1 Peter 2:10

Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, &c.

The love of God to his children, is the great subject both of his Word, and of their thoughts, and therefore is it, that his word (the rule of their thoughts, and whole lives) speaks so much of that love to that very end, that they may think much, and esteem highly of it, and walk answerably to it. This is the scope of Saint Paul's doctrine to his Ephesians, and the top of his desires for them (Ephesians 3:17). And this is here our Apostle's aim. As he begun with it opposing their election in Heaven to their dispersion on Earth, the same consideration runs through the whole Epistle. Here he is representing to them, the great fruit of that love, that happy and high estate, to which they are called in Christ, that the choosing of Christ, and believers, is as one act, and they as one entire object of it; one glorious temple, He the foundation and head cornerstone, and they the edifice; one honorable fraternity, He the King of Kings and great high priest, and they likewise through him made kings and priests to God the Father, a royal priesthood, &c. He the Light of the World, and they through him children of light. Now that this their dignity, which shines so bright in its own innate worth, may yet appear the more, he sets it off by a double opposition.

1. Of the misery, under which others are.

Secondly, that misery under which they themselves were before their calling. And this being set on both sides is as a dark shadowing round about their happiness here described, setting off the lustre of it.

Their former misery expressed in the former verse by darkness, is here more fully and plainly set before their view in these words; they are borrowed from the Prophet Hosea (Hosea 2:23), where (as is usual with the prophets) he is raised up by the Spirit of God, from the temporal troubles, and deliverances of the Israelites, to consider, and foretell that great restoration wrought by Jesus Christ, purchasing a new people to himself, made up, both of Jews, and Gentiles that believe; and therefore the prophecy is fit, and applicable to both, so that the debate is altogether needless, whether it concerns the Jews, or Gentiles. For in its spiritual sense, as relating to the Kingdom of Christ, it foretells the making up to the Gentiles, that were not before the people of God; and of the Jews likewise, that by their apostasies, and the captivities, and dispersions come upon them, as just punishments of those apostasies, were degraded from the outward dignities they had, as the people of God, and withal were spiritually miserable and captives by nature, and so in both respects laid equal with the Gentiles, and stood in need of this [reconstructed: restoration], as they. Saint Paul uses it concerning the calling of the Gentiles (Romans 9). And [reconstructed: here] Saint Peter writing, as is most probable, particularly to the [reconstructed: dispersed] Jews, applies it to them as being in the very reference it bears to the Jews, truly fulfilled in those alone, that were believers; faith making them a part of the true Israel of God, to which the promises do peculiarly belong, as the Apostle Saint Paul argues at large (Romans 9).

Their former misery, and so their present happiness we have here under a double expression: they were not a people, destitute of mercy, not the people of God, says the Prophet, not a people, says our Apostle, being not God's people, so base and miserable as not worthy the name of a people at all, as it is taken (Deuteronomy 32:21).

There is a kind of being, a life that the soul has by a peculiar union with God, and therefore in that sense the soul without God is dead, as the body is without the soul (Ephesians 2:1). Indeed as the body separated from the soul is not only a lifeless lump, but putrefies, and becomes noisome and abominable, thus the soul separated from God is subject to a more loathsome and vile putrefaction (Psalm 14:3). So that men that are yet unbelievers, are nothing — as the Hebrews expressed death — multitudes of them are not a people, but a heap of filthy carcasses. Again take our natural misery in the notion of a captivity, which was the judgment threatened against the Jews to make them not a people, therefore their captivity is often spoken of as a death (by the prophets) and their restoration as their resurrection (Ezekiel 37). And as a captive people is civilly dead, as they speak, so are souls captive to sin and the Prince of Darkness, spiritually dead, wanting happiness and well-being which if it never attain, it had better (for itself) not be at all. Nothing but disorder and confusion in the soul without God, the affections hurrying it tumultuously.

Thus captive sinners are nothing, are dead; they both want that happy being that flows from God to the souls that are united to himself, and consequently must want that society and union one with another, which results from the former, from the same union that believers have with God and the same being in Him; which makes them truly worthy to be called a people, and particularly the people of God. His people are the only people in the world worthy to be called a people, the rest are but refuse and dross; although in the world's esteem, that judges by its own rules, and favor of itself, the people of God be as nobody, no people, a company of silly creatures, indeed, we are made (says the great Apostle) as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things, yet in his account who has chosen them (who alone knows the true value of things) His people are the only people, and all the rest of the world as nothing in his eyes. He dignifies and beautifies them, and loves in them that beauty which He has given them.

But under that term, is not only comprised, that new being of believers in each one of them apart; but that tie and union that is among them as one people, being incorporated together and living under the same government and laws, without which a people are but as the beasts of the field, or the fishes of the sea, and the creeping things that have no ruler over them, as the Prophet Habakkuk speaks. That regular living in society, and union in laws, and polity makes many men to be one people, but the civil union of men in states and kingdoms, is nothing comparable to the mysterious union of the people of God with him, and one with another. That commonwealth has a firmer union than all others, believers are knit together in Christ as their head, not merely a civil or political head ruling them, but as a natural head enlivening them, giving them all one life. Men in other societies though well ordered, yet are but as a multitude of trees regularly planted indeed, but each upon his own root: but the faithful are all branches of one root, their union is so mysterious, that it is resembled to the very union of Christ with his Father, as indeed the product of it (John 17).

People of God] I will say to them you are my people, and they shall say you are my God (Hosea 2:23). That mutual interest and possession is the very foundation of all our comfort, He is the first chooser, He first says My People, calls them so, and makes them to be so, and then they say My God, therefore a relation that shall hold and shall not break, because it is founded upon His choice who changes not. The tenor of an external covenant with a people (as the Jews particularly found) is such, as may be broken by man's unfaithfulness, though God remain faithful and true: but the new covenant of grace makes all sure on all hands, and cannot be broken, the Lord not only keeping His own part, but likewise performing ours in us, and for us, and establishing us that He departs not from us first, so we shall not depart from Him. I will betroth you to me (says he there) for ever, it is an indissoluble marriage that is not in danger to be broke either by divorce or death.

My People. There is a treasure of instruction and comfort wrapped up in that word, not only more than the profane world can imagine (for they indeed know nothing at all of it) but more than they that are of that number are able to conceive of, a deep [reconstructed: unsoundable]. My People. They his portion, and He theirs; He accounts nothing of all the world beside them, and they of nothing at all beside Him: For them He continues the world. Many and great are the privileges of his people contained in that great charter the Holy Scriptures, and rich is that land where their inheritance lies; but all is in this reciprocal, that he is their God. All his power and wisdom is engaged for their good, however great and many soever are their enemies, they may well oppose this to all, he is their God, they are sure to be protected and prospered and in end to have full victory. Happy then is that people whose God is the Lord.

Which had not obtained Mercy] The mercies of the Lord to his chosen are from everlasting, yet so long as His decree of mercy runs hid, and is not discovered to them in the effects of it, they are said not to have received or obtained mercy, and when it begins to act and work in their effectual calling, then they find it to be theirs, it was in a secret way moving forward towards them before, as the sun after midnight is still coming nearer to us, though we perceive not its approach till the dawning of the day.

Mercy] The former word teaches us how great the change is that is wrought by the calling of God, this teaches us how free it is; the people of God, that is the good attained in the change, obtained mercy, that is the spring from where it flows; it is implied indeed in the words of the change of no people such as have no right to such a dignity at all, nor in themselves no disposition for it, to be made His people, can be by no other but free grace, such mercy as supposes nothing nor seeks nothing but misery in us and works upon that. As it is expressed to have been very free to this people of the Jews, in choosing them before the rest of the world (Deuteronomy 17), so it is to the spiritual Israel of God, and to every one particularly belonging to that company. Why is it that he chose me of a family, and leaves another; but because it pleases him, he blots out their transgressions for his own name's sake. And second, as it is free mercy, it is tender mercy, the word in the Prophet signifies tenderness or bowels of compassion, and such are the mercies of our God towards us (Jeremiah 31:20). The bowels of a father (Psalm 103:13), and if you think not that tenderness enough, those of a mother, indeed more than a mother (Isaiah 49:15). Third, it is rich mercy; delights to glorify itself in the greatest misery. Pardons as easily the greatest as the smallest of debts. Fourth, a constant unalterable mercy, a stream still running.

Now in both these the Apostle draws the eyes of believers to reflect on their former misery and view it together with their present estate. This is very frequent in the Scriptures (Ezekiel 16), (Ephesians 2), (1 Corinthians 6:11), etc. And it is of very great use, works the soul of a Christian to much humility and love, and thankfulness and obedience.

It cannot choose but force him to abase himself and magnify the free grace and love of God, and this may be one reason, why it pleases the Lord to suspend the conversion of many, for many years of their life, indeed, to suffer some of them to stain those years with grievous and gross sins; that the riches and glory of His grace and the freeness of His choice may be the more legible both to themselves and others. Likewise those apprehensions of wrath due to sin, and sights of Hell as it were, that He brings some to, either at or after their conversion, make for this same end. That glorious description of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:16) is abundantly delightful in itself, and yet the fiery lake spoken of there makes all that is spoken of the other sound much the sweeter.

But universally all the godly have this to consider, that they were strangers and enemies to God, and think from where was it that I, a lump of the same polluted clay with those that perish, should be taken and purified and moulded by the Lord's own hand for a vessel of glory? There is nothing here but free mercy makes the difference, and where can there be love and praises and service found to answer this, all is to be ascribed to the mercy, gifts and calling of Christ, and His ministers, as Saint Paul (2 Corinthians 4:1).

But alas! we neither enjoy the comfort of this mercy as obtained, nor are grieved for wanting it, and stirred up to seek after it as not yet obtained. What do we think? Seems it a small thing in your eyes to be shut out from the presence of God and bear the weight of His wrath for ever? That you thus slight this mercy, and let it pass by you unregarded; or will that an imagined obtaining, divert you from the real pursuit of it? Will you be willingly deceived? And be your own deceivers in a matter of so great importance? You cannot think too highly of the riches of divine mercy, it is above all your thoughts, but remember and consider this, that there is a peculiar people of His own, to whom alone all the riches of it do belong.

And therefore how great soever it is, unless you find yourselves of that number, you cannot lay claim to the smallest share of it. And you are not ignorant what is their character, what a kind of people they are, that have such a knowledge of God as himself gives, they are all taught of God, enlightened and sanctified by His Spirit, a holy people, as He is a holy God, such as have the riches of that His grace by which they are saved, in most precious esteem, and their hearts by it inflamed with His love; and therefore their thoughts taken up with nothing so much as studying how they may obey and honor Him, rather choosing to displease all the world than offend Him, and accounting nothing too dear, indeed nothing good enough to do Him service, if it be thus with you, then you have indeed obtained mercy.

But if you be such as can wallow in the same puddle with the profane world, and take a share of their ungodly ways, or if your outward carriage be somewhat more smooth, though you regard iniquity in your hearts, have your hearts ardent in the love and pursuit of the world, but frozen to God, if you have some bosom idol that you hide and entertain, cannot find in your heart to part with some one beloved sin, whatever it is, for all the love that God has manifested to man in the Son of His love Jesus Christ, in a word if you can please and delight yourself in any way displeasing to God, [though His people while they are here have spots, yet these are not the spots of His people that I am now speaking of] I can give you no assurance that as yet you have obtained mercy, but on the contrary, it is certain that the wrath of God is yet abiding on you if you continue, and you are in apparent danger to perish under it; you are yet children of spiritual darkness, and in the way to utter and everlasting darkness. Know we what it is to be destitute of this mercy; it is a woeful estate, though you had all worldly enjoyments, and were in the top of outward prosperity, but shut out from the mercy and love of God.

There is nothing does so kindly work repentance, as the right apprehension of the mercy and love of God, the beams of that love are more powerful to melt the heart than all the flames of Mount Sinai, all the threats and terrors of the law. Sin is the root of our misery, and therefore it is the proper work of this mercy, to rescue the soul from it, both from the guilt and the power of it at once. Can you think there is any suitableness in it, that the peculiar people of God should despise His laws, and practice nothing but rebellions, that those in whom He has magnified His mercy, should take pleasure in abusing it, and that He has washed any with the blood of His Son to that end that they may still tumble themselves again in the mire; as if we were redeemed not from sin, but to sin: as if we should say we are delivered to do all these abominations, as the prophet speaks. Oh let us not dare thus to abuse and indignify the free grace of God, if we mean to be saved by it, as many as would be [reconstructed: found] among those that obtain mercy, walk as His people whose peculiar inheritance is, His mercy: and seeing this grace of God has appeared to us, let us embrace it, and let it effectually teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.

And if you be persuaded to be earnest suitors for this mercy and to fly in to Jesus, who is the true mercy Seat, then be assured it is yours, Let not the greatest guiltiness scare you and drive you from it: But rather drive you the more to it, the greater the weight of that misery is, under which you lie, the more is your necessity of this mercy, and the more will be the glory of it in you. It is a strange kind of argument and yet a sure one, concludes well and strongly. (Psalm 25) Lord pardon my iniquity for it is great. The soul pressed with the greatness of its sin lying heavy upon it, may by that very greatness of it pressing it, press the forgiveness of it at the hands of free mercy, it is for your name's sake, that makes it strong, the force of the inference lies in that. You are nothing and worse than nothing, true; but all that ever obtained this mercy were once so, they were nothing of all that which it has made them to be, they were not a people, had no interest in God, were strangers to mercy, indeed, heirs of wrath; indeed, they had not so much as a desire after God, until this mercy prevented them, and showed itself to them, and them to themselves, and so moved them to desire it, and caused them to find it, caught hold on them and plucked them out of the dungeon. And it is unquestionably still the same, and fails not ever expending, and yet never all spent, indeed, not so much as at all diminished, flowing as the rivers from one age to another, serving each age in the present, and yet no less to those that come after. The Lord forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin to all that come to him, and yet still keeping mercy for thousands that come after.

You that have obtained this mercy, and have the seal of it within you, it will certainly conform your hearts to its own nature, it will work you to a merciful compassionate temper of mind to the souls of others that have not yet obtained it, you will indeed as the Lord does, hate sin, but (as he does likewise) you will pity the sinner. You will be so far from misconstruing and grumbling at the long suffering of God, as if you would have the bridge cut because you are over (as Saint Augustine speaks) that on the contrary, your great desire will be, to draw others to partake of the same mercy with you, knowing it to be rich enough. And you will in your station use your best diligence to bring in many to it, both in love to the souls of men, and to the glory of God.

And with that you will be still admiring and extolling this mercy as it is manifested to you considering what it is, and what you were before it visited you. They confessed at the offering of the first fruits to set off the bounty of God. A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and their captivity in Egypt, far poorer; and baser is our natural condition, and more precious is that land of which this free mercy does possess us.

Do but call back your thoughts, you that have indeed escaped it, and look but into that pit of misery from where the hand of the Lord has drawn you out, and you cannot miss to love him highly, and still kiss that gracious hand, even while it is scourging you with any affliction whatever, because it has once done this for you namely, plucked you out of everlasting destruction. As the thoughts of this change will teach us to praise (Psalm 40:2-3) He has brought me up out of an horrible pit then follows, He has put a new song in my mouth even praise to our God, not only redeemed me from destruction, but with that crowned me with glory and honor (Psalm 103:4). He not only does forgive all our debts, and lets us out of prison, but enriches us with an estate that cannot be spent and dignifies us with a crown that cannot wither, made up of nothing of ours. These two will stretch and tune the heart very high, to consider from what a low estate grace brings a man, and how high it does exalt him, in what a beggarly vile condition the Lord finds us, and yet does not only free us from there, but puts such dignities on us. Raises the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy from the dunghill, that he may set him with princes even with the princes of his people. Or as Joshua the priest (Zechariah 3:3-4) so those of this priesthood are dealt with.

Now that we may be the deeper in the sense and admiration of this mercy, it is indeed our duty to seek earnestly after the evidence, and strong assurance of it, for things work on us according to our notice and apprehensions of them, and therefore the more right assurance of mercy, the more love and thankfulness, and obedience springs from it. Therefore it is that the Apostle here represents this great and happy change of estate to Christians, as a thing that they may know concerning themselves, and ought to seek the knowledge of, that so they may be duly affected with it, a happy thing to have in the soul an extract of that great archive and act of grace towards it, that has stood in heaven from eternity, it is sure both a very comfortable and profitable thing to find and read clearly the seal of mercy upon the soul which is holiness that by which he is marked by God, as a part of his peculiar possession, that he has chosen out of the world. And when we perceive any thing of this, let us look back, as here the Apostle would have us to do, how God has called us from darkness, to his marvelous light.