A49258:654
A treatise of effectual calling and election In XVI. sermons, on 2 Peter 1.10.…
A treatise of effectual calling and election In XVI. sermons, on 2 Peter 1.10. Wherein a Christian may discern, whether yet he be effectually called and elected. And what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof. Preached by that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Laurence Jury, London.A treatise of effectual calling and election In XVI. sermons, on 2 Peter 1.10. Wherein a Christian may discern, whether yet he be effectually called and elected. And what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof. Preached by that faithfull servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Laurence Jury, London.
London: printed for John Rothwell, 1655
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First, That there are many men, that are mentioned in Scripture, not to have been within the compass of Gods election, who yet were men of very blameless and honest lives, not blemished with any gross and scandalous evils. Read Luke 18.11, 14. of the Pharisee. He tells you, he thanks God he was no extortioner, no adulterer, no covetous person, no drunkard, nor was he as wicked as the Publican was. Her• you see a man that spake vauntingly and truly, that he w•s not a man that broke out into those miscarriages other men did; yet what was this man? An elect vessel? No. Read ver. 14. and the Text tells you, the Publican went away justified rather the other; the Pharisee, though he was free from scandalous and gross enormities in his life, yet he was not a justified man, and so by consequence not an elect man. You read of hypocrites, Mat. 23. that cleansed the outside of the cup, and of the platter, that is, cleansed their conversations, and cleansed the outward man of gross scandals, and yet within were full of filth; and Christ tells us, they were hypocrites, that should have their portion in hell. And should you view over Historians that write of the Scribes and Pharisees, and strict men among the Jews, they will tell you what wonderful holy-lived men they were; they were often in duties, fasted twice a week, prayed every day in the corners of the streets; none so strict as they in observing the Sabbath; would go veiled, left they should be ensnared by lascivious objects; and yet these very men so wonderful strict and cautious, were men that had no dram of grace in them at all. Though they were a people thus well dressed in their lives, yet the Scripture tells us of them, that Whores and Harlots should go to Heaven before them. This therefore is the first, that many men have had their lives free from gross scandals, and yet were men that were not elected by God to life and salvation.
First, That there are many men, that are mentioned in Scripture, not to have been within the compasse of Gods election, who yet were men of very bl••lesse and honest lives, not bl•mished with any grosse and scandalous evils. Read