" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ ; According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love : Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."

In these verses we have

1. A party brought out of their natural state into a state of salvation, ver.3. Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. For whereas by nature they were under the curse, now they are blessed, and that plentifully, with all blessings, not temporal only, but spiritual and heavenly, coming from heaven, and to be consummated there.

2. The person by whom they are brought into this state. It is by the Redeemer, as the purchaser. God the Father bestows them, as the Father of Christ, viz. for his sake. And they are blessed in Christ, upon the account of his merit, and coming from him as their Head.

3. Who those are whom God brings out of their natural state into a state of grace; the elect, ver.4, 5. According as he hath chosen us in him, &c.

Where consider,

(1.) Election itself, he hath chosen us, separated us from others in his purpose and decree, selected us from among the rest of mankind, whom he passed by and left to perish in their natural state.

(2.) That to which they are elected: that is, to salvation, and the means leading thereto. The means are, sanctification, that we should be holy, and without blame before hint in love ; and adoption, ver.5. that whereas they are by nature children of the devil, they should be children of God. The end is everlasting life in heaven; for that is imported in adoption, Rom. viii. 23. as the inheritance of the children of God.

(3.) Through whom this decree is to be executed, in him; that is, Christ, whom the Father chose to be the head of the elect, through whom he would save them.

(4.) When God elected them, before the foundation of the world, ere they were created ; that is, from eternity ; as appears from what our Lord says to his Father, John xvii. 24. "Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world;" which can denote nothing else than from eternity.

(5.) That which moved him to elect them, according to the mere good pleasure of his will; that is, his mere good pleasure, so he would do it; and there was nothing without himself to move him thereto.

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