Of Election. I may dwell like my fe!f; Dwelllil{e a God,. fo great a God as I am? What} "'-A..P'l Will you confine me to your Temple, and thtnk that Houfe good enough for Chap. 5· me that have Heaven for my Throne? When he had thu• confuted them,~ he a'nfwen it himfelf: I have fpied out a place for my Reil, you little think of; yea, which you generallyr. defpife, even a poor broken Spirit; and I will Reil in my love thtrt, as Zeph. ~· 1 7· for ever, and feek no further : And not Reil only , but lit down therein with the greateil Joy and .full contentment: The Lord thy God---wilJ Rejoyet over thee with ;oy: He wttl Re/1 in his love; he wit/joy owr thn witbjinging: It's his love caufeth him to do it; and they are a poor People, Ver[. I>. even as here in lfai. he alfo characters them, 5· The Earth is my foot·flool : And I could kick it, _or tread it to Duil and Nothingnefs, if I pleafed, as well as I trample upon tt now as my foot-ilool. Well, but thefe poor contrite Souls, whom I have look'd at, Verj. 2., and have look'd at, and had in my eye from everlafling, thefc Clods of Earth and Duil ; thefe Worms creeping on this Earth ( y,ea, thefe fmall Pieces, and fmall Motes and Atomes of this Earth, compared to the whole of it;) thefe I have taken into my everla!ling Arms, and taken up into my Bofom to dwell in them, even whilil I make the whole Earrh my foot·ilool; and they 1hall lit on my Sons Throne, as a Qyeen doth with her Lord, and he fits on my Throne, as Rev.j.7.1. To him that ovtrcomerhwiltlgivetojit with me in my Throne: Even1111aljo overcam_e, and am[et dow11 with my Fathrr m his Throtte. 6. Who.fe Ntlme is Holy: And loholy, as the Heavens I dwell in, which I call my high a•d holy pJace, arc not pure ln my fight ; that is , do not come up to that holinefs which I am fully delighted in: And yet I, this highly holy One, will be one with thefe ftnners; and that 'they are ftnners, and their £ins is thatthat humbles them, and breaks their Hearts, and doth it whilil they look upon me in my Holinefs, who am fo holy, as I cannot endure to behold any iniquity; and who, if I had chofen for Holine1s, would have cho– fen the Angels that fell, whom I made excelling in Holinefs, as well as ilrength; I chofe the humble , poor , and contrite Spirits, broken for their Sins, and the miferableil and remoteil in their condition, from any fuch a preferment and favour as this, to be vouchfa led them: Yea, and in their own thoughts, the farthe!l offof all the Reil of my Creation, looking with trembling at my Word, fearing the fhaking of every leaf therein ; at every example of my wrath upon others ; at every threatning; yea, leil I fbould in wrath Swear againil them as I have done againil others; !eil I fhould tread on them , as Men ufe to do on W"rms, whilil they lye Crawling with their Mouths in the duil, if there may be hope. But what is the reafon he lhould affect thus to Unite with fuch to cboofe, and fo fhould ordain them to be fuch then when he chofe them: That whereas he had refpect in his Choice to nothing in the Creature to move him, for which he fhould firil choofe them. He would lhcw he had not, · by this, that thofe he chofe, he ordained with all to be fuch as fhould neither really have any thing to refpect 1 and in their own apprehenfions of themfelves, utterly, without any thing in themfelves, he fhould regard : But the clean contrary; which, their being termed the Poor, snd Humble and contrite, do both here iR the Prophet, and up and down in Chrif\'s Speeches , import; he decreed them therefore to h Juch , and to work thefe apprehenftons and difpolitions of Spirit in·them, to prepare them for this Union, and to accompany it wheo it fhould come to be adually be!lowed on them. The pure Creatures, had they ilood without his Eledion Grace, .had been too full, too rich, and apt to Reign, in fome refped, without him; and all the reil of Mankind that fell, are full of themfelves, of their own R.ighteoufnefs, and their Bellies are filled with his hid treafure of outward Comforts, Priviledges, ~c. and they are all ( whilil remaining fuch, too full for God to dwell in , lntru exiflms pro– .hi6et atimum, there is no R.oom for him ( as of Chriil 'twas faid at his Birth) in the Inns. There is not a Creature-emptinefs in them, to take me in , to the full of my Goodnefs, that fo I alone might fill them : And fays God, I bring
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