And fo telling us, that God had cut off fuch, feeing he fays, I alfo; even ch as were no profelites, but Jews by nation, fprung out of the loins of noble Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, and that by Rachel, a lawful wife, whom Jacob loved beft. X. Tho' external privileges and churchmembership fhould not be refted on, nor made a fcreen to hide us from the difplea fure of God; yet fhould they not be defpifed or undervalued, but honoured as great favours of God, and fometimes with holy fobriety and humility of fpirit, they may be avouched and openly profeffed, when it may ferve to glorify God; therefore Paul doth here declare and avouch what he was, an Ifraelite of the feed of Abraham, &c. and fo a church-member. XI. Tho' there were but one true hearted believer among thoufands of profeflors, to whom God were doing good, and whom he were owning as his chofen, when his difpenfations were full of anger, and changed toward the reft; yet this were enough to perfuade us of God's faithfulnefs in keeping covenant to his own for ever; For I am an Ifraelite, &c. as if he had faid, I am one inftance, and that may ferve to confirm the point, that he has not caft off his true people. once fet his affection upon, and known in a fpecial manner for his own from all eter-nity, fhall never be decourted again, or caft utterly out of God's favour; and this everlafting love and foreknowledge of God is the only bafis of their stability, and the anchor of their fafety: God bath not caft off his people whom he foreknew. VERSES 2. 3. 4.Wot ye not what the fcripture faith of Elias? how he maketh interceffion to God against Ifrael, faying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they feek my life. But what faith the answer of God unto him? I have referved to myself feven thou fand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. A Third argument, clearing and illuftrat. ing the matter he is upon, is taken from the ftate and condition of the church in the days of Elias: Moreover, would he fay, It is not I only that am left, but there are many more; and fo it is abundantly clear that God has not caft off his people. So then his argument lieth thus: If it fare with the church of the Jews now, as it XII. As God knoweth all things from did with them in the days of Elias, then eternity, even our thoughts afar off, Pfalm God hath not caft off his people; for then cxxxix. 2. and all mankind are in the chalkhe referved feven thoufand that did not of his eye, to whom nothing can be future or paft; fo hath he particularly fet his eye upon fo many of the children of Adam as he thought fit, and chofen them from among the reft, to be objects of his wonderful love and kindness, and according to his everlasting purpofe, which is not a blind act, but an act of wonderful knowledge, joined with unparalleled affection: There are fome whom he bath foreknown. See Rom. viii. 29. 2 Tim. ii. 19. 1 Pet. i. 2. XIII. Whatever God's difpenfations be towards his chofen ones in a world, yet his loving kindness will be never take from t'm, Palm lxxxix. 33. so that fuch as God hath apoftatize: But it fareth with the church of the Jews now as it did then. So then he layeth down the condition of the church in Elias's days, verfes 2. 3. 4. and then applieth it, and theweth how it fuiteth with their prefent cafe, verse 5. In his citing this ftory out of 1 Kings xix. 14. &c. he doth not cite the whole ftory, but fo much as made for his purpofe; nor doth he cite what he citeth, in that order in which it is fet down, only he cites the fum and fubftance thereof, and faith, Wot ye not what the fcripture faith of Elias? Know ye not that notour story about Elias, and what the fcripture faith of him? 3. prefent ftate of affairs, faying, Wet je not at the fcripture faith? II. Our ignorance of God's difpenfa tions toward his church and people in former ages and generations, makes us account our prefent cafe, in refpect of God's difpenfations, to be fingular and unparal leled; and therefore to rectify their miftake here, who poffibly would have thought God's difpenfations with the Jews ftrange, he refereth them to God's difpenfations to his church in Elias's time, faying, Wot ye not what the fcripture faith of Elias? or in that flory how, when he was making OBSERVATIONS. I. Acquaintance with the ftate of the church in former ages, recorded in fcripture, is very neceffary for the people of God, and will tend much to edify and com-. fort them in their particular conditions; and therefore he brings in the example of the ftate of the church in a former age, to inftruét them at that time, touching the III. A vifible church may turn fo cor rupt and perverfe, that the faithful fervants of God, who would gladly have had them doing well, and have ufed all means to reclaim them, can do nothing but lay out their bitter complaint of them and their carriage to God; and it is fad when minifters, after all their pains among a people, fhall be put to give in a libel againft them for their mifdemeanours: Elias was put to this, to make interceffion against Ifrael. 1V. Let the faithful fervants of God banished from house and harbour, and have no body to lay out the grief of their heart unto; yet be where they will, they have the Lord to lay open their mind unto; Elias made interceffion to God against Ifrael: he bad God to go to, even when he was forced to fly, and to hide himself in caves, and look no man in the face. V. A land which once has been famous for purity of worthip, and the power of religion, maintained and practifed in it, may come to that height of defection, as to root out all true religion, and banish, yea, and kill, the faithful and honest fervants of God, for maintaining the truth and purity of God's worship, against corruptions and innovations: Elias made inter ceffion against Ifrael, faying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets. VI. Whatever difrefpect be shown unto the fervants of the Lord, and how few foever foever there be to own them in their fufferings; yet they are dear to God, and he owns them as his, when they are leaft in account in the world, even when perfecuted, banished, and killed, they are his; no fad ftrokes upon them will make the Lord milken them, nor any fad condition they can fall into, will make him to difown them, but rather it will endear them the more to him: They have killed thy prophets. overturning the work of God, and puting all topfy-turvy, will be interpreted as the deed of the whole land, when there are none to proteft openly against thefe finful proceedings; for here tho' it was only the wicked king, and his idolatrous queen Jezebel, with a malignantly disposed court, which did kill the prophets, Kings xviii. 4.; yet it is accounted the deca of the whole land, because they ran, for the most part, the way with the corrupt court, and did not diffent from what was done, nor manifeft their dislike thereof; therefore Elias makes interceffion against Ifrael, and fays, they killed the prophets, &c. VII. As fuch as have an intereft in God as their mafter, may, notwithstanding thereof, meet with many fad and uncouth difpenfations, and unchristian ufage at the hands of men; fo it is a black and fad omen, and prognofticates little good to come on a land, when the rulers thereof are perfecuting the faithful fervants of God, for no caufe but their faithful difcharge of their duty, as meffengers of the Lord of hots: Such work as this doth prefage no less than black ruin to the work of God in that land; Lord, fays he, they bave killed thy prophets, and then it followeth, and digged down thine altars. Thefe two do ordinarily go together, the overturning of the work of God in a land, and the perfecuting of his meffengers. VIII. It is no frange thing to fee the powers of the world employing their power against God, and overturning the work of reformation, in the place where God has made them rulers, and openly violate a facred covenant, fworn with the Moft High, in a moft folemn manner: Here Ahab and Jezebel digget down God's altars, that is, they overturned his worship and the good work of reformation there, and withal it is faid in the place cited, that they forfook the covenant, and then threw down the altars, 1 Kings xix. 14. So that when men have caft off all respect to a covenant, and the oath of God, then there is nothing fo abominable but they will do it, were it even the digging down of what God has erected in doctrine or worship. IX. What the rulers of a land do in X. Altho' in a time when temptation like a flood over-runs a whole land, many may be keeped by the mighty hand of God, from being wholly carried down by the torrent; yet there may be few, what thro' daftardly timorousness and fear, who will stand in the breaking in of waters, and avouch the truth upon all hazards: for here, altho' there were many keeped from bowing the knee to Baal, yet Elias was left alone, as to any open avouching of the caufe of Chrift; they may get grace to believe, who have not grace to fuffer; and I am left alone. XI. So cruel and infatiable is the rage of the enemies of Chrift, that if there were but one remaining to give teftimony against their corruptons, they cannot be at reft till that one be made a facrifice to their beaftly favage cruelty; nothing will fatisfy them but the utter extirpation of all that will own Chrift's caufe, and ftand to the defence thereof: I am left alone, and they feek my life. XII. Whatever condition the fervants of God be in, they are allowed to draw near to God, and to lay it open before him, and the greater their traits and difficulties be, they fhould be preffed the more in to him; and their condition can never be fuch as to externals in a world, but they may make an errand of it to go to God; for he here complaineth to God, that they feck Jeek his life, and fo that he is chafed from one place to another, and cannot get a life. XIII. A tender foul cannot but refent, and be deeply affected with, the fad and calamitous condition of the fervants of Jefus Chrift, and of his work in their hands; their ftraits and hard conditions go as near the heart of a true.and tender child of God, as their own doth: Lord, fays he, they have flain thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; this goeth to his heart, no less than when they feek his own life. XIV. Let the faithful fervants of Chrift be banished from king, court, country and kindred, and have no access with their petitions and desires; or if they be permited to petition, yet receive no gracious anfwers; yet they have an open door to the court of heaven, and their petitions fhall not be caft over that bar, but they fhall certainly receive an answer: And they can never meet with fo thick a cloud of calamities, as shall intercept the beams of God's gracious countenance, or hinder their sweet and heavenly correfpondence with him: While the prophet is put to fly for his life, and can hardly find a place to stay in, yet there is a fweet intercourfe betwixt God and him, and his petitions are heard, and he gets an anfwer: But what faith the answer of God unto him? XV. As God who knoweth all things, and to whom nothing is hid, but all things are naked and bare, knoweth perfectly the fincerity of every ones heart; fo he will take fpecial notice of fuch as hold by him in an evil day, tho' no body else should do in an evil day, tho' no body else should do fo: Though the prophet knew not that there was any fincere hearted Ifraelite to the fore at this time, fuppofing that thofe of whom Obadiah told him were fome way or other killed and deftroyed; yet the Lord knew and owned them faying, I have referved to my felf feven thoufand. XVI. As the beft of God's fervants may be in a mistake fometimes; fo his own prophets, when they are not acted by the Spirit of the God of truth, but follow their own carnal apprehenfions, may speak without book, and vent their own mistakes; fo that the Spirit of the Lord is only to be refted on; for Elias faid that he only was left, and yet the Lord had feven thousand: I have reserved to myself seven thousand. XVII. However ftrong the current of a temptation be in a land; yet God may and often will preferve many of his own, fo as they fhall not be carried headlong with the reft, in a day of defection, for here, tho' king and queen, court and parliament, and all, were carrying on a course of apoftacy and defection; yet there was feven thousand referved: I have referved to myself seven thousand. XVIII. It is no fmall comfort and encouragement unto a gracious foul, to hear of the ftedfastness and stability of any perfon in the day of temptation and trial; for the gracious answer which God gives him is, that there are seven thousand referved; What faith the answer of God? I have reserved unto myself seven thousand. XIX. As God is ready and willing to rectify the mistakes of his fervants; fo a gracious foul will be fo far from being grieved and difcontented, when corrected as to its apprehenfion of things, that it may and will read much love in fuch a difpenfation of God's: God here rectifies Elias's mistake, and that by a gracious anfwer to him, and doubtlefs Elias was fatisfied with rectify ing of his apprehenfions: I have referved to myself, &c. is XX. The church of God upon earth is not always fhining in brightness and fplendor, fo that any body máy perceive the fame; but is fometimes at fo low an ebb, that the most difcerning Chriftian fhall hardly perceive any face of a visible church; for Elias could not fee it here, fuppofing there was none to the fore but himself; and though there was feven thoufand, yet he knew not of it: I have referved to myself feven thousand, &c. XXI. The ground of the faints flability in a fhaking time of tryal, is not any thing in otherways grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherways work is no more work. N the 5th verfe he applieth the ex in themselves, but only the power of God | And if by grace, then it is no more of works: keeping them unfhaken in a day of temptation: I have referved to myself, fays he. XXII. Although men may think themfelves free and fafe, however externally they carry themselves toward an idol, or that which is not God, if their heart, as they think, be right, and not worship that idol; yet the very external bowing of the knee, in a ftate of worship, is idolatry before God; we must not bow down to them, Command 2d. For here the feven thoufand did not bow the knee to the image of Baal, and fo were free from idolatry. XXIII. Howbeit men may look upon the bowing of the knee in an act of worship, as an indifferent thing, and a reverent gefture, even tho' before that which is not God; yet it is a prime and principal act of idolatry; for it is here put for the whole; and thereby we adore that which we worship in fuch a manner, kneeling being a fign of adoration, as it is performed to that which we conceive to be God, and profefs our fubjection thereunto, and a dependance thereupon, all which is due to God only :---That have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. XXIV. When a people or a perfon falleth from their integrity, and former purity of worship, and fo apoftatizeth or backfiideth, they are apt then to be caft off of God, and unchurched: this defection from the purity of worship, to a worshiping we know not what, and after a manDer of our own devifing, is a fin provoking God to reject a people, as not being his; for he is the nerves of the apostle's argument, he proveth that God had not unChurched all the Jews in the days of Elias, because he had referved feven thouand from that defection and apoftafy which others fell into: I have reserved to felf feven thoufand, that have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. TERSES 5. 6. Even fo then at this prefent time alfo there is a remnant according to the election of grace. ample, which he made ufe of before, to his prefent purpose, faying, That as in the days of Elias there was a remnant preferved from the corruption and apoitacy of the times, fo is there now a remnant or refervation male; and then he theweth the rife and first fountain of this, viz. that it is according to the election of grace; or, according to his free and gracious elec tion and this he further amplifieth and cleareth, ver. 6. by the contrary; If by grace, then it is no more of works, &c. If this election flow from free grace, then it flows not from works, foreseen or done; and if from works, it floweth not from grace; for there is a contrariety and inconfiftency between grace and works; they cannot dwell together but the one always excludes the other: grace were no more grace, if it were not free, &c. OBSERVATIONS. I. In a time of great defection and apoftacy in a land, when a whole land is overrun, as with an inundation, there may be a number who have keeped their hands clean, and are free of the contagion; for at that time when the body and bulk of the Jewish nation had rejected the Meffiah, there was a remnant. 11. As there are but few, in comparison to the rest of the world, whom God hath chofen to himself from eternity, Matth. XX. 16.; fo in a time of defection in a land there will be but a fmall company referv ed from the deluge, even but a remnant; At this prefent time alfo there is a remnant. III. The rife of a poor foul's ftedfaftness in a day of fearful declining and apoftacy, is God's feting his heart upon him from eternity, and choofing him out from the reft of mankind; and nothing in him3 I felf: |