CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

1. Take notice That a people becomes the Lords peculiar ones, his Jewels, solely by his grace and goodwill; He hath chosen us, and not we him, he loved us first:¹ The great God of heaven who might have made other people, other persons his treasure, did out of his own mere goodness take thee and thee into such a blessed relation: The Apostle doth every where in his Epistles reduce it to ⟨p. 256⟩this cause, The counsel of his will, and out of his mere grace, and certainly if Deut. 9.5. the Lord doth again and again inform the Israelites, that it was not for their righteousness, or any good in them but merely because be set his love on them, that he made them his external people by an outward Covenant; how much rather must it needs be the mere grace of God to make a people inwardly and spiritually his, so that whosoever find themselves thus appropriated to God, to be able with the Church to say as she doth many times, because our blessedness lieth in this, I am my well-beloveds, and my well-beloved is mine, Cant. 6.3. Oh let such be deeply humbled and even astonished under the discriminating Grace of God, I am the Lords when the devils are not, when such men of parts, abilities, and great Revenues in the world; And if the Lord would have looked to any thing in man, how many thousands are there that if converted would have been more glorious Instruments of Gods glory then I am.

1. Take notice That a people becomes the Lords peculiar ones, his Jewels, solely by his grace and goodwill; He hath chosen us, and not we him, he loved us first:¹ The great God of heaven who might have made other people, other persons his treasure, did out of his own meer goodnesse take thee and thee into such a blessed relation: The Apostle doth every where in his Epistles reduce it to ⟨p. 256⟩this cause, The counsell of his will, and out of his meer grace, and certainly if