Chrysostom has the following passage on Eph. i. 13" It is an argument of great providence over us that we be sealed; not that we be severed from other," (that is, merely so,) "neither that we be chosen by lot, but also that we be sealed. For, as if God should manifestly set forth those which are fallen to his lot; so God hath severed us from the rest, that we should believe, and sealed us to inherit in the world to come."

1. Since faith is the gift of God, and the work of God, the effect of the "word coming in peace, and in the Holy Ghost;" moreover, since it is a gift and work that is DECISIVE of the state, it matters not whether the election be considered as after faith or before faith; for the result in all cases is the same, for while he that believeth not is condemned already"—" no one can believe but as given"—no one can say, "that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."

Moreover, this faith is by the word, and that "in power," "pulling down strongholds," &c. and such word was to "accomplish that which God pleased," it must be sovereign, and is not this tantamount to election?

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2. Since to believe is of grace, or "through grace," and that when begotten through the gospel faith," it is of " abundant mercy;" it supposes that there must be an election of the person to that opera

tion of the word, and to that grace and mercy before, and therefore to the faith, its consequent. Nay, farther

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3. Since the Ephesians, who were "chosen before the foundation of the world," were "loved" with " great love," before they were quickened," "even when dead in sins;" of course, before God's voice roused them to those thoughts and reasonings whereby a living faith would be engendered: their persons must be loved and elected before the faith; and this also will amount to the same thing as election, after supposing it were admitted. But more directly still

4. The Gentiles are actually said to be "chosen to believe," the Jews "scattered abroad," are said to have obtained precious faith, as if by lot; and the Gentiles who believed to everlasting life at Antioch are said to have been ordained to believe; in all these cases, then, there must have been love to, and election of the person prior to such belief; and the sovereignty which says, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," must have been exercised in the giving and working the faith.

5. Since, "known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world," and time past, present, and to come, is but as one eternal Now with God, election in time includes or involves in it election before the foundation of the world."

FINALLY.

In the apostles' days, there was, as to the Jews, "a remnant according to the election of grace;" and as to the Gentiles, "God visited them to take out of

them a people for his name." Now, with regard to the remnant of the Jews, Peter, as a minister of the circumcision, addressing them in his first epistle, calls them "elect;" but no one in explaining the term would say they were elect as believers, because, in his second epistle to the same persons, he gives us to understand that they obtained their faith as if by lot, which is as much as to say that they were chosen to believe. And then, as to GENTILES, the "taking out" could not be explained as though they were taken out as believers, for in the very speech of Peter, referred to by James, the Gentiles are said to have been "chosen to believe." And then, if you take Jewish and Gentile believers together, as the apostle Paul does in the expression, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world," no one, in explaining this, would be warranted to say that they were chosen as believers; for, in this same epistle, these very persons are said to have been "loved with a great love," "even when they were dead in sins,” and, of course, not yet believers, so that they must have been loved and chosen before that occurred.

But there are misconceptions of this subject, as well as misstatements or mistakes; and these also it is important to remove in order that the truth may be received and properly improved. We shall therefore notice these misconceptions, and endeavour to correct them; and afterwards we shall give what we conceive to be the true scriptural notion of both election and predestination.

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ON ELECTION.

RELIGION Consists in an absolute submission to the will of God, and not less so of our understanding to his revealed mind than of our will to his commanding and disposing will. But such religion as this is not in us, until "renewed in the spirit of our mind." No, we are prone to "lean to our own understanding," as well as to be led by our own will. Hence it was that our blessed Lord assured his disciples, that, "except they were converted and became as little children, that they could not enter into the kingdom of heaven :" hence, also, his apostle Paul used the following language, “Let no man deceive himself: if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise." Without this child-like spirit and this sense of folly, men "leaning to their own understanding, instead of trusting in the Lord with all their heart," err in spirit, and murmur at the doctrines of God's word: but once blessed with them, they delightfully fulfil the prophecy in Isaiah,* "They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine." They then repair "to the law and to the testimony," and sit at the feet of Jesus to learn his word. Thus may it be with us-thus may we do in meditating upon the subject before us.

Isa. xxix. 24.

In discussing the subject we shall, first, notice the misconceptions concerning election; after which we will endeavour to give a general view of what we conceive to be the Scriptural doctrine of election and predestination; we shall then show that it is a Scriptural doctrine; having thus proved that it is a Scriptural doctrine, we shall then proceed to show that such Scripture election is not an election of EXCLUSION, but of RESERVATION, and is therefore not liable to the discouragement and objections with which it has been chargeable; we shall afterwards guard it from abuse, and defend it against objections; and, finally, we shall show how it should be improved.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL VIEW.

Misconceptions concerning the Doctrine of Election corrected and prevented.

How common are misconceptions concerning this doctrine! and unless they are corrected, there will be no cordial reception of it. We remark then, that,

1. It is not an election out of men as creatures, for God loves every thing that he has made; or out of men as subjects of his natural kingdom, for herein he is "good to all;" nor is it an election out of men merely as sinners, whether original or actual, for "where sin abounded, grace," in the last Adam, "has much more abounded," and that unto all; but it