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Ephefians,Ctlap.
r.
V
E
R.
fore
all
worlds,he
came
to elefì. This
is
but
an
old
Pelagian evafion
;
for
Paul
fpeaketh
againft all
workswhich
ftand
not
with
free grace
in ele-
ding. Now
works meritorious, fore
-
feene, are
as
oppofite
to
grace,
as
works meritorious really exifting.
Ifi
doe anything for reward, which
I fee will
befall me, it
is as
far from being done freely,
as
if
it
were done
on
reward before -hand received.
Again,
he
cannot choofe on
works
fore
-
feene, becaufe he cannotfee
any to come,
which he doth not
firft
predeftinate
that
they
fhould be
;
Nowthen,
for him
to choofe on fore
-
feene
works;
is
to
fay
that God
firft
predeftinateth, and caufeth fuch
whom
he will
choofe to
have
fuch
and fuch
works, that after he may choofe them
;
which
is
to
turn the
Cart
before
the
Horfe.
This
franck
love
of
his can
never be enough.
extolled.
If
a
man ofeminency choofe to him forwife, fome woman,
who
bath neitherdowry nor
friends, ne yet hath beauty
or breeding
ex.
traordinary, the part
is
marvailous
in
our eyes
:
But well may
we
won-
der at this
fad of
God, who
when we were
nor, ne
yet
had any thing
which might commend us, did freely
fet
his liking on
us
and love
us
to
life. But
of
this
more
in
the next Doctrine.
Now
we come to
the
last
point, to be obferved
in
this
verfe; to what
God bath
chofen
us
:
That
we
fhould
be holy
and
fpotleffe before
him in
love.] This
end
is
all
one with
that otherwhere
named, viz.. Salvation.
Who
bath
rhofeu
you
from the beginning,
to
Salvation,
through
faith
and
fanaiifrcation
;
that
is, to
be entred by beliefe,
and
the
firft beginning
of
it,theefandification
of
the fpirit.And
here
three things
are
to be marked.
r.:
The
frate
of
perfection
which
agreeth to
the
life
whereto
weare
cho-
fen,that we may be
holy and without fpot. z.
The
circumftance
of
per
-
fon
in whofe prefence we fhalllive this life, before
him.
3.
The
life
it
felf , which
is
as
it
were
the fubjed
of
this
perfection,in
Love. A little
to infift in
the explication
of
this claufe, becaufe
it
containeth more then
is'comnonlymarked.
Holineffe
is
put fometime
for all, or
any
fandifying
graces
of
Gods
Spirit which make
us
holy,
r
Thef.
4.7.
2
Cer.
7.t,
Sometime it
is
put
more particularly, either
to note
a vertue
which
inclineth
us
to
doe
in
fuck
manner
as
befeemeth
both the
prefence
of
God
and our
felves,who
are Saints
byprofeffïon;
or
a Rate
of
purity and perfection,
to
which
we
come
in
vertue,
and this life
of
love
which
here
is
begun
in
us
; thus
when
Chrift
faith,
Bleffed
are thepure in heart, he
doth not
fo
much note
any fingular verrue,
as a
frate
to
which fome here come above other
-
fome
in vertue
:
and thus
I think
it
is
taken here
;
both
becaufe thefe
words
doe fignifiea
ftateof
Chriftian
perfection, and becaufe
here
is
Love
expreffed
as
the
fubjed:
the
life in
which
we
fhall
attain this per
-
fecion.
For that fecond circumftance, thofe
words
(before
him)
doe
note fometime this prefence
,of
God,
which
we have here
in
frate
of
Grace by fight,
Luke
t.
But
here
it doth directly
lignifie
that
pretence
which we
fhall
have
of God,
when
now
we are
brought to
frate
of
per
-
feçtion, when we
fhall
walk by
fight,
and feehim
as
he is.
Laftly, when
he faith (in Love,) he
noteth that
fupernaturall
life, in
which we
(hall
be