4. After cleansing comes benediction, and truly this is a very rich one.
It comprehends election, effectual calling, access, acceptance, and sonship.
First, we are chosen of God, according to the good pleasure of his will, and
this alone is blessedness. Then, since we cannot and will not come to God of
ourselves, he works graciously in us, and attracts us powerfully; he subdues
our unwillingness, and removes our inability by the mighty workings of his
transforming grace. Furthermore, we, by his divine drawings, are made nigh by
the blood of his Son, and brought near by his Spirit, into intimate fellowship;
so that we have access with boldness, and are no longer as those who are far
off by wicked works. To crown all, we approach as chosen and accepted ones, to
become dwellers in the divine household; this is heaped-up blessedness, vast
beyond conception. But dwelling in the house we are treated as sons, for the
servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth ever. Behold what
manner of love and blessedness the Father has bestowed upon us; happy are those
who dwell at home with God. That he may dwell in thy courts. Acceptance
leads to abiding: God does not make a temporary choice. Permanence gives
preciousness. This is the portion of everyone whom God has chosen and caused to
approach him, though once their iniquities prevailed against them.
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