Gathered together in Christ.

Herman Witsius has written:

“Moreover, as all the elect are partakers of one and the same grace, they are all likewise called to mutual communion with one another, “that ye also may have fellowship with us,” 1 John i. 3. Believers of the New Testament with those of the Old; the Gentiles with the Jews, being all of the same body, Eph. iii. 6. in Christ, who hath made both one, Eph. ii. 14. Nay, those on earth with those in heaven; “For all things are gathered together in one in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth: even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,” Eph. i. 10, 11. And this is that blessed state to which, by the holy and heavenly calling, we are invited, namely, communion with Christ, and by him with the undivided Trinity, and consequently with all the saints, both militant and triumphant, not even excepting the praising assembly of angels, in order with them to exult in the most delightful fruition of all the blessings of God. For all who obey this call, “are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New covenant,” Heb. xii. 22, 23, 24. What grander things can be spoken, what more noble and divine can be conceived than these?”

(Witsius, Herman. The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, Volume I, Kingsburg, CA: den Dulk Christian Foundation, 1990, pp. 345.)

From alienation to communion.

Herman Witsius has written:

“The first immediate fruit of eternal election, and the principal act of God by which appointed salvation is applied, is Effectual Calling. Of which the apostle, Rom. viii. 30. “Whom he did predestinate them he also called.” And this calling is that act by which those, who are chosen by God, and redeemed by Christ, are sweetly invited, and effectually brought from a state of sin to a state of communion with God in Christ, both externally and internally.”

“The term from which they are called, is a state of sin and misery, in which all men are involved, ever since the sin of our first parents; “having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart,” Eph. iv. 18. For we are brought to such a pass, that we are wholly excluded from the saving communion of God and Christ. Being sunk in the deep gulf of misery, and having lost all notion of true happiness, we wallow in the mire of the wickedness and vanities of this world without end and without measure, and are enslaved to the devil, to whom we have submitted as conquered captives, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” Rom. iii. 23. But out of this darkness of ignorance, sin, and misery, God calleth us unto his marvelous light, 1 Pet. ii. 9. and delivers us from this present evil world, Gal. i. 6. And we are never to forget our former state; “remember that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world,” Eph. ii. 12. The meditation of this tends to humble us the more deeply before God, who calleth us; the more to prize the riches of his glorious grace, and the more to quicken us to walk worthy of our calling, and of God, by whom we are called.”

“The term to which we are called, is Christ, and communion with him. For this he calls out, Isa. xlv. 22. “Look to me,” or, Incline yourselves to me, “and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” In this communion with Christ consists that mystical and most delightful marriage of the elect soul with Christ, to which he invites him with all the allurements of his gospel, and whose exalted nuptial song Solomon sung; “Wisdom hath builded her house.—She hath sent fourth her maidens, she crieth upon the highest places of the city, Turn in hither; come eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled,” Prov. ix. 1-5.”

(Witsius, Herman. The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, Volume I, Kingsburg, CA: den Dulk Christian Foundation, 1990, pp. 344-345.)

Shall I not.

Herman Witsius has written:

“Here then is the meditation of one who is thus fully persuaded, and this is his language to his God,

“Didst thou, O Lord, from eternity, entertain thoughts of glorifying me, a miserable wretch, who am less than nothing; and shall I not again carry thee for ever in my eyes, and always in my bosom? Shall I not delight in meditating on thee? Shall I not cry out, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! Psal. cxxxix. 17. Shall I not, with the most sincere repentance, bewail that time, in which so many hours, days, weeks, months, and years, have passed over my head, without one single holy and pleasing thought of thee? Didst thou, out of mere love, choose me to salvation? And shall not I again choose thee for my Lord, my king, my husband, for the portion of my soul, for my chief, or rather my only delight? Didst thou choose me from among so many others who being left to themselves, have eternal destruction abiding them? And shall not I exert myself to the utmost, to excel others in love, in thy worship, and in all the duties of holiness? Didst thou predestinate me to holiness, which is so amiable in itself, and so necessary for me, that without it there can be no salvation? And shall not I walk therein? Shall I presume to cavil with thee, thou brightest teacher of truth; that separating the end from the means, I should securely promise myself the end, as being predestinated thereto, in a neglect of the means, to which I was no less predestinated? Is thy purpose concerning my salvation, fixed and unchangeable? And shall I change every hour; at one time, giving my service to thee, and another time to the devil? Shall I not rather cleave to thee with such a firm purpose, as sooner to choose a thousand deaths rather than perfidiously forsake thee? Shall I not be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as I know, my labour shall not be in vain in the Lord? 1 Cor. xv. 58. Wilt thou by thy Sprit, assure me of thy love, which passeth all understanding? And I not love thee again with all my heart, all my mind, and all my strength? Wilt thou give me the assurance of my salvation? And shall not I having this hope, purify myself as thou art pure?” 1 John iii. 2.

Who, that understand these things, can deny, that the doctrine of Election, as we have explained it, affords ample matter to a pious soul for these and such like meditations? And who also can deny that in the practice of these meditation consists the very kernel of piety and holiness.”

(Witsius, Herman, The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, Volume 1, Kingsburg, CA: den Dulk, Christian Foundation, 1990, pp. 342-343.)

The Sun.

Isaac Ambrose has written:

“In this knowledge of Christ, there is an excellency above all other knowledge in the world; there is nothing more pleasing and comfortable, more animating and enlivening, more ravishing and would contenting; only Christ is the sun and centre of all divine revealed truths, we can preach noting else as the object of our faith, as the necessary element of your soul’s salivation, which doth not some way or other, either meet in Christ, or refer to Christ; only Christ is the whole of man’s happiness, the Sun to enlighten him, eh Physician to heal him, Wall of fire to defend him, the Friend to comfort him, the Pearl to enrich him, the Ark to support him, the Rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures, “As an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” Isa. 32 : 2. Only Christ is that ladder between earth and heaven, the Mediator between God and man, a mystery, which the angels of heaven desire to pry, and peep, and look into. 1 Pet. 1 : 12. Here is a blessed subject indeed; who would not be glad to pry into it, to be acquainted with it? “This is life eternal, to know God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent.” John 17 : 3. Come then, let us look on this Sun of righteousness: we cannot receive harm but good by such a look; indeed by looking long on the natural sun, we may have our eyes dazzled, and our faces blackened; but by looking unto Jesus Christ, we shall have our eyes clearer, and our faces fairer; if “the light of the eye rejoice the heart,” Prov. 15 : 30, how much more, when we have such a blessed object to look upon? As Christ is more excellent than all the world, so this sight transcends all other sights; it is the epitome of a Christian’s happiness, the quintessence of evangelical duties, Looking unto Jesus.”

(Ambrose, Isaac, Looking Unto Jesus: A View of the Everlasting Gospel, Harrisonburg, Virginia: Sprinkle Publications, 1986, p. 17-18.)

As well to the means, as to the end.

Herman Witsius has written:

“Having said enough concerning the eternity of election, let us now consider its freeness; which consists in this, that God, as the absolute Lord of all his creatures, has chosen, out of mankind, whom and as many as he pleased; and indeed, in such a manner, as that no good which he foresaw in such a man, was the foundation of that choice, or the reason why he chose one rather than another. This appears, 1st. Because the scripture asserts, that the most free will of God was the supreme reason or cause of election, Mat. xi. 26. “even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Luke xii. 32. “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Above all, the apostle is full in vindicating this absolute power of God, Rom. ix. Where among other things he says, ver. 21. “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” 2dly. At the same time also, that the scripture refuses the consideration of any good foreseen in man, it maintains this most free and gracious good-pleasure of God, Rom. ix. 11. “for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth,” &c. 2 Tim. i. 9. “not according to our woks, but according to his own purpose.” 3dly. Neither faith, nor holiness, nor any thing truly good can be considered in man, unless bestowed out of divine grace, Phil. i. 29. unto you is given to believe on Christ, Eph. ii. 8. faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. But the bestowing of this favour can proceed from no other cause than the election of grace, and the benevolent good pleasure of his will. And consequently these benefits cannot be presupposed as preparatory to divine election. 4thly. The scriptures expressly declare, that we are chosen to faith, holiness, and to perseverance in both, which being the consequents and fruits of election, cannot be the antecedent conditions of it, Eph. i. 4 “he hath chosen us, that we should be holy and without blame.” or have it begun on earth, and consummated in heaven. John xv. 16. “I have chosen you and ordained you, that you should bring forth fruit.” I have chosen you from eternity, called and ordained you in the appointed time. 2 Thess. ii. 13. “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth. Election is as well to the means, as to the end.”

(Witsius, Herman. The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, Volume I, Kingsburg, CA: den Dulk Christian Foundation, 1990, pp. 337-338.)

Is He found?

Isaac Ambrose has written:

“The most excellent subject to discourse or write of, is Jesus Christ. Augustine, having read Cicero’s works, commended them for their eloquence; but he passed this sentence upon them, “They are not sweet, because the name of Jesus is not in them.” And Bernard’s saying is near the same, “If thou writest, it doeth not relish with me, unless I read Jesus there; if thou disputest or conferrest, it doth not relish well with me, unless Jesus sound there.” Indeed all we say is but unsavory, if it be not seasoned with this salt, “I determined not to know any thing among you, (saith Paul,) save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” He resolved with himself, before he preached among the Corinthians, that this should be the only point of knowledge that the would profess himself to have skill in; and that, in the course of his ministry he would labor to bring them to: this he made “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of his knowledge;” “yea, doubtless, (saith he,) and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” Eph. 3 : 18. Phil. 3 : 8.”

(Ambrose, Isaac, Looking Unto Jesus: A View of the Everlasting Gospel, Harrisonburg, Virginia: Sprinkle Publications, 1986, p. 17.)

Chosen.

Herman Witsius has written:

“III. Election is the eternal, free, and immutable counsel of God, about revealing the glory of his grace, in the eternal salvation of some certain persons. Most of the parts of this description are in these words of the apostle, Eph. i. 4, 5, 6. “according as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to himself, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

“IV. We call Election, the counsel of God, by which term we mean that which is commonly called decree. Paul on this subject calls it the purpose of God. This term appears very familiar to the apostle, which he very frequently makes use of, and denotes a sure, firm, and fixed decree of God, which he can never repent of, and which depends on nothing out of himself, but is founded only in his good pleasure. All this is intimated, 2 Tim. i. 9. “who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace.” To this purpose also, Eph. i. 11. “we are predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” And elsewhere the same apostle also speaks of the purpose of Election, Rom. viii. 28. “who are called according to his purpose, and Rom. ix. 11. “the purpose of God according to Election.” And thus we distinguish this internal election, and of counsel, from the external and of fact, which signifies the actual separation of believers from unbelievers, by effectual calling. In this sense the Lord Jesus said to his apostles, John xv. 19. “but I have chosen you out the world, therefore the world hateth you.” But the eternal and internal decree of God could not be the cause of this hatred, but only as it discovered itself by the event, and by the actual separation of the apostles from the world. To this we may also it seems apply what the apostle writes, 1 Cor. i. 26, 27. “ye see your calling brethren , how that not many wise men, &c. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise,” &c. Where he seems to take calling and election for the same thing. Nor does this internal Election and of counsel, differ from the external and of fact, but only in this, that the last is the demonstration and execution of the first.” …

“VIII. This election to glory is not some general decree of God about saving the faithful and the godly, who shall persevere in their faith and piety to the end of their life; but a particular designation of certain individual persons, whom God has enrolled as heirs of salvation. It is not consistent with the perfection of God to ascribe to him general and indeterminate decrees, which were to receive any determination or certainty from men. We read, Acts ii. 23. of the determinate counsel of God, but never of a general and indeterminate decree. Neither does the scripture ever describe election as the determination of any certain condition, by and without which salvation is, or is not obtained. It is no where said that faith is chosen by God, or written down in the book of life, or any thing like that; but that men, indeed, are chosen by God. Let us refer to Rom. viii. 29, 30. “for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Whom he did predestinate, them he also called, “ &c. It is not said in the text, persons so qualified, that it might be applied to the designation of any condition, but certain persons
are appointed as the object of the act there mentioned.”

(Witsius, Herman, The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, Volume 1, Kingsburg, CA: den Dulk Foundation, 1990, pp. 325-326 & 327-328.)

Supreme Power.

Thomas Shepherd has written:

“First from the works of God. (Rom. i. 20.) When we see a stately house, although we see not the man that built it, although also we know not the time when it was built, yet will we conclude thus: Surely some wise artificer hath been working here. Can we, when we behold the stately theater of heaven and earth, conclude other but that the finger, arms, and wisdom of God hath been here, although we see not him that is invisible, and although we know not the time when he began to build? Every creature in heaven and earth is a loud preacher of this truth. Who set those candles, those torches of heaven, on the table? Who hung out those lanterns in heaven to enlighten a dark world? Who can make the statue of a man, but one wiser than the stone out of which it is hewn? Could any frame a man but one wiser and greater than man? Who taught the birds to build their nests, and the bees to set up and order their commonwealth? Who sends the sun post from one end of heaven to the other, carrying so many thousand blessings to so many thousands of people and kingdoms? What power of man or angels can make the least pile of grass, or put life into the least fly, if once dead? There is, therefore, a power above all created power, which is God.”

(Shepherd, Thomas, The Sincere Convert and The Sound Believer, Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1999, p. 10.)

Church in a blender.

Jonathan Edwards has written:

“It is by the mixture of counterfeit religion with true, not discerned and distinguished, that the devil has had his greatest advantage against the cause and kingdom of Christ all along hitherto. It is by this means, principally, that he has prevailed against all revivings of religion that ever have been since the first founding of the Christian church. By this, he hurt the cause of Christianity in and after the apostolic age, much more than by all the persecutions of both Jews and heathens. The apostles, in all their epistles, show themselves much more concerned at the former mischief than the latter. By this, Satan prevailed against the Reformation, begun by Luther, Zwinglius and others, to put a stop to its progress, and bring it into disgrace, ten times more than by all those bloody, cruel, and before unheard-of persecutions of the Church of Rome. By this, principally, has he prevailed against revivals of religion, that have been in our nation since the Reformation. By this he prevailed against New England, to quench the love and spoil the joy of her espousals about a hundred years ago. And I think I have had opportunity enough to see plainly that by this the devil has prevailed against the late great revival of religion in New England, so happy and promising in its beginning. Here, most evidently, has been the main advantage Satan has had against us; by this he has foiled us. It is by this means, that the daughter of Zion in this land now lies on the ground, in such piteous circumstances as we now behold her, with her garments rent, her face disfigured, her nakedness exposed, her limbs broken, and weltering in the blood of her own wounds, and in no wise able to arise; and this, so quickly after her late great joys and hopes: Lam_1:17, “Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries shall be round about him.” I have seen the devil prevail the same way against two great revivings of religion in this country. Satan goes on with mankind as be began with them. He prevailed against our fist parents, and cast them out of paradise, and suddenly brought all their happiness and glory to an end, by appearing to be a friend to their happy paradisaic state, and pretending to advance it to higher degrees. So the same cunning serpent, that beguiled Eve through his subtlety, by perverting us from the simplicity that is in Christ, hath suddenly prevailed to deprive us of that fair prospect we had a little while ago, of a kind of paradisaic state of the church of God in New England.”

(Edwards, Jonathan, The Religious Affections, Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2001, pp. 17-18.)

Looking for liberty; to what end?

Stephen Charnock has written:

“Those that deny the providence of God, do in effect deny the being of God; for they strip Him of that wisdom, goodness, tenderness, mercy, justice, righteousness, which are the glory of the Deity. And that principle, of a greedy desire to be uncontrolled in their lusts, which induceth men to a denial of Providence, that thereby they might stifle those seeds of fear which infect and embitter their sinful pleasures, may as well lead them to deny that there is any such being as a God. That at one blow, their fears may be dashed all in pieces and dissolved by the removal of the foundation: as men who desire liberty to commit works of darkness, would not have the lights of the house dimmed, but extinguished. What men say against Providence, because they would have no check in their lusts, they may say in their hearts against the existence of God upon the same account; little difference between the dissenting from the one and the disowning of the other.”

(Charnock, Stephen, The Existence and Attributes of God, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996, p. 24)

Not a matter of how you feel.

John Owen has written:

"Evangelical theology is a spiritual gift bestowed by the Holy Spirit on the minds of believers, and believers are, by definition, those born again by the grace of God. Believers are thus made wise, prudent, and capable of understanding the mystery of holiness, of God and His will as revealed in Christ through the gospel. Having their souls renewed to everlasting life, they are taught how to offer acceptable worship to God in Christ in line with God's revealed Word, illuminated by the Holy Spirit and so at last they shall enjoy God forever."

(Owen, John. Biblical Theology, Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2002, pp. 640-641.)