felf: There is a remnant according to the election of grace. IV. There was nothing in man, or forefeen to be in man, which moved God to fet his everlasting love upon him, and choose him to himself to be an heir of glory, but he did it merely out of his own good-will and pleafure, for his honour, and the glory of his free grace: This election is moft free, and flows from God's mere grace, good-will and favour, and therefore is called election of grace, or a gracious, free and undeferved elec tion. V. Whom God elected unto life, out of his mere free grace and love, thefe he purpofed certainly and infallibly to bring to the actual poffeffion of the crown, and hath purposed fo to order his difpenfations towards them, as that they fhall undoubt edly be poffeffed of that life which they are deftinated unto; for from this fame act of election floweth their deliverance from the torrent of a backfliding time: There is a remnant according to the election of grace. VI. Whoever expects any thing of God for their works, or by way of merit, they quite destroy the nature of grace, and muft of neceffity take what they take fo, as no fruit of grace or free love: For if it be by grace, it is no more of works; otherways grace is no more grace. VII. As we must not expect any thing of God by way of ftrict merit, fo neither muft we join works and grace together, or expect any thing partly by way of grace, and partly by way of merit, for they are incompatible; there is fuch an inconfift ency between grace and works, that they cannot concur as con-caufes, the one doth always deftroy the other; fo that it always holds good, what is of grace, is not of works; and what is of works, is not of grace; one thing cannot be both due by way of merit, and a gift of free grace: If it be of grace, it is no more of works; other ways grace is no more grace, &c. VERSE 7. What then? Ifrael hath not obtained that which he feeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the ret were blinded. HE answer to the objection propofed in the begining, is more clearly fet down, as a clear conclufion from his former grounds; and that it may be more advert ed to, he fets it down after his ufual manner, by way of a dialogue; What then? What is the conclufion of these reasons of yours? what is the fum of your anfwer? what is your judgment touching the state of the Jews at this time? or what is the anfwer to the objection? It is this, fays he, Ifrael hath not obtained that which he feeketh for; the carnal body and bulk of the nation of the Jews, have not obtained righteoufnefs and falvation, which was the thing they pretended to be most bufy about the feeking, and most defirous of: but the election bath obtained it; there was, for all that, a number who belonged to the election of grace, and thefe, by virtue of their election, as being chofen of God to life, hath obtained it: and the reft were hardened; the reft who were not chofen of God, were plagued with a hard heart, for not welcoming the offer of the Meffias, and fo could not obey the voice of the Lord, being thus hardened; there was a a thick fkin drawn over heart and eyes, and all, in God's righteous judgment, as a fruit of their reprobation, that made them fenfelefs and hard-hearted.. OBSERVATIONS. I. Tho' God hath made many sweet promites of coming fpeed, to fuch as feek the Lord and his righteoufnefs with all their heart, in the right ufe of means, and for the right end, and in faith, Matth. vii. 7. and xxi. 22. John xiv. 13. xv. 16. and xvi. 24. James i. 6. and iv 3 yet many may feek after righteoufnels and life, who fhall, notwithstanding, fhoot fhort, and mifs their mark, even tho' they feem ferious ferious to themselves and others in feeking, thro' mistaking the way as Ifrael did here, who obtained not that which they fought for, they miffed righteousness and life both, because they fought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, Rom. ix. 31. 32. and x. 3. See Matth. vii. 21. II. Many may live long within the vifible church, and be admited to partake of many privileges as church members, and enjoy the ordinances of life, and do much as to external performances in thefe ordinances, and yet come fhort of heaven; Ifrael, even Ifrael, famous Ifrael, the children of Jacob, the only honoured people, did not obtain that which they fought for, in the use of these ordinances which they had among their hands. III. The elect of God, on whom he has fet his love from eternity, fhall certainly obtain righteousness and life eternal; feeing he who loved them is unchangeable, and forefaw whatever was to be in time; and fo whatever might provoke him in time to keep them out of heaven, he forefaw that from eternity, and notwithstanding thereof did appoint and foreordain them to life, and fo they cannot mifs that which God in his everlasting decree hath carved out for them: The Election hath obtained it. IV. From this free election of God, and from nothing in themselves, floweth this certainty and infallibility of falvation; this is the first rife, and primum mobile of all the real difference which in time is put betwixt the elect and others; therefore it is faid, the election bath obtained it, instead of the elect, to lead us up unto the rife and fountain of this difference, viz. God's electing love. And whatever pains we be at for heaven, and whatever means we ufe at God's command for that end, yet the glory of all is due to him, who first choosed us, and fet his affection upon us, for that is the fpring and well-head of all. V. Howbeit the Lord has a certain kind of refpect towards all mankind, as being the work of his hands; yet there is a cer tain fpecial love, deftinating to life eternal, and this all are not objects of, but a few chofen ones, according to the Lord's good pleafure: there is an election, and fome that are left, and all mankind are one of these two: The election hath ob. tained it, but the rest were hardened. VI. There is no reprobate, altho' living among the chofen veffels of glory, and enjoying much good by their fellowship, that fhall be faved; but whatever flourishes of feeming grace, and seriousness of a defire after heaven they may have, they fhall perifh eternally: The rest were hardened, or blinded; and fo it is fupposed, that they did not obtain life. VII. Tho' all fuch as are reprobated and rejected fhall certainly perish, yet the juft and righteous Judge fends none to hell merely upon this account that they are not elected, but because of other tranfgreffions which they are guilty of; for here blindness, or hardness, interveens; The reft were hardened, or blinded. VIII. Tho' the elect themfelves, before conversion, be under the power of darkness and hardnefs, till God renew them, and take away that hard heart, and give them a heart of flesh, according to his covenant and promife; yet full and final obduration of heart, and fearedness, that nothing will prevail with, or work upon, is a certain confequent of reprobation: and all fuch as are rejected of God fhall remain in perpetual darkness, and under the power of hardness, and shall never get a faving fight of the glory of Jefus Chrift: The reft were hardened, or blinded, notwithstanding of the means of grace. IX. As there is a natural hardness, ftupidity, and fenfeleffnefs, which lieth upon all by nature till grace remove it; fo there is an acquired and habitual hardness, which is contracted thro' a cuftomarinefs in fining, and winking wilfully at the fhining glances of light and as men themselves have a finful hand in procuring this, and the devil alfo; fo the holy Lord hath a 312 fupreme fupreme hand, and inflicteth this judicial | blindnefs, as a plague and punishment for their former fhuting out of light; for it is faid here, the rest were blinded, in the paffive voice. X. When a foul is judicially hardened, fo that no means can prevail with it, but the more clear the light be which fhineth, the blinder it grows, that is a black mark and evidence of future ruin and deftruction to come upon that foul: Inftead of faying, but the reft were destroyed, or miffed happiness, he faith, the reft were blinded, exprefling the caufe of their deftruction: See Deut. ii. 30. 1 Sam. ii. 25. Rom. ii. 5. and ix. 17. VERSES 8. 9. 10. According as it is written, God hath given them the fpirit of flumber, eyes that they fhould not fee, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day. And David faith, Let their table be made a fnare, and a trap, and a fumblingblock, and a recompence unto them. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not fee, and bow down their back alway. Ecaufe that which he faid of the Jews being hardened and blinded, feemed harth and unpleafant, and a truth which would hardly be digefted, and which had feveral difficulties in it; therefore in thefe verfes he both confirmeth and explaineth the fame out of fcripture: And, 1. According, fays he, as it is written; and therefore this paffage must be a paffage cited out of fcripture, or elfe he would not have faid, as it is written, God hath given them the fpirit of flumber, &c. The paffage is no where in fcripture as it is here fet down, but is gathered out of two places of fcripture, (the like we faw before, chap. ix. 33.) viz. out of Ifa. xxix. 10. with Ifa. vi. 9. 1o. In the original, Ifa. xxix. 10. it is faid, The Lord hath poured out upon them the Spirit of deep fleep in the Seventy (which the apostle followeth in all thefe paffages, for the most part, tho' they vary in fome things from the original, becaufe he was writing to the Gentiles, who only had this vertion of the Seventy among their hands, and he would not ftumble them by citing another, which differed fomething from what they had,) it is, He bath given you to drink; and the apoftle here fays, he hath given; ali is one upon the matter: but the Greek word rendered deep fleep, fignifieth compunction, or remorse, as it is in the margin; but however the fenfe will be the fame, and both will point forth a mind pertinacious and fixed in evil, fo as it cannot be got taken off it; as a man in a deep fleep cannot be awakened, fo they are fo faft glewed to their ignorance and vanity, as if they were nailed to it and fome think, that in the Alexandrian idiom, the word which fignifieth compunction, fignifieth a deep fleep; or it may be fuch a deep fleep as is procured thro' the pricking and ftinging of fome venomous beaft; or it may be the Seventy have derived the word here used, fo as it may have fome affinity with the night, and fo fignifieth a deep fleep, fuch as falls upon folk in the dead of the night. However we find the Seventy hereby underftand, a fpiritual judgment upon the mind, or any diftemper there, whereby it is out of frame; for that word which is rendered, Pfalm lx. 3. aflonishment, they render by the fame word which is here ufed; and fo thereby is imported, fuch a stupidity and deadness as cannot be got eafily helped. The other part of the teftimony is taken out of Ifa. vi. 9. 10. where he citeth not the paffage word by word, but gives the meaning and the fum of it. So then from thefe paffages he proves, that the greateft part of the Jews were blinded. The ftrength of the probation lieth in thefe two: 1. That the prophet is to be understood as fpeaking of the Jews in the days of the Meffiah, otherways it had not been pertinent to the purpofe: And, 2. that in thefe places he is fpeaking ; fpeaking of the generality of the people. | der him. So then, this paffage is a piece Now, the first of thefe is clear, viz. that of David's imprecation, against a number Ifaiah is prophefying of the days of the of incorrigible, reprobate enemics, and it gofpel,. in that it is fo frequently cited in has in it the force of a prophecy; he utthe New Teftament, as Matth. xiii. 14. tering thefe things as a prophet; against and Acts xxviii. 26. and John tells us to his enemies, or Chrift's irreconcilable enemuch, John xii. 41. faying, when he is mies, he being a type of Chrift; and fo citing this fame paffage out of Ifa. vi. 9. 10. fays he, Let their table, that is, their deThefe things jaid Efaias, when he faw licates, and other things which they feed bis glory, and spake of him. The fecond upon, their ordinances and enjoyments, be is clear in the places cited, where the pro- a fnare, to take them in, as a bird is taken phet is fpeaking of the body and bulk of and let it prove ruinous, infead of faving the land. So then the fum of the citation and feeding to them; and a trap, to the is, It was foretold, that God in his juft fame purpofe; but a metaphor taken from judgment fhould handle them fo, and pierce the taking of wild beafts; and a fumblingthem fo with his judgments, as they fhould block, a ftone in their way, whereupon they grow ftupid, fenfelefs, and have a cauteriz- may fall and break themfelves; and a reed confcience, feeling nothing; and fo compence, a reward of their doings, a juft hard and fast asleep, that the news of life punishment. Let their eyes be darkened,fhould never once get entry; eyes and that they cannot fee; let thy judgment come ears, and all should be closed: and then upon their understandings, that they may he addeth a word, unto this day, to fhew never understand the things that concern how this judgment ran thro' all ages, and their peace: and bow down their back al- lafted till that time. See 2 Cor. iii. 15. way; let them have neither pith nor power to ftir, as if there was a heavy load upon their back, making it to crack, and their loins to fhake and tremble: and fo it is no uncouth thing to fee fpiritual judg ments poured upon a people; it is but the fulfilling of old prophecies, which as they have the begining of their accomplishment then; fo have they a more full accomplish ment in the days of the gospel. The next paffage is taken out of Pfal. Ixix. 22. 23. where the apoftle followeth the Seventy, as to the fubftance (the puting of one word before another and the adding of another, to clear the purpose farther, being no way deftructive to the fenfe.) In the place cited we read in our tranflation, [Let their table become a fnare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.] But the word rendered welfare, fignifieth alfo a recompence, and fo poffibly it might be as well rendered, following the apoftle, (there being nothing confiderable to ftand in the way) thus. Let their table become a fnare, and a recompence, and a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, that they cannot fee, and bow down their back alway. In the Hebrew it is, and make their loins continually to hake. But all is to one purpofe; it feemeth to be a metaphor taken from a man under a heavy burden, he cannot get liberty to look up, and his back is unable to bear it, and his loins shake and tremble all un } t near capacity for receiving information; therefore it is called a jpirit of lumber, or of a deep fleep. of God fpeaking in the fcriptures, is the only judge, and by that Spirit only fhould the true genuine fenfe of the fcriptures be found out; one place ferveth thus to clear another, and what is dark in one, is cleared more fully in another place: for this caufe he puteth in the first place two fcriptures together, the one ferving to clear the other, and the third explaining both, Ac-fee wonders every day, and hear this word cording as it is written. III. Our difputings and reafonings should not be to feed carnal conceit, and to entangle folks in needlefs and new intricate questions; but it fhould be fo gone about, as may moft tend to edification and to clear truth: therefore Paul by this citation or argument further cleareth the nature of obduration, by fhewing how God has a hand in it, and what are the effects of it, According as it is written, the Lord hath given them, &c. IV. The fcriptures being written by men of God, acted by the Spirit, 2 Pet i. 21. is fully harmonious in all its parts, each correfponding with another, and no way jarring or contradicting really, whatfoever may appear through the fhallownefs of our capacities and apprehenfions; this is clear, from the apoftle's joining two diftinct paffages, out of distinct places into one, According as it is written, God hath given them the Spirit of fumber, eyes that they should not fee, &c. V. There is fo much felf-love in every one, as that they think better of them felves than they have cause, and so much of a felf deceiving heart in the worft, as will make them unwilling to let it light, that they are under any fpiritual stroke; and therefore is the apoftle put to prove this judicial ftroke out of fcripture, and fay, According as it is written. VI. This judicial ftroke of blindness and hardness, is fuch a ftroke as feizeth upon the whole man, and makes him altogether fenfelefs and ftupid, like a very ftock, no more fenfible of his danger than one in a deep fleep; nor are they in any VII. Where this judicial ftroke is, all the paffages of the foul whereby faving knowledge thould come in, are blocked up, all the faculties of the man's foul are fo ftruck with this plague, that tho' he fhould moft clearly preached, all fhall be ufelets; he thall never come to any faving uptaking of God and Chrift, tho' he had never fo much literal and fpeculative knowledge; tho' he hath eyes, yet fhall he tee none, and tho' he hath ears, yet fhall he hear none; God hath given them a spirit of flumber, eyes that they should not fee, and ears that they should not hear. that they should not hear. See Matth. xiii, 15. Acts xxviii. 27. VIII. As in the days of the Old Teftament, wherein temporal plagues and judgments did most abound, there were many fpiritual plagues both threatened and executed; fo these threatenings fhall have their fuller accomplishment in the days of the gofpel; therefore he cites these prophecies out of Ifaiah (which had fome accomplishment even then) as a confirmation of the present state of the Jews, as having its fuller accomplishment now, in the days of the gospel; According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of flumber, &c. IX. However the wicked fcoff at the judgment of God, as out of fight, and at the threatenings, as things uncertain; yet they fhall find them all come as fure to pafs, as if they had them in their hands already; therefore in that xxixth of Ifaiah, it is fpoken in the preterite time, to shew that it fhould be as certain as if it were paft already: He hath given a fpirit of deep fleep, and here we find it accomplished, the rest he hardened, as it is written, &c. X. God, who is the holy One of Ifrael, hath a high, fupreme and holy hand about the very fins of the wicked, and is thereby geting glory to his own name, and doth not carry himself purely indifferently, or carelefly |