Puritan Nuggets of Gold # 24

Election (continued)

Election having once pitched upon a man, it will find him out and call him home, wherever he be. It called Zaccheus out of accursed Jericho; Abraham out of idolatrous Ur of the Chaldees; Nicodemus and Paul, from the college of the Pharisees, Christ's sworn enemies; Dionysius and Damaris, out of superstitious Athens. In whatsoever dunghills God elect are hid, election will find them out and bring them home. (John Arrowsmith)

Whom He chooseth, shall be created, called, justified, sanctified, glorified; because His purpose cannot be altered, His promise revoked. Let Manasseh repair the high places, rear altars for Baal; the Prodigal run from his father, drink and swill, consume his portion; Saul make havoc of the saints, put them in prison, do many things against Jesus of Nazareth; yet shall they come to themselves, mourn for their sins, and be saved. For they are elected, beloved of Him who is the same for ever. Were it not thus, what hope could the faithful have to see Babel ruined, the Roman whore burned, the Jew called, the devil's kingdom destroyed and Christ's perfected? (John Barlow)

Christ is to be answerable for all those that are given to Him, at the last day, and therefore we need not doubt but that He will certainly employ all the power of His Godhead to secure and save all those that He must be accountable for. Christ's charge and care of these that are given to Him, extends even to the very day of their resurrection, that He may not so much as lose their dust, but gather it together again, and raise it up in glory to be a proof of His fidelity; for, saith He, "I shall lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day." (Thomas Brooks)

If the elect could perish then Jesus Christ should be very unfaithful to His Father because God the Father hath given this charge to Christ, that whomsoever He elected, Christ should preserve them safe, to bring them to heaven (John 6:39) (Christopher Love)

Our spiritual estate standeth upon a sure bottom: the beginning is from God the Father, the dispensation from the Son, and the applicant from the Holy Spirit ... It is free in the Father, sure in the Son, ours in the Spirit. (Thomas Manton)

I tell you again, God hath not ordinarily decreed the end without the means; and if you will neglect the means of salvation, it is a certain mark that God hath not decreed you to salvation. But you shall find that He hath left you no excuse, because He hath not thus presestinated you. (Richard Baxter)

Some are much troubled because they proceed by a false method and order in judging of their estates. They will begin with election, which is the highest step of the ladder; whereas they should begin from a work of grace wrought within their hearts, from God's calling by His Spirit, and their answer to His call, and so raise themselves upwards to know their election by their answer to God's calling. "Give all diligence," says Peter, "to make your calling and election sure," your election by your calling. God descends unto us from election to calling, and so to sanctification; we must ascend to Him beginning where He ends. (Richard Sibbes)

For no man is damned precisely because God hath not chosen him, because he is not elected, but because he is a sinner, and doth willfully refuse the means of grace offered. (Anthony Burgess)