Chap. 4.] wuioii THIS`REST IS DESIGNED. 53 and the all-sufficieney.of Christ; their will is renewed; they engage themselves -to Christi in covenant; and they persevere in their eng Berne its.t'o'the end. 1. The persons for whom this test is designed, whom the text call`s ", the .peepl .of 0óç1,." are " chosen of God be- fore the foundation oaf °ìhe world,,, th .t they should be holy and without blame before him inr.Jove." That they are but a parenf,.mankind, is apparent,in Scripture and experi- ence. There,?the little flock, to whom " it is their Father's good pleasure to,gcve'the kingdom." Fewer they are than the world imagine§ ;','t not so few as some droop- ing spirits think, who are suspicious that God is unwilling to be their God, when they know themselves willing to he his people. 2. These persons are given of God to his Son, to be by him redeemed from their lost state, and advanced to this glory. God bath given all things to his Son, but not as be .bath given his chosen to him. " God bath given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as the Father bath given him." The difference is clearly expressed by the apostle; " he bath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church." Ind though Christ is, in some sense, a ran- som for all, yet not in that special manner as for his people. S. One great qualification of these persons is, that they are born again. To be the people of God without regene- ration, is as impossible as to be the children of men with- out generation. Seeing we are born God's enemies, we ,must be new-born his sons, or else remain enemies still. The greatest reformation of life that can be attained to, without this new lifewrought in the soul, may procure our further delusion, but never our salvation. 4. This new life in the people of God discovers itself by conviction, or a deep sense of divine things. They are convinced of the evil of sin. The sinner is made to know and feel, that the sin, which was his de- light, is a more lo.athsome thing than a toad or serpent, and a greater eviLthan plague or famine; being a breach of the righteous Iaw of the most high God, dishonorable to him, and destructive`to the sinner. Now the sinner no more hears the. reproofs ofsin as words of course; but the mention of his sin speaks to his very heart, and yet he is
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