William Beveridge · 14 of 16

Thoughts Upon the Call and Election. · Part 2

BUT to demonstrate the truth of this Proposition still more fully, and as clearly as possibly I can, I must first lay down one Principle as a Postulatum, which I suppose all will acknowledge to be true, and that is this, that whatsoever profession a Man makes of the Christian Religion, it will avail him nothing without the practice of it; or if you will take it in our Saviour’s own words, Not every one, saith he, that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven, Mat. vii. 21. Or as the Apostle expresseth it, For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified, Rom. ii. 13. That is, it is not our hearing and knowing our Duty that will stand us in any stead before God, but our doing of it; it is not our believing that we may be saved by believing in Christ, whereby we can be saved without actual believing in him, without such a Faith whereby we depend upon him, for the pardon and salvation of our immortal Souls, and consequently for the assistance of his Grace and Spirit, whereby we may be enabled to obey his Gospel, and to perform all such things as himself hath told us are necessary in order to our everlasting Happiness: And whatsoever Faith we pretend to, unless it comes to this, that it put us upon universal Obedience to all the Commands of God, we may conclude it will do us no good, for it is not such a Faith as Christ requires, which always works by Love; conquers the World, subdues Sin, purifies the Heart, and sanctifies the whole Soul wheresoever it comes. It is such a Faith as this which is the wedding Garment, without which no Man is chosen nor admitted to partake of those celestial Banquets, which Christ our Saviour hath provided for us. And therefore no Man can have any ground at all to believe or hope himself to be defied or chosen to eternal Salvation, that is not holy in all manner of Conversation; God himself having told us expressly, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord, Heb. xii. 14. So that having God’s own word for it, we may positively and confidently assert, that no Man in the world can upon just grounds be reputed as chosen by God, that doth not in all things to the utmost of his power, conform himself, and adjust his Actions to the Laws and Commands of God. So that how many soever are called, how many soever come in to the outward profession of the Christian Religion, yet none of them can be said to be chosen, but such as are real and true Saints. And how few those are, is a matter which we have more cause to bewail than to prove. Howsoever, that we may see that we have but too much reason to believe this Assertion of our blessed Saviour, that many are called, but few chosen, I desire we may but consider the estate of Christendom in general, and weigh the Lives and Actions of all such as profess to believe in Christ, view them well, and examine them by the Gospel Rules, and then we shall soon conclude that there are but few chosen; or to bring it home more closely to our selves, who are all called, and take out from amongst us all such Persons as come not up to the terms of the Gospel, and we shall find that there are but few behind, but few indeed who can be discerned and judged by the light either of Reason or Scripture to be chosen by God to eternal Life. For take out from amongst us,

1. ALL atheistical Persons, who though they are baptized into the name of Christ, and so are called to the Faith of Christ, yet neither believe in Christ nor God, such Fools as say in their Heart there is no God, Psal. xiv. 1. For all will grant, that they are not chosen by God, who do not so much as believe that there is any God to chuse them. Neither can it be imagined that the all wise God should chuse such Fools as these to be with him, who will not so much as acknowledge him to be. And yet how many such Fools have we amongst us, whose practises have so depraved their Principles, that they will not believe there is any God, because they wish there was none? And when these ate taken from amongst the called, I fear the Number of the Chosen amongst them will be much lessened.

2. TAKE out from amongst us all ignorant Persons, that understand not the common Principles of Religion, nor the Fundamental Articles of that Faith which they are called to: For that these are not chosen, is plain, in that though they be called by Christ, yet they know not what he would have them do, nor yet who it is that calls them. And therefore as God would have all Men to be saved, so for that end he would have them come to the knowledge of the Truth, 1 Tim. ii. 4. that is, he would have them know all such Truths as himself hath revealed to them in his Gospel, as necessary to be known in order to their eternal Salvation, without which knowledge it is impossible for a Man to perform what is required of him; for though a Man may know his Duty and not do it, no Man can do his Duty unless he first know it. And therefore gross Ignorance and saving Faith, cannot possibly consist or stand together; for saving Faith is always joined with, or puts a Man upon sincere Obedience to all the Commands of God. But how can any Man obey the commands of God, who neither knows that God whose Commands they are, nor yet what these Commands are which God would have him to obey? No certainly, a blind Man may as well follow his temporal Calling, how intricate soever it be, as he that is grossly ignorant, the high Calling of a Christian; for he is altogether uncapable of it, and so not only unworthy, but unfit to be chosen to it. Hence God himself hath told us, that he is so far from chusing such as live and dye in this manner without understanding, that he will never shew them any Mercy or Favour. For it is a people, saith he, of no understanding, therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour, Isa. xxvii. 11. Neither doth he ever blame Mankind for any thing in the World more than for not knowing, and therefore not considering him that made and feeds them, Isa. i. 2, 3. Hos iv. 1. And that we may be still farther assured that he chuseth no such Persons to dwell with him, as do not know him and his Commands, he hath given it us under his hand, that he rejects them, saying, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children, Hos. iv. 6.

THAT therefore no Persons that are grossly ignorant, and live and die in that Condition, are chosen to eternal Salvation, I suppose, the Premises considered, all will acknowledge. But alas! how many such Persons are there in the World, how many amongst our selves? How many who are very cunning and expert in the management of any worldly Business, but are mere Novices or rather Idiots in matters of true Religion? Or as the Prophet words it, Who are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge, Jer. iv. 22. How many such ignorant and sottish People are there in every corner of the Land? and in this City it self! where they do, or may hear the Word of God read and expounded to them every day, and yet all them seriously of the Grounds of the Christian Religion, and the Reason of the Hope that is in them, and they are no more able to give a satisfactory or rational answer, than if they had never heard of any such Book as the Bible in the World, or had been born and bred in the remotest Corners of America, where the sound of the Gospel never yet came. But all such, how many soever they be, though they be called, they must stand aloof off, for so long as they are such we may be confident they are not chosen. Insomuch that should we take away no other from the number of the called, but only such as know not what they are called to, it would appear but too clearly to be true, that of the many which are called, there are but few chosen.

3. TAKE, out from amongst us all vicious, profane, debauched and impenitent Persons, all that make a mock of Sin, and that jear at Holiness, that live as without God in the World, as if they had neither God to serve nor Souls to save; as if there was neither a Hell to avoid nor Heaven to enjoy, and therefore make it their business to gratifie their Flesh, and to indulge their Appetite with carnal and sensual Pleasures, looking no higher than to be fellow sharers with the Brutes that perish such as in their bewitching Cups stick not to fly in the face of Heaven it self, and dare challenge God himself to damn them, that make lying their usual Dialect, and swearing their pleasing Rhetorick; and are so far from being troubled for these their Sins, that they take pleasure and delight in them, so far from being ashamed of them, that they make them their Pride and Glory, and so make it their Pleasure to displease God, and their highest Honour to dishonour him that is Honour and Perfection it self. For that no such Persons as these who live and dye in such notorious Crimes upon Earth, are chosen to live with God in Heaven, none can deny that believes the Scriptures to be true, which in plain Terms assure us of the contrary. Know ye not, saith the Apostle, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. And St. John tells us, that only they who do the Commandments enter into the City of Heaven: but without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, Rev. xxii. 14, 15. So that all such Persons without timely Repentance, are most certainly excluded from the number of the chosen. And how many are there amongst us, who allow themselves in some such Sin or other; or rather where shall we find a Man that doth not? But to all Persons that continue in such Sins, I may say, stand you by, you have no ground as yet to think that you are chosen, but have rather all the reason in the World to believe, that if you go on in such a sinful course, you will never know what Heaven or Happiness is. But when all such are taken out of the number of the called, what a pityous scouting will be left behind! In plain terms, we have just cause to fear that ignorant and dissolute Persons make the greatest part of those who are called Christians.

4. TAKE out from amongst us all hypocritical and false hearted Persons, that seem indeed to be honest and good Men, but still retain same secret Sin or other which will as certainly keep them out of Heaven as the mot notorious or scandalous Crime that is: such as our Saviour compares to whited Sepulchres, which outwardly appear very beautiful, but are within full of dead Mens Bones, and of all uncleanness, Matth. xxiii. 27. Such whose outward Conversation is altogether unblameable; so that no Man can charge them with Theft, Perjury, Drunkenness, Uncleanness, and the like; but in the mean while, they are malicious, uncharitable, censorious, proud, self-conceited, disobedient to Parents or Magistrates, Covetous, Ambitious, and the like. And so tho’ they be free from those Sins which others are guilty of, yet they are guilty of as bad Sins, which the others may be freed from. To which also may be added all such as make indeed a greater shew of Piety, and seem mighty zealous for the little Circumstances of Religion, but neglect the weightier Matters of the Law, the Love of God, Mercy, Justice, and the like. But for all the vain Hopes and high Conceits that such Persons may have of themselves, they are far from being such as the Gospel requires them, and by consequence from the number of the chosen here spoken of. For the Pharisees were such Persons as these, and yet our Saviour himself tells us, That except our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God, Matth. vi. 20. And when he tells us elsewhere, That except we repent we must all likewise perish, Luke xiii. 3. his meaning is, not that we must repent of some, or many, or most, but of all our Sins, and so repent of them as to turn from them; and so turn from all Sin, as for the future to be holy in all manner of Conversation, otherwise our Saviour himself assures us, that he will never save us, but we must perish without remedy.

LET any Man consider this, and then tell me what he thinks of the Number of the chosen, whether it be not very small indeed, in comparison of the many which are called. For not to speak of other parts of Christendom, all the People of this Nation are called to the Faith of Christ; and how many they are I cannot say we all know, for it is past any Man’s knowledge. But where is the Man amongst us all, that doth not harbour same secret Lust or other in his Bosom; yea, of the many Men in this Nation, where is he that can say with David, I have kept my self from mine Iniquity? Or to use the words of the Prophet, Run ye to and fro through the streets of this city, and see now and know, and seek if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, that serveth the Lord with a perfect heart and a willing mind. I do not deny but there are a great many professors of Religion amongst us, who would fain be accounted more strict and holy than their Neighbours, so as to be reckoned the Religious; as the Friers and Nuns are in the Church of Rome; But are they therefore to be esteemed the elect and chosen of God because they fancy themselves to be so? Or rather is not their Pride and Self-conceitedness an Argument, that they are not so? Blessed be God for it, I have no Spleen nor Rancour against any of them, but heartily wish they were as truly good and holy as they would seem to be. But what? Is not Pride a Sin? Is not Self-conceitedness a Sin? Is not Irreverence in God’s worship a Sin? Is not Disobedience to Magistrates a Sin? Is not Uncharitableness or Censoriousness a Sin? Certainly all these will be found to be Sins another Day. And therefore whatsoever pretences Men make unto Religion, if they allow themselves in such Sins as these, they are as far from being in the Number of the chosen, as the most dissolute and scandalous Persons in the World, But when these two are removed from the Number of the called, how few of them will appear to be chosen.

5. YET once again. Take out all such as believe not in our Lord Jesus Christ, but being morally honest and faithful in performing their Duty to God and Man, trust more in their own good Works than to his Merit and Mediation. For that all such are to he excluded, is plain from the whole tenour of the Gospel, which assures us, that there is no Salvation to be had but only by Jesus Christ; nor by him neither, but only by believing in him. But if Christ should come this Day to Judgment, would he find Faith upon Earth? Verily, I fear, he would find but very little if any at all amongst us: He might I believe; find some pretty strict and circumspect in obeying of his other Laws, or at least endeavouring to do so. But for a Man to do all that is required of him, and yet to count himself an unprofitable Servant; for a Man to do all he can and yet rest upon nothing that he hath done, but to depend wholly upon another, even upon Jesus Christ for Life and Happiness, this is hard indeed to Flesh and Blood, and as rare to find as it is to find a Rose amongst the Weeds and Thistles of a barren Wilderness, or a Diamond amongst the Gravel upon the Sea shoar; here and there I believe there may be found one, but so rarely, that they can scarce be termed any, be sure but very few in comparison of the many which are called.

NOW let us put these things together and we shall easily grant that this saying of our Saviour was but too true, that many are called but few chosen. And to bring it closer to our selves, we are all called to repent and believe the Gospel: Now take out from amongst us all ignorant Persons that then should be the reason that so many of them should be called and invited to the chiefest Good, the highest Happiness their Natures are capable of, yet so few of them should mind or prosecute it, so as to be chosen or admitted into the Participation of it? What shall we ascribe it to, the will and pleasure of Almighty God, as if he delighted in the ruin of his Creatures, and therefore although he calls them, he would not have them come unto him? No, that cannot be; for in his revealed Will, which is the only Rule that we are to walk by, he hath told us the contrary in plain terms, and hath confirmed it too with an Oath; saying, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he should turn from his way and live, Ezek. xxxiii. 11. And elsewhere he assures us, that he would have all Men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth, 1 Tim. ii. 4. And therefore if we believe what God saith, nay if we believe what he hath sworn, we must needs acknowledge that it is his will and pleasure, that as many as are called, should be all chosen, and saved. And indeed if he had no mind we should come when we are called to him, why should he call us all to come? Why hath he given us his word, his Ministers, his Ordinances, and all to invite and oblige us to repent and turn to him, if after all he was resolved not to accept of us, nor would have us come at all? Far be it from us, that we should have such hard and unworthy thoughts of the great Creator and Governor of the World; especially considering that he hath told us the contrary, as plainly as it was possible for him to express his mind unto us. I do not deny, but that according to the Apostle, Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world, Acts xv. 18. And that there are several passages in Scripture which intimate unto us God’s eternal Election of all that are truly pious, to live with him for ever. But it is not for us to be so bold and impudent, as to pry into the secrets of God, nor so curious as to search into his eternal and incomprehensible Decrees; but we must still remember the words of Moses, That secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but these things which are revealed belong unto us, that we may do all the words of his law, Deut. xxix. 29. Whatsoever is necessary for us to believe or do, in order to our eternal Salvation, is clearly revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures, and therefore what we there read belongs unto us to know, neither are we to look any farther than to his revealed Will. But God in the Scriptures doth plainly tell us, not only in the places before quoted, but elsewhere, that he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to Repentance, 2 Pet. iii. 9. This is the revealed Will of God, which we are to acquiesce in, and rest fully satisfied with, so as to act accordingly, without concerning our selves about things that are too high for us, and no way belong unto us. And therefore it is not in his secret, but revealed Will, that we are to search for the reasons of this Proposition, that many are called, but few chosen.

NOW in consulting the word of God, to find out the reasons of this so strange Assertion, that many are called, but few chosen, I know no better or fitter place to search for them, than this Parable, which gave our blessed Saviour the occasion of asserting it; in which it is very observable, that he meddles not at all with any reasons a priori, deduced from the eternal Decrees of his Father, but he only suggests to us the reasons a posteriori, drawn from the disposition and carriage of Men, why so many of them are called, and yet so few chosen.

FOR the opening whereof we must know, that the end and intent of this Parable, was only to shew the entertainment which his Gospel had then, and should still meet with in the World; many refusing to embrace it at all, and of those who embrace it, many still walking unworthy of it. So that the Issue and Consequence of it will be, that though many be called to it, there are but few chosen. And he hath so worded the Parable, that we need not look any farther for the reasons of this his conclusion from it, they being almost clearly couched in the Parable it self, which that we may the better understand, I shall open and explain them particularly, so as to make them intelligible, I hope, to the meanest Capacity.

THE first reason therefore why so many are called, but so few chosen, is because they who are called to Christ, will not come unto him; for this is the first reason which our Saviour himself in the Parable assigns for it; The King, saith he, sent his servants to call them that were bidden to the marriage, and they, would not come, Mat. xxii. 3. And they would not come, so that that the great fault is still in the wills of Men, which are generally so depraved and corrupt, that though they be called never so oft, and cannot but in reason acknowledge that it is their interest to come, yet they have so strange an averseness to the Holiness and Purity of the Gospel which they are called to, that they will not come unto it only because they will not; for here, they who were first bidden, give no reason of their refusal, only it is said, they would not come. And good cause why, for when we have searched into all the reasons imaginable, why Men do not fully submit themselves to the Obedience of the Gospel, they will all resolve and empty themselves into this, that they will not because they will not. Let Ministers say what they can, let the Scripture say what it will, let God himself say what he pleases, yet Sinners Men are, and Sinners they will be, in spite of them all, as the Prophet rebuking the People for their Sins, said, But thou saidst, there is no hope; No, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go, Jer. ii. 25. And so it is to this day, we tell them of their Sins, and the dangerous consequences of them; we tell them that they must not love the World, but seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness in the first place; we tell them from Christ’s own Mouth, that except they repent and forsake their Sins, they must perish; but they say in effect, that we had as good hold our tongues; for they have loved the World, and after it they will go, they have found pleasure in the commission of their Sins, and therefore they will commit them; Christ calls them to come unto him, and they know no reason why they should not, but howsoever they will not come. If we were but once willing, the work was done; for what our Wills are really inclined to, we cannot but use the utmost of our endeavour to attain. But the mischief is, Men read the Gospel, they hear Christ calling upon them to believe and obey it, but their Wills are still averse from it, there is a kind of antipathy and contrariety within them, against such exact and real Holiness as the Gospel requires from them. So that if they perish, they must blame themselves for it, it is their own choice, they chuse and prefer their Sins with all the Miseries which attend them, before the Gospel of Christ, with all the Glory and Happiness which is offered in it; and therefore as God said to his People, Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die; O house of Israel? Ezek. xxxiii. 11. So say I to these Men, repent and believe the Gospel, for why will ye die, why will ye perish eternally? Have you any reason for it? none in the world but your own Wills. Christ hath told you in plain terms, Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out, Joh. vi. 35. But if you will not come unto him, who can help that? Are not your selves only in the fault? Will not your blood be upon your own heads? What could Christ have done more for you than he hath done? What could he have suffered more for you than he hath suffered? How could he call you to him more plainly or pathetically than he doth? But if after all this, you will not come unto him, you must even thank your selves for all the Torments you must e’er long suffer and undergo. And this is indeed the case of the greatest part of Mankind, that though they be called and invited to partake of all the Merits of Christ’s Death and Passion, yet they will not come unto him. And this is the first and great reason why so many are called, and yet so few chosen, Joh. v. 40.

2. The second reason is because Men do not really believe that they are invited to such glorious things as indeed they are, as our Saviour himself intimates in the Parable. For when they who were bidden, would not come upon the furst Invitation, as not believing the Message which these Servants brought them, the King sent forth other Servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, behold I have prepared my dinner, my oxen, and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready, come unto the marriage, Mat. xxii. 4. When the first Servants were not believed, he sent others with fuller Instructions, giving them orders to acquaint the Guests, that all things were now ready, and to assure them that it was to a Marriage-Feast they were invited. But it seems, whatsoever the first or second Servants could say, it was to no purpose, they would not believe them, and therefore sent them away as they came; whereby our Saviour exactly discovers to us the entertainment that his Gospel always did, and still would meet with in the World. Before his own coming into the World, he sent his Prophets to invite Mankind to accept of the terms propounded in it, and to call upon them to repent and turn to God, that their Sins might be blotted out, and their Souls admitted into the grace and favour of Almighty God, and so partake of eternal Glory, which the Prophets called Men to, under the notion of a Feast, A feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined, Isa. xxv. 6. which they called all Men to, saying, Ho, every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters, Isa. lv. 1. But how their Message was received, the same Prophet declares, saying, Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed, Isa. liii. 1. and so it is since. For when the Prophets could not be credited, God afterwards sent his Apostles, and still to this Day is sending Servant after Servant to invite Men to Grace and Pardon, to Heaven and eternal Happiness. But we his Ministers may still say with the Prophet, Who hath believed our report? We tell Men, that unless they repent and turn to God, Iniquity will be their ruin; we tell them also, that if they believe in the Lord Jesus they shall be saved, and if they be holy here, they shall be happy hereafter. But what signifies our telling them of these things, if they believe not what we say? And yet who doth? Men give us the hearing, censure what they have heard, and that is all the use they make of it, never really or firmly believing any one truth that we make known or expound unto them; and this being the case not only of some few, but of the greatest part of Mankind, hence it comes to pass that so many are called and so few are chosen, even because they who are called do not believe it, and so it is all one with them whether they be called or no. Be sure God chuseth none but such as believe the word he sends unto them; for as the Apostle saith, God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, Jac. ii. 5. If they be not rich in faith, they are not for his purpose; and seeing there are but few that are so; hence of the many which are called, there are but few chosen.