Some argue from the name, strangers, that he Gentiles are here meant, which seems not to be; for proselyte Gentiles were indeed called strangers in Jerusalem, and by the Jews; but were not the Jews strangers in these places-Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia ?-Not strangers dwelling together in a prosperous, flourishing condition, as a well-planted colony, but strangers of the dispersion, scattered to and fro. Their dispersion was partly, first by the Assyrian captivity, and after that by the Babylonish, and by the invasion of the Romans; and it might be in these very times increased by the believing Jews flying from the hatred and persecution raised against them at home. The places here mentioned, through which they were dispersed, are all in Asia. So Asia here, is Asia the lesser. Where it is to be observed, that some of those who heard St. Peter, Acts ii. 9, are said to be of those regions. And if any of the number then converted were among these dispersed, the comfort was no doubt the more grateful from the hand of the same apostle by whom they were first converted but this is only conJecture. Though divine truths are to be received equally from every minister alike, yet it must be acknowledged, that there is something (we know not what to call it) of a more acceptable reception of those who at first were the means of bringing men to God, than of others; like the opinion some have of physicians whom they love. The apostle comforts these strangers of this dispersion, by the spiritual union which they obtained by effectual calling; and so calls off their eyes from their outward, dispersed, and despised condition, to look above that, as high as the spring of their happiness, the free love and election of God. Scattered in the countries, and yet gathered in God's election, chosen or picked out; strangers to men among whom they dwelt, but known and foreknown to God; removed from their own country to which men have naturally an unalterable affection, but heirs made of a better (as follows, ver. 3, 4); and having within them the evidence both of eternal election and of that expected salvation, the spirit of holiness (ver. 2). At the best, a Christian is but a stranger here, set him where you will, as our apostle teacheth after; and it is his privilege that he is so; and when he thinks not so, he forgets and disparages himself: he descends far below his quality, when he is much taken with anything in this place of his exile. But this is the wisdom of a Christian, when he can solace himself against the meanness of his outward condition, and any kind of discomfort attending it, with the comfortable assurance of the love of God, that he hath called him to holiness, given him some measure of it, and an endeavor after more; and by this may he conclude, that he hath or dained! im unto salvation. If either he is a stranger where he lives, or as a stranger de serted of his friends, and very near stripped of all outward comforts, yet may he rejoice in this, that the eternal, unchangeable love of God, which is from everlasting to everlasting, is sealed to his soul. And O, what will it avail a man to be compassed about with the favor of the world, to sit unmolested in his own home and possessions, and to have them very great and pleasant, to be well moneyed, and landed and befriended, and yet estranged and severed from God, not having any token of his special love? To the elect. The apostle here denomi nates all the Christians to whom he writes, by the condition of true believers, calling them elect and sanctified, &c., and the apostle St. Paul writes in the same style in his epistles to the churches. Not that all in these churches they were such indeed, but because they professed to be such, and, by that their profession and calling as Christians, they were obliged to be such and as many of them as were in any measure true to their calling and profession were really such. Besides, it would seem not unworthy of consideration, that in all probability there would be fewer false Christians, and the number of true believers would be usually greater, in the churches in those primitive times, than now in the best reformed churches: because there could not then be many of them that were from their infancy bred in the Christian faith, but the greatest part were such as, being of years of discre tion, were, by the hearing of the gospel, converted from paganism and Judaism to the Christian religion first, and made a deliber ate choice of it; to which there were at that time no great outward encouragements, and therefore the less danger of multitudes of hypocrites, which, as vermin in summer, breed most in the time of the church's pros perity. Though no nation or kingdom had then universally received the faith, but rather hated and persecuted it, yet, were there even then among them, as the writings of the apostles testify, false brethren, and inordinate walkers, and men of corrupt minds, earthly-minded, and led with a spirit of envy and contention and vain-glory. Although the question that is moved concerning the necessary qualifications of all the members of a true visible church can no way (as I conceive) be decided from the inscriptions of the epistles, yet certainly they are useful to teach Christians and Christian churches what they ought to be, and what their hcly profession requires of them, and sharply reprove the gross unlikeness and inconformity that is in the most part of men to the description of Christians. As there be some that are too strait in their judgment concerning the being and nature of the visible church, so certainly the greatest part of churches are too loose in their practice. From the dissimilitude betwixt our churches and those we may make this use of reproof, that if an apostolical epistle were to be directed to us, it ought to be inscribed, to the ignorant, profane, malicious, &c. As he, who at the hearing of the gospel read, said, "Either this is not the gospel, or we are not Christians," so, either these characters, given in the inscription of these epistles, are not true characters, or we are not true Christians. VER. 2. Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. In this verse we have their condition and the causes of it. Their condition sanctified and justified; the former expressed by obedience, the latter by sprinkling of the blood of Christ. The causes, 1. Eternal election, 2. The execution of that decree, their effectual calling, which (I conceive) is meant by election here, the selecting them out of the world, and joining them to the fellowship of the children of God. So John xv. 19. The former, election, is particularly ascribed to God the Father, the latter to the Holy Spirit; and the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is here assigned as the cause of their justification; and so the whole trinity concurring dignify them with this their spiritual and happy estate. First, I shall discourse of these separately, and then of their connexion. 1. Of the state itself, and 1, of justification, though named last. This sprinkling has respect to the rite of the legal purification by the sprinkling of blood; and that appositely, for these rites of sprinkling and blood did all point out this blood and this sprinkling, and exhibited this true ransoms of souls, which was only shadowed by them. its death, diseases, deformities, and impurity-which belong to it as to their first subject, and to the body by participation. The soul and body of all mankind are stained by the pollution of sin. The impure leprosy of the soul is not a spot outwardly but wholly inward; hence, as the corporal leprosy was purified by the sprinkling of blood, so is this. Then, by reflecting, we see how all this that the apostle St. Peter expresseth is necessary to justification. 1. Christ, the mediator betwixt God and man, is God and man. 2. A mediator not only interceding, but also satisfying (Eph. ii. 16). 3. This satisfaction doth not reconcile us, unless it be applied: therefore there is not only mention of blood, but the sprinkling of it. The Spirit by fan sprinkleth the soul, as with hyssop, wherewith the sprinkling was made: this is it of which the prophet speaks (Isa. lii. 15), So shall he sprinkle many nalions; and which the apostle to the Hebrews prefers above all legal sprinklings (chap. ix. 12, 13, 14), both as to its duration and as to the excellency of its effects. Men are not easily convinced and persuaded of the deep stain of sin, and that no other laver can fetch it out but the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Some who have moral resolutions of amendment, dislike at least gross sins, and purpose to avoid them, and it is to them cleanness enough to reform in those things; but they consider not what becomes of the guiltiness they have contracted already, and how that shall be purged, how their natural pollution shall be taken away. Be not deceived in this, it is not a transient sigh, or a light word, or a wish of God forgive me; no, nor the highest current of repentance, nor that which is the truest evidence of repentance, amendment; it is none of these that purify in the sight of God, and expiate wrath; they are all imperfect and stained themselves, can not stand and answer for themselves, much less be of value to counterpoise the former guilt of sin. The very tears of the purest repentance, unless they be sprinkled with this blood, are impure; all our washings without this are but washings of the blackmoor--it is labor in vain. Jer. ii. 22; Job ix. 30, 31. There are none truly purified by the blood of Christ who do not endeavor after purity of heart and conversation ; but yet it is the blood of Christ by which they are all made fair, and there is no spot in them. Here it is said, elect to obedience; but because that obedience is not perfect, there must be sprinkling of the blood too. There is nothing in religion further out of nature's reach, and out of its liking and believing, than the doctrine of redemption by a Savior, and a crucified Sa vior,-by Christ, and by his blood, first shed on the cross in his suffering, and then sprin kled on the soul by his spirit. It is easier to The soul (as the body) hath its life, its make men sensible of the necessity of repen bealth, its purity, and the contrary of these,tance and amendment of life (though ha The use and end of sprinkling were pur fication and expiation, because sin merited death, and the pollutions and stains of human nature were by sin. Such is the pollution, that it can be no manner of way washed off but by blood. (Heb. ix. 22.) Neither is there any blood able to purge from sin except the most precious blood of Jesus Christ, which is called (Acts xx. 28) the blood of God. That the stain of sin can be washed off only by blood, intimates that it merits death; and that no blood, but that of the Son of God, can do it, intimates that this stain merits eternal death; and it had been our portion, except the death of the eternal Lord of life had freed us from it. Filthiness needs sprinkling; guilliness (such as deserves death) needs sprinkling of blood; and the death it deserves being everlasting death, the blood must be the blood of Christ, the eternal Lord of life, dying to free us from the sentence of death. is very difficult), than of this purging by the sprinkling of this precious blood. Did we see how needful Christ is to us, we should esteem and love him more. It is not by the hearing of Christ and of his blood in the doctrine of the gospel; it is not by the sprinkling of water, even that water which is the sign of this blood without the blood itself and the sprinkling of it. Many are present where it is sprinkled, and yet have no portion of it. Look to this, that this blood be sprinkled on your souls, that the destroying angel may pass by you. There is a generation (not some few, but a generation) deceived in this; they are their own deceivers, pure in their own eyes. (Prov. Xxx. 12.) How earnestly doth David pray, Wash me, purge me with hyssop! Though bathed in tears (Psal. vi. 6) that satisfied not: Wash thou me. This is the honorable condition of the saints, that they are purified and consecrated unto God by this sprinkling; yea, they have on long white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb. There is mention indeed of great tribulation, but there is a double comfort joined with it. 1. They come out of it; that tribulation hath an end. And, 2. They pass from that to glory; for they have on the robe of candidates, long white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb, washed white in blood. As for this blood, it is nothing but purity and spotlessness, being stained with no sin, and besides hath that virtue to take away the stain of sin, where it is sprinkled. My well-beloved is white and ruddy, saith the spouse; thus in his death, ruddy by bloodshed, white by innocence and purity of that blood. Shall they then, who are purified by this blood, return to live among the swine, and tumble with them in the puddle? What gross injury were this to themselves, and to that blood by which they are cleansed! They who are chosen to this sprinkling, are likewise chosen to obedience. This blood purifieth the heart; yea, this blood purgeth our consciences from dead works to serve the living God. (Heb. ix. 14.) actively, as Beza interprets it, but objectively as 2 Cor. x. 5. I think here it is contained, yea chiefly understood to signify that obedi ence which the apostle in the epistle to the Romans calls the obedience of faith, by which the doctrine of Christ is received (and so Christ himself), which uniteth the believing soul to Christ-he sprinkles it with his blood, to the remission of sin-and which is the root and spring of all future obedience in the Christian life. By obedience, sanctification is here intimated; it signifies then, both habitual and active obedience, renovation of heart, and conformity to the divine will. The mind is illuminated by the Holy Ghost, to know and believe the divine will; yea, this faith is the great and chief part of obedience. (See Rom. i. 8.) The truth of the doctrine is first impressed on the mind; hence flows out pleasant obedience, and full of love; hence all the affections, and the whole body, with its members, learn to give a willing obedience, and submit unto God; whereas before they resisted him, being under the standard of Satan. This obedience, though imperfect, yet hath a certain (if I may so say) imperfect perfection. It is universal in three manner of ways, 1. In the subject. 2. In the object. 3. In the duration: the whole man is subjected to the whole law, and that constantly and perseveringly. The first universality is the cause of the other: because it is not in the tongue alone, or in the hand, &c., but has its root in the heart; therefore it doth not wither as the grass, or flower lying on the surface of the earth, but it flourishes because rooted. And it embraces the whole law, because it arises from a reverence it has for the lawgiver himself. Reverence, I say, but tempered with love; hence, it accounts no law nor command little, or of small value, which is from God, because he is great and highly esteemed by the pious heart; no command hard (though contrary to the flesh), because all things are easy to love. There is the same authority in all, as St. James divinely argues; and this authority is the golden chain of all the commandments, which if broken 2. Of their sanctification. Elect unto obedience.] It is easily understood to whom. When obedience to God is expressed by the simple absolute name of obedience, it teach-in any link, all falls to pieces. eth us that to him alone belongs absolute and unlimited obedience, all obedience by all creatures. It is the shame and misery of man, that he hath departed from this obedience, that we are become sons of disobedience; but grace, renewing the hearts of believers, changeth their natures, and so their names, and makes them children of obedience (as afterward in this chapter). As this obedience consists in the receiving Christ as our Redeemer, so also at the same time as our lord or king; there is an entire rendering up of the whole man to his obedience. This obedience, then, of the only-begotten Jesus Christ, may well be understood not as his That this threefold perfection of obedience is not a picture drawn by fancy, is evident in David, Psalm cxix., where he subjects himself to the whole law; his feet, ver. 105; his mouth, ver, 13; his heart, ver. 11; the whole tenor of his life, ver. 24. He subjects himself to the whole law, ver. 6, and he professes his constancy therein, in verses 16 and 33. Teach me the way of thy statutes, and I shalt keep it unto the end. II. We have the causes of the condition above described. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father.] The exactest knowledge of things is, to know them in their causes; it is then an excellent thing, and worthy of their endeavors who are most desirous of knowledge, to know the best things in their highest causes; and the happiest way of attaining to this knowledge, is, to possess those things, and to know them in experience. To such persons the apostle here speaks, and sets before them the excellency of their spiritual condition, and leads them to the causes of it. Their state is, that they are sanctified and justified: the nearest cause of both these is, Jesus Christ. He is made unto them both righteousness and sanctification: the sprinkling of his blood purifies them from guiltiness, and quickens them to obedience. The appropriating or applying cause comes next under consideration, which is the holy, and holy-making or sanctifying spirit, the author of their selection from the world, and effectual calling unto grace. The source of all the appointing or decreeing cause, is God the Father: for though they all work equally in all, yet, in order of working, we are taught thus to distinguish and particularly to ascribe the first work of eternal election to the first person of the blessed trinity. In or through sanctification.] For to render it, elect to the sanctification, is strained: so then I conceive this election is their effectual calling, which is by the working of the Holy Spirit: see 1 Cor. i. 26-28, where vocation and election are used in the same sense: Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, &c., but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. It is the first act of decree of election; the beginning of its performance in those that are elected; and it is in itself a real separating of men from the profane and miserable condition of the world, and an appropriating and consecrating of a man unto God; and therefore, both in regard of its relation to election, and in regard of its own nature, it well bears that name. Sec Rom. viii. 28, 30; Acts ii. 47, and xiii. 48: John xv. 19. Sanctification in the narrower sense as distinguished from justification, signifieth the inherent holiness of a Christian, or his being inclined and enabled to perform the obedience mentioned in this verse; but it has here a sense more large, and is co-extended with the whole work of renovation; it is the severing or separating of men to God, by his Holy Spirit, drawing them unto him; and so it comprehends justification (as here) and the first working of faith, by which the soul is justi⚫fied, through its apprehending and applying the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Of the Spirit.] The word calls men externally, and by that external calling prevails with many to an external receiving and professing of religion; but if it be left alone it goes no farther. It is indeed the means of sanctification and effectual calling, as John xvii. 17, Sanctify them through thy truth; but this it doth when the spirit, which speaks in the word, works in the heart, and causes it to hear and obey. The spirit or soul of a man is the chief and the first subject of this work, and it is but slight false work that he gins not there; but the spirit here is to be taken for the spirit of God, the efficient, rather than for the spirit of man, the subject of this sanctification. And therefore our Sa vior in that place prays to the Father, that he would sanctify his own by that truth; and this he doeth by the concurrence of his Spirit with that word of truth which is the life and vigor of it, and makes it prove the power of God unto salvation to them that believe. It is a fit means in itself, but it is a prevailing means only when the spirit of God brings it into the heart. It is a sword, and sharper than a two-edged sword fit to divide, yea, even to the dividing of soul and spirit; but this it doth not, unless it be in the Spirit's hand, and he apply it to this cutting and dividing. The word calls, but the spirit draws, not severed from that word, but working in it, and by it. It is very difficult work to draw a soul out of the hands and strong chains of Satan, and out of the pleasing entanglements cf the world, and out of its own natural perverseness, to yield up itself unto God-to deny itself, and live to him, and in so doing, to run against the main stream, and the current of the ungodly world without, and corrup tion within. The strongest rhetoric, the most moving and persuasive way of discourse, is all too weak the tongue of men or angels can not prevail with the soul to free itself, and shake off all that detains it. Although it be convinced of the truth of those things that are represented to it, yet still it can and will hold out against it, and say, Non persuadebis eti amsi persuaseris. The hand of man is too weak to pluck any soul out of the crowd of the world, and to set it in among the select number of believers. Only the Father of Spirits hath absolute command of spirits, viz., the souls of men, to work on them as he pleaseth, and where he will. This powerful, this sanctifying Sp it knows no resistance; works sweetly, and yet strongly; it can come into the heart, whereas all other speakers are forced to stand without. That still voice within persuades more than all the loud crying without; as he that is within the house, though he speaks low, is better heard and understood, than he that shouts without doors. When the Lord himself speaks by this his Spirit to a man, selecting and calling him out of the lost world, he can no more disobey than Abraham did, when the Lord spoke to him after an extraordinary manner, to depart from his own country and kindred : Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him, Gen. xii. 4. There is a secret, but very powerful virtue in a word, or look, or touch of this Spirit upon the soul, by which it is it a worse disappointment and disgrace to have been in the list, and yet not chosen, 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 Savior speaks), and miss of it, than still to have remained in the farthest distance; to have been at the mouth of the haven (the fair havens indeed), and yet driven back and shipwrecked. Your labor is most preposterous; you seek to ascertain and make sure things that can not be made sure, and that which is both more worth, and may be made surer than them all, you will not endeavor to make sure. Hearken to the apostle's advice, and at length set about this in earnest, to make your calling and election sure. Make sure this election, as it is here (for that is the order), your effectual calling sure, and that will bring with it assurance of the other, the eternal election and love of God toward you, which follows to be consid ered. forced not with a harsh, but a pleasing vio- | nomination to offices or employments, think lence, and can not choose but follow it, not unlike that of Elijah's mantle upon Elisha. How easily did the disciples forsake their callings and their dwellings to follow Christ! The Spirit of God draws a man out of the world by a sanctified light sent into his mind, 1. Discovering to him, how base and false the sweetness of sin is, which withholds men and amuses them, that they return not; and how true and sad the bitterness is that will follow upon it; 2. Setting before his eyes the free and happy condition, the glorious liberty of the sons of God, the riches of their present enjoyment, and their far larger and assured hopes for hereafter; 3. Making the beauty of Jesus Christ visible to the soul; which straightway takes it so, that it can not be stayed from coming to him, though its most beloved friends, most beloved sins, lie in the way, and hang about it, and cry, Will you leave us so? It will tread upon all to come within the embraces of Jesus Christ, and say with St. Paul, I was not disobedient to (or unpersuaded by) the heavenly vision. It is no wonder that the godly are by some called singular and precise; they are so, singular, a few selected ones picked out by God's own hand, for himself: Know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself, Psalm iv. 3. Therefore, saith our Savior, the world hates you, because I have chosen you out of the world. For the world lies in unholiness and wickedness-is buried in it; and as living men can have no pleasure among the dead, neither can these elected ones among the ungodly: they walk in the world as warily as a man or woman neatly apparelled would do among a multitude that are all sullied and bemired. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father.] Known unto God are all his works from the beginning, saith the apostle James. Acts xv. 18. He sees all things from the beginning of time to the end of it, and beyond to all eternity, and from all eternity he did foresee them. But this foreknowledge here relates peculiarly to the elect. Verba sensus in sacra scriptura denotant affectus, as the Rabbins remark. So in man, Psal. lxvi., If I see iniquity; and in God, Psal. i. 6, For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, &c. And again, Amos iii. 2, You only have 1 known of all the families of the earth, &c. And in that speech of our Savior, relating it as the terrible doom of reprobates at the last Endeavor to have this sanctifying Spirit in day, Depart, &c., I know you not, I never yourselves; pray much for it; for his promise knew you. So St. Paul, Rom. vii. 15, For is passed to us, that He will give this Holy that which I do, I allow [Gr. know] not. And Spirit to them that ask it. And shall we be Beza observes that you is by the Greeks such fools as to want it, for want of asking? sometimes taken for decernere, judicare; When we find heavy fetters on our souls, thus some speak, to congnosce upon a busiand much weakness, yea, averseness to fol-ness. So then this foreknowledge is no other low the voice of God calling us to his obedience, then let us pray with the Spouse, Draw She can not go nor stir without that drawing; and yet, with it, not only goes, but runs. We will run after thee. me. Think it not enough that you hear the word, and use the outward ordinances of God, and profess his name: for many are thus called, and yet but a few of them are chosen. There is but small part of the world outwardly called, in comparison of the rest that is not so, and yet the number of the true elect is so small, that it gains the number of these that are called, the name of many. They who are in the visible church, and partake of external vocation, are but like a large list of names (as in civil elections is usual), out of which a small number is chosen to the dignity of true Christians, and invested into their privilege. Some men in than that eternal love of God, or decree of election, by which some are appointed unto life, and being foreknown or elected to that end, they are predestinate to the way to it. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Rom. viii. 29. It is most vain to imagine a foresight of faith in men, and that God in the view of that faith, as the condition of election itself, as it is called, has chosen 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 says the Apostle St. James, in the passage before cited), Known unto God are all his works, because they are his works in time, and his purpose from eternity. 2. It is most absurd to give any reason of Divine |