A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude

Again, It presseth us to make our calling and election sure, ¹2 Pet. 1. 10. that is, to evidence our election by our calling; for calling it is but election put in act: Election is nothing but Gods love and intention to bestow saving grace upon such and such persons; and calling is nothing but the actual manifestation of Gods love, or the application of saving grace: Rom. 8. 30. Whom he hath predestinated, them he called: Calling is the first and immediate fruit of Election, by which it springeth forth, and is exercised on the vessels of mercy: So 2 Thes. 2. 13, 14. God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation, through the sanctification of the Spirit, and the belief of the Truth, to the obtaining of the glory of God, whereunto he hath called you by my Gospel. Here is the whole method of Salvation; the first rise and spring of mercy was at Election, which breaketh out by effectual calling, and so floweth down in the channels of faith and holiness, till it lose it self in the Ocean of everlasting Glory: So that by calling God executeth in time what he decreed before all time; and he that is called▪ may look backward upon eternal purposes of grace, and forward upon an eternal possession of glory. Well then, if we would get any assurance of Gods favour, or of our interest in everlasting glory, the great business we should labour in, is to clear up our calling; it is the freest and surest discovery of Gods love, and so fittest to bottom a confidence or assurance: In elective love we have the best view of mercy, and a call is the first discovery and copy of it; for it is an act of ⟨p. 16⟩God, which ariseth merely from his choice, preventing and anteceding not only the merit, but the acts and industry of the creature: see 2 Tim. 1. 9. Other acts of Gods bounty follow the acts of the creature, but this is the first motion God maketh to the Soul; he accepts us when we come, but he called us when we did not think of coming: In short, Calling, it is the key of the Gospel, the plank that is cast out to save a sinking sinner, a sure pledge of glory, which is therefore called the high price of our calling,