(12) Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; (13) Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. (14) And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. (15) And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. (16) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (17) And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
I beg the Reader, at the entrance on this paragraph, as at the former, particularly to notice, to whom God the Holy Ghost is speaking. It is to the elect of God. And that elect, the regenerated. Let the Reader never lose sight of these things, while going over those blessed Epistles and he will then discover, that these exhortations are to the Church, when brought into a state of grace. Paul considers the Church, to whom he is writing, as savingly, and effectually called. They are said to be circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: having all their trespasses forgiven them, buried with Christ in baptism, and risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, Colossians 2:10-15. It is to such, as elect of God, the Holy Ghost, by his servant the Apostle, calls, to put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercies, and the like. But how shall any but of this description, put on such things? And, if they are to put these things on, as the elect of God; how absurd must it be in others to call on men that are not elect to put them on?
The Reader might be at a loss to conceive, what would appear to him in theory to be impossible, that there were persons who could be found, to call upon any but the elect of God, to put them on. But the fact is, that there are not only such who do; but who are angry with those who do not. Men, unacquainted with the plague of their own hearts, and who fancy, that every man is possessed of free will to do all that is right, continually complain, that the ungodly are not called upon to faith, and repentance, which they conceive to be in every man's power to exercise. But such men woefully err, because they know not the Scripture, neither the power of God. The Holy Ghost hath uniformly set forth in the Scriptures, the total inability of man, to think, much less to do, anything as of himself; and it is fully shewn, that all his sufficiency is of God, 2 Corinthians 3:5. Nothing, indeed, can be more decisive in point, than the striking passage before us: Put on as the elect of God. None but the elect of God can put on these things. Neither can the peace of God rule in any other hearts, or the word of Christ dwell in them richly in all wisdom.