Art thou imperfectly holy?

Art thou imperfectly holy? Comfort thyself with this, that though thou beest now full of blame, and men may lay many things to thy charge; yet God hath chosen thee to be one day holy and without blame before him. Yea, thou mayest comfort thyself against imperfect holiness in this, that when God chose thee, that first view he took of thee, that first idea wherein thou wert represented to him, was as he meant to make thee, even perfectly holy; such thou camest up before him in his first intention about thee, even clothed with all those jewels and embellishments which he meant one day to bestow upon thee. What is the reason that God is willing to pardon us, and that he pleaseth himself in us now? He knows that though we be sinful now, yet it will not be long ere we shall be perfectly holy before him. Christ cleanseth us, to 'present us to himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle.'

And on the other side, if it be meant of imperfect holiness, as the means to the end, there may these observations be raised from that:—

Obs. 1.—Without holiness here, there is no happiness to be expected hereafter. Without God's mercy we cannot be saved; and without holiness we are not under mercy, 1 Pet. 1:2, He hath chosen us to obedience of the truth. And without purity or holiness no man shall see God.

Obs. 2.—The ground of all true obedience is love: 'To be holy before him in love.' Faith works by love. As no duty is pleasing to God without faith, so neither without love. It was not the reason why God chose us, but the end unto which he chose us. He hath ordained us to be holy before him in love.

Obs. 3.—There remains one observation more, that is general to both interpretations, namely, that the foundation of God's love is not loveliness in us. Though in our love we cannot love a creature (as, not a child) until it is and hath a being,—and not then neither, unless we see something lovely in it which may draw out our affections towards it,—yet God can resolve to love such creatures as he can make thus and thus lovely, and so ordain them to be holy before him, that he may delight in them. He can therefore take things possible, in respect of being,—that is, which he can, or hath in his power to make and create,—and he can aforehand resolve thus and thus to love them; which we cannot do. And the reason of this is, for that his love is only from his own will, as our being his creatures also is; and so the first objects of election may be res creabiles, non tantum quæ actu creatæ sunt et existunt,—things that are looked upon by him but as yet to be created, not only those that are supposed actually to exist.