faints is waiting them above: But even their prefent condition is truly happy, though incompletely, and but a small beginning of that which they expect; and this, their present happinefs, is fo much the greater, the more clear knowledge and firm perfuafion they have of it. It is one of the pleasant fruits of the godly, to know the things that are freely given them of God, 1 Cor. ii. 12. Therefore the Apostle, to comfort his difperfed brethren, fets before them a defcription of that excellent fpiritual condition to which they are called.

If election, effectual calling, and falvation, be infeparably linked together; then by any one of them a

man