Section 12.
SECTION 12.
Directions to understand the Scripture doctrine of election and reprobation — What election and reprobation are UNCONDITIONAL, and what CONDITIONAL — There is an unconditional election of sovereign, distinguishing grace, and a conditional election of impartial, rewarding goodness — The difficulties which attend the doctrines of election and reprobation are solved by means of the Gospel dispensations; and those doctrines are illustrated by the parable of the talents — A Scriptural view of our election in Christ.
WHEN good men, like Zelotes and Honestus, warmly contend about a doctrine; charging one another with heresy in their controversial heats, each has certainly a part of the truth on his side. Would you have the whole, Candidus? Only act the part of an attentive moderator between them: embrace their extremes at once, and you will embrace truth in her seamless garment, — the complete “truth as it is in Jesus.” This is demonstrable by their opposite sentiments about the doctrine of election. Zelotes will hear only of an unconditional, and Honestus only of a conditional election: but the word of God is for both; and our wisdom consists in neither separating nor confounding what the Holy Ghost has joined, and yet distinguished.
To understand the Scripture doctrine of election, take the following directions:
1. God is a God of truth. His righteous ways are as far above our hypocritical ways, as heaven is above hell: every calling, therefore, implies an election on his part. Who can believe that God ever demeans his majestic veracity so far as to call people, whom he does not choose should obey his call? Who can think that the Most High plays boyish tricks? And if he chooses that those whom he calls should come, a sincere election has undoubtedly preceded his calling. Nor are the well-known words of our Lord, Matthew 22:44, “Many are called, but few are chosen,” at all contrary to this assertion: for the context evidently shows that the meaning of this compendious elliptic saying is, “Many are called” to faith and holiness, “but few are chosen” to the rewards of faith and holiness. “Many are called” to be God’s servants, and to receive his talents, “but few,” comparatively, “are chosen” to enjoy the blessing of “good and faithful” servants. “Many are called to run the race but few are chosen to receive the prize.” Not because God has absolutely reprobated any, in the Calvinian sense of the words, but because few are willing to “deny themselves;” few care to “labour;” few are faithful, few “so run that they may obtain;” few “make their initial calling and election sure” to the end; and of the many that are called to enter into the kingdom of God, few strive so to do; and therefore few “shall be able,” see Luke 13:24.
2. According to the dispensation of “the saving grace of God, which hath appeared to all men;” so long as the “day of salvation” lasts, all men are sincerely called, and therefore sincerely chosen to believe in their light, to fear God, and to work righteousness. This general election and calling may be illustrated by the general benevolence of a good king toward all his subjects. Whether they are peasants or courtiers, he elects them all to loyalty, that is, he chooses that they should all be loyal; and in consequence of this choice, by his royal statutes, he calls them all to be so. But when a rebellion breaks out, many do not “make their calling and election sure;” that is, many join the rebels, and in so doing forfeit their titles, estates, and lives. However, as many as oppose the rebels become hereby peculiarly entitled to the privileges of loyal subjects, which are greater or less according to their rank, and according to the boroughs or cities of which they have the freedom. Upon this general plan, as many of Adam’s sons as, in any one part of the earth, make God’s general calling and election sure, by actually fearing God, &c, are rewardable elect, according to the FATHER’S dispensation: that is, God actually approves of them, considered as obedient persons, and he designs eternally to reward their sincere obedience, if they “continue faithful unto death,” Colossians 1:23; Revelation 2:10.
3. Distinguishing, or particular grace, chooses, and, of consequence, calls some men to believe explicitly in the Messiah to come, or in the Messiah already come; and as many as sincerely do so, are rewardable elect according to the SON’S dispensation, when it is distinguished from that of the SPIRIT, as in John 7:38, 89; for in general Christ’s dispensation takes in that of the Holy Ghost, especially since “Christ is glorified,” and when he is “known after the flesh no more.” Compare John 16:7, with 2 Corinthians 5:16.
4. A still higher degree of distinguishing grace elects, and of consequence calls, believers in Christ to take by force the kingdom which consists in “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;” and as many as make this calling and election sure, are God’s rewardable elect, according to the dispensation of the Holy Ghost.
5. All true worshippers belong to one or another of these three classes of elect. The first class is made up of devout heathens, who worship in the court of the Gentiles. The second class is formed of devout Jews, or of such babes in Christ as are yet comparatively carnal, like John’s disciples, or those of our Lord before the day of pentecost. These worship in the holy place. And the third class is composed of those holy souls who, by being fully possessed of Christ’s Spirit, deserve to be called Christians in the full sense of the word. These (which, in our Laodicean days, I fear, are a little flock indeed) are all perfected in one, and, having “entered within the veil,” worship now “in the holy of holies.”
6. In order to eternal salvation, those three classes of elect must not only “make their calling and election sure,” by continuing to-day in the faith of their dispensation; but also by going on “from faith to faith;” by rising from one dispensation to another, if they are called to it; and, above all, by “patiently continuing in well doing,” or by “being faithful unto death;” none but such “having the promise of a crown of life that fadeth not away.”
7. Distinguishing grace not only chooses some persons to see the felicity of God’s chosen in the two great covenants of peculiarity, called the law of Moses, and the Gospel of Christ; but it elects them also to peculiar dignities, or uncommon services in those dispensations. Thus Moses was elected to be the great prophet and lawgiver of the Jews: Aaron to be the first high priest of the Jewish dispensation: Saul, David, and Solomon, to be the three first kings of God’s chosen nation. Thus again the seventy were chosen above the multitude of the other disciples, the twelve above the seventy; Peter, James, and John, above the twelve; and St. Paul, it seems, above Peter, James, and John. The following scriptures refer to this kind of extraordinary choice — to this election of peculiar grace: — “Moses his chosen stood in the gap. The man’s rod whom I shall choose shall blossom. The man whom the Lord shall choose, he shall be holy,” that is, he shall be set apart for the priesthood. “He chose David his servant, and took him from the sheep fold. Before I formed thee,” Jeremiah, “in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee,” or, I set thee apart, “and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Of his disciples he chose twelve apostles. “He,” Paul, “is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles.” Agreeably to the doctrine of these peculiar elections to singular services, it is even said of Cyrus, a heathen king, by whose means the Jews were to be delivered from the Babylonish captivity: “Cyrus is my shepherd, and shall” or will “perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid, &c. For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name, though thou hast not known me.” Once more: David, speaking of God’s choosing the tribe of Judah before all the other tribes, says: “Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and” reprobated, or “chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose” or elected “the tribe of Judah, the Mount Sion, which he” peculiarly “loved.” But what have all those civil or ecclesiastical elections of persons and places to do with our election to a crown of glory? Will Zelotes affirm that Saul and Jehu are certainly in heaven, because they were as remarkably chosen to the crown as David himself? And though St. Paul knew that he was “a chosen vessel, set apart from his mother’s womb” for great services in the Church, does he not inform us that he “so ran as to obtain the crown;” and that he “kept his body under lest, after he had preached to,” and saved “others, he himself should become a castaway — a reprobate?”
8. Do not forget that frequently the word chosen, or elect, means principal, choice, having a peculiar degree of superiority, or excellence. This is evident from the following texts: “The wrath of God smote down the chosen of Israel,” Psalm 78:31. “I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, and precious,” 1 Peter 2:6. “The elder to the elect lady,” 2 John 1. And it would be the height of Calvinian orthodoxy to suppose that the prophet’s words, “Thy choicest,” or, as the original properly means, “thy elect valleys shall be full of chariots,” are to be understood of Calvinian election. To render Zelotes less confident in that election, one would think it sufficient to throw into the Scripture Scales, and weigh before him, the following passages, which are literally translated from the original: — I.
For Israel, mine elect, I have called thee, Isaiah 14:4.
The election hath obtained it, Romans 11:7.
II.
He [Kish] had a son whose name was Saul, an elect, 1 Samuel 9:2.
Query. Is Saul also among the elect as well as among the prophets?
I have made a covenant with my chosen [or elect.] I have exalted one chosen out of the people. Mine elect shall inherit it, Psalm 89:3, 19; Isaiah 65:9.
The children of thy elect sister greet thee, 2 John 1:13.
His elect, whom he hath chosen, Mark 13:20.
I endure all things for the elect’s sake, 2 Timothy 2:10. O ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones, 1 Chronicles 16:13.
I charge thee before the f25 elect angels, 1 Timothy 5:21. And shall not God avenge his own elect? Luke 18:7.
Set on a pot: fill it with the bones of the election, Ezekiel 24:4.
She committed her whoredoms with the elect of Assyria, Ezekiel 23:7. The tongue of the just is as chosen silver. Receive knowledge rather than elect gold, Proverbs 10:20; 8:10.
They shall cut down thine elect cedars, Jeremiah 12:7.
He [Jacob] chose all the elect of Israel, 2 Samuel 10:9.
Moab is spoiled, his elect young men are gone down to the slaughter, Jeremiah 48:15.
His [Pharaoh’s] elect captains also are drowned, Exodus 15:4.
Amaziah gathered Judah together, &c, and found them three hundred thousand elect, able to go forth to war, 2 Chronicles 25:5.
I grant that our translators, in some of the preceding passages, have used the word choice, and not the word elect. They say, for example, “choice cedars,” and not “elect cedars;” but if they were afraid to make us suspect the dignity of Calvinian election, I am not. And as the original is on my side, the candid reader will not expect such scrupulousness of me, who wish to act the part of a reconciler, and not that of a Calvinist.
9. God’s choosing and calling us to “come up higher” on the ladder of the dispensations of his grace, is called election and vocation. Thus the doctrine which St. Paul insists much upon in his Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians, is, that now Jews and Gentiles are equally elected and called to the privileges of the Christian dispensation. Nor does St. Peter dissent from him in this respect. Once indeed he took it for granted that the Gentiles were all reprobates; see Acts 10. But when he was divested of his Jewish prejudices, and wrote to the believers who were “scattered throughout Pontus,” &c, he said “the Church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you,” 1 Peter 5:13. Just as if he had said, Think not that the election to the obedience of faith in Christ is confined to Judea, Pontus, or Galatia. No: God calls both Jews and Gentiles, even in Babylon, to believe in his Son. And as a proof that this calling and election are sincere, with pleasure I inform you that several have already believed, and formed themselves into a Christian Church, which saluteth you, not only as being elected with you to hear the Christian Gospel; but as making their “election to so great salvation sure” through actual belief of “the truth as it is in Jesus.” Therefore I do not scruple, in every sense of the word, to say that they are “elected together with you, and you may boldly consider them already as holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” A glorious proof this that Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles; Babylon, in this respect, being as much elected as Jerusalem. But more of this in the next section.
10. To conclude: of all the directions which can be given to clear up the doctrine of election with respect to our eternal concerns, none appears to me so important as the following. Carefully distinguish between our election to run the race of faith and holiness, according to one or other of the Divine dispensations; and between our election to receive the prize — a crown of glory. St. Paul, speaking to Christians of the first of these elections, says, “God has chosen us that we should be holy.” And our Lord, describing the second election, says, “Many are called, but few chosen. Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” The former of these elections is always unconditional; but the latter is always suspended upon the reasonable condition of persevering in the obedience of faith.
To show the propriety and importance of the preceding directions, I need only apply them to the parable of the talents, which displays every branch of the doctrine of election. “The kingdom of heaven,” says Christ [if it be considered with respect to God’s gracious and righteous dispensations toward the various classes of his moral vessels or servants] “is as a man who called, [and, of consequence, first freely chose] his own servants.” Observe here that every man is unconditionally chosen and called to serve God in his universal temple. Some may be compared to earthen vessels, made, chosen, and called to be useful in the court of the Gentiles, like humble Gibeonites: some to silver vessels, made, chosen, and called to be useful in the holy place, like pious Jews: and others to golden, i.e. most precious and honourable vessels, made, chosen, and called to be useful in the holiest of all, like true Christians. Hence it appears that God has assigned to all his moral vessels their proper place and use in his great temple, the universe. If they are unprofitable and unfit for the Master’s use, it is not because he makes them so; but because they received a bad taint from their parents upon the wheel of generation, and afterward refuse to purge themselves by means of the talent of light, grace, and power, which is bestowed upon them as the seed of regeneration, according to their respective dispensations.
The difference that sovereign grace makes between God’s servants, or, if you please, between his moral vessels, is evidently asserted by St. Paul, 2 Timothy 2:19, &c. “The Lord,” says he, “knoweth them that are his:” that is, he approves the godly, the vessels of mercy, the clean vessels under every dispensation. “Let then every one that nameth the name of Christ,” and who is, of consequence, under the strictest of all the dispensations, “depart from iniquity: for in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, f26 and some to dishonour. If a man purge himself from these” [that are to dishonour] whether he be a vessel of gold, silver, wood, or earth, “he shall,” according to his dispensation, “be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work;” though it should be only the work of a Gibeonite, hewing wood and drawing water. And if a Christianized Saul seeks to slay these spiritual Gibeonites in his zeal for the children of Israel, God himself will plead their cause: for he honours, in every dispensation, vessels that are clean and sanctified, according to his own decree, “Them that honour me, I will peculiarly honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” That is, although those that honour me should be only fit to be compared to wooden or earthen vessels, like the devout soldiers of Cornelius, I will honour them with a place in my heavenly house. And were those that despise me compared to silver vessels, like the sons of Eli; or to a golden vessel, like Judas; if repentance do not interpose, they shall be broken with a rod of iron like vessels of wrath; and after “sleeping in the dust, they shall awake to the everlasting contempt” due to their sins; it being written among the decrees of Heaven, “If any man defile” the vessel, or “temple of God, him shall God destroy.” Such will be the fearful end of those, who, by their wilful unbelief, make themselves positively unclean vessels. “For to them that are unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled.” And these vessels of just wrath and positive dishonour must be carefully distinguished from those whom God comparatively makes vessels of dishonour, by giving them fewer talents than he does to his upper servants. Return we now to the parable of the talents and to the several classes of servants, which St. Paul compares to several classes of vessels, in God’s great house below. “To one of them” says our Lord, (to the Christian, I suppose,) according to the election of most particular, distinguishing grace, “he gave five talents.” To another, suppose the Jew, still according to the election of particular grace, “he gave two talents.” “And to another,” suppose the heathen, according to the decree of general grace, “he gave one talent.” Hence it appears that God reprobates no man absolutely, and is no Calvinistical respecter of persons; for, adds our Lord in the parable, “he gave to every one according to his several ability,” or circumstances, Matthew 25:15. This first distribution of grace and privileges is previous to all works, and to it belong (as I have shown by parallel scriptures) those words of the apostle, “The children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to” sovereign, distinguishing election to certain remarkable favours, “might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said, The elder shall serve the younger — Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated,” i.e. I have preferred Jacob to Esau, in point of family honour; and the Israelites to the Edomites with respect to the covenant of peculiarity. And with as much propriety it might be said, in point of super-angelical dignity, Michael the archangel have I loved, and Gabriel the angel have I hated: i.e. I have reprobated the latter from a degree of dignity and favour to which I have elected the former.
Thus far the parable illustrates the doctrine of sovereign free grace, and of an unconditional election to receive and use different measures of grace; and thus far I walk hand in hand with Zelotes, because thus far he speaks as the oracles of God, except when he hints at his doctrine of absolute reprobation: for at such times he makes it his business to insinuate that there are some men to whom God never gave so much as one talent of saving grace, in flat opposition to that clause of the parable, “he gave to every one” one or two true talents at least: I say true, because whatever dreadful hints Zelotes may throw out to the contrary, I dare not allow the thought that the true God deals in false coin; or that, because he is the God of all grace, he deals also in damning grace: — damning grace I call it; for in the very nature of things, all grace bestowed upon an absolute reprobate — upon a man hated of God with an everlasting hate, and given up from his mother’s womb unavoidably to sin and be damned: all grace, I say, flowing from such a reprobating God to such a reprobated man is no better than a serpent, whose head is Calvin’s absolute reprobation and its tail Zelotes’ finished damnation.
Zelotes, I fear, objects to the sovereign, free, distinguishing grace which I contend for, chiefly because it has no connection with the bound will, and distinguishing free wrath which characterize his opinions. Accordingly he soon takes his leave of me and the parable of the talents, the middle part of which illustrates what he calls my heresy, that is, the doctrine of free will.
(1.) The doctrine of obedient free will, which our Lord secures thus: — “Then he that had received five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents,” &c. And, (2.) The doctrine of perverse free will, which Christ lays down in these words: — “But he that had received one talent went and digged in the earth, and hid his Lord’s money.” Here Christ, for brevity’s sake, points out unfaithful free will in the lowest dispensation only: sloth and unfaithfulness being by no means necessary consequences of the least number of talents. For while some Christians bury their five, and some Jews their two talents, some heathens so improve their one talent as to verify our Lord’s doctrine, “The last shall be first.”
The third part of the parable illustrates the doctrine of rewarding grace, or of conditional election to, and reprobation from the rewards with which Divine grace crowns human faithfulness. I call this election and this reprobation conditional, because they are entirely suspended upon the good or bad use which our faithful, or unfaithful free will makes of the talent or talents bestowed upon us by free grace; as appears by the rest of the parable: “After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them,” proceeding first to the election of rewarding grace. “He that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.” Here you see in an exemplifying glass the doctrine which Zelotes abhors, and which St. John recommends thus: “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment,” 1 John 3:21; 4:17. His Lord [instead of driving him to hell as a poor, blind, unawakened creature, who never knew himself; or as a proud, self-righteous Pharisee, who was never convinced of sin] said unto him, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, [thou vessel of mercy,] thou hast been faithful over a few things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” through my merciful Gospel charter, and the passport of thy sincere, blood-besprinkled obedience.
The servant, who through free grace and faithfulness had gained two talents, beside the two which distinguishing grace had given him, came next; and when he had been elected into the joy of his Lord in the same gracious manner, the trial of the faithless heathen came on. His plea would almost make one think that Zelotes had instilled into him his hard doctrine of reprobation. He is not ashamed to preach it to Christ himself. “Lord,” says he, “I knew thee, that thou art a hard man,” who didst contrive my reprobation from the beginning of the world, and gavest me only one talent of common grace, twenty of which would not amount to one dram of saving grace. “I knew thee,” I say, “that thou art an austere” master, “reaping,” or wanting to reap where thou hast not sowed the seed of effectual grace; “and gathering,” or wanting to gather “where thou hast not strewed” one grain of true grace; “and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent,” thy ineffectual, false, common grace “in the earth. Lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, &c, thou oughtest to have put my money to the exchangers,” who sometimes exchange to such advantage for the poor, that their “little one becomes a thousand.” Hadst thou made this proper use of my “common grace,” as thou callest it, “at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents: for every one that hath” to purpose, “shall have abundance: but from him that hath not” to purpose, “shall be taken away even that which he hath” — his unimproved, hidden talent: “and cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness;” i.e. into hell: “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” Matthew 25:15, 31. Hence it appears that a man may be freely elected to receive one, two, or five talents — freely chosen to trade with them, and afterward be justly reprobated, or cast away into outer darkness for not improving his talent, that is, for not “making his calling and election sure.”
Zelotes, indeed, as if he were conscious that the parable of the talents overthrows all his doctrinal peculiarities, endeavours to explain it away by saying that it does not represent God’s conduct toward his people with respect to grace and salvation, but only with regard to parts and natural gifts. To this I answer, (1.) The Scriptures no where mention a day of account, in which God will reward and punish his servants according to their natural parts, exclusively of their moral actions. — (2.) The servants had all the same master. Luke 19:13, they are all represented as receiving “one pound” each, to “occupy,” or trade till their master came. He that did not improve his pound, or talent, is called “wicked” on that account. Now the non-improvement of a natural talent, suppose for poetry or husbandry, can never constitute a man “wicked;” nothing can do this but the non-improvement of a talent of grace.
(3.) We have as much reason to affirm that the oil of the virgins, mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, and the good works of the godly, mentioned at the end of it, were “not of a gracious nature,” as to assert it of the improvement of the pound, which constituted some of the servants “good and faithful.”
(4.) It is absurd to suppose that Christ will ever take some men into his joy, and will command others to be cast into outer darkness, for improving or not improving the natural talent of speaking, writing, or singing in a masterly manner.
(5.) The description of the day of judgment, that closes the chapter, is a key to the two preceding parables. On the one hand the door is shut against the foolish virgins merely for their apostasy — for having burned out all their oil of faith working by love, so that their “lamps went out.” The slothful servant is cast into outer darkness merely for not improving his talent of opportunity and power to believe, and to work righteousness according to the light of his dispensation. And the goats are sent into hell merely for not having done the works of faith. On the other hand, (considering salvation according to its second causes,) the wise virgins go in with the bridegroom, because their lamps are not gone out, and they have oil in their vessels; the faithful servants enter into the joy of the Lord, because they have improved their talents; and the sheep go into life eternal, because they have done the works of faith. The three parts of that plain chapter make a threefold cord, which, I apprehend, Zelotes cannot break, without breaking all the rules of morality, criticism, and common sense. I shall close my parabolic illustration of the Scripture doctrine of unconditional and conditional election, by presenting Zelotes and Honestus with a short view of our election in Christ; that is, of our election to receive freely, and to use faithfully, the five talents of the Christian dispensation, that we may reap all the benefits annexed to “making that high calling and election sure.”
I.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in [the person and dispensation of] Christ:
according as he hath f27 chosen us [to believe] in him, before the foundation of the world: that [in making our high calling and election sure] we should be holy and without blame before him in love, Ephesians 1:3, 4.
[If Zelotes be offended at my insinuating that St. Paul’s phrase “in Christ” is sometimes an ellipsis — a short way of speaking which conveys the idea of our Lord’s Gospel and dispensation; I appeal to the reader’s candour, and to the meaning of the following texts: — “Babes in Christ.
Urbane, our helper in Christ. The Churches of Judea, which were in Christ. Baptized into Christ. The Mosaic veil is done away in Christ. In Christ Jesus circumcision availeth nothing,” &c. Again: when St. Paul tells us that “his bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace,” does he not mean the chain with which he was personally bound, as a preacher of the Christian faith? And would not Zelotes make himself ridiculous, if he asserted that St. Paul’s “bonds in Christ” were those with which he was bound in the person of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane?]
There is a remnant [of Jews, who believe] according to the election of grace [who, through sanctification of the Spirit to obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, make their calling and election sure according to the Christian dispensation, 1 Peter 1:2.] The election [those Jews who make their election to the blessings of the Christian dispensation sure by faith in Christ] hath obtained it [righteousness] and the rest were blinded:
II.
Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world? [Yes, but not absolutely, for Zelotes knows that all the poor are not elected in his way: and St. James insinuates that their election to “the kingdom of heaven” is suspended on faith and love; for he adds that] God hath chosen the poor, rich in faith, and [of consequence] heirs of the kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him, [i.e. to them that are rich in the “faith which works by love,”] James 2:5. Know this also, that the Lord hath chosen to himself [i.e. to his rewards of grace and glory, not this or that man out of mere caprice, but] the man that is godly: [that is] the man after his own heart. (Com. Prayers, Psalm 4:3; 1 Samuel 13:14,) God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation [yea, out of mere distinguishing grace, he has chosen you to partake of the great salvation of Christians; not indeed absolutely, but] through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, [as it is in Jesus — the truth as it is revealed under the Christian dispensation,] 2 Thessalonians 2:13.
Many are called [to repentance, yea, many are “chosen, that they should be holy,” Ephesians 1:4,] but few are chosen [to receive the reward of perfected holiness — the reward of the inheritance,] Matthew 20:16.
Wherefore, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election SURE: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall, 2 Peter 1:10. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, bowels of mercies. For he shall have [that is, the unbelieving Jews have not obtained righteousness, because they sought it not by faith, but by blindly opposing their Pharisaic works of the law to Christ and the humble obedience of faith,] Romans 11:5, 7; 9:32.
judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy, Colossians 3:12 James 2:13.
If I am not mistaken, the balance of the preceding scriptures shows that Honestus and Zelotes are equally in the wrong: Honestus, for not rejoicing in free grace, in the election of grace, and in God’s power, love, and faithfulness, which are engaged to keep believers while they keep in the way of duty: and Zelotes, for corrupting the genuine doctrines of grace by his doctrines of Calvinian election, necessity, and unconditional reprobation from eternal life.