SERM. IL] GOD'S ELECTION OP MEN IN JESUS CHRIST. 21 wise grace would be no more grace;' Rom. xi. 5, 6, Works and merit are inconsistent with an election of grace. If some of the Ephesian gentiles received the gospel, they also were chosen from among the rest that lie dead in sins, and were quickened and saved by the grace of that God, who is rich in mercy according to the great love wherewith he loved them; Eph. ii. 4, 5, 7, 8. And the apostle ascribes his own salvation, as well as that of tither sinners ; Tit. iii. 5. not to works of righteousnëss,'which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." This is the 'fountain of all bles- sings, whether conferred on Jew, or gentile ; Rom, ix., 15, 16. " God has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and compassion one whonr he will have 'compassion.' Time Nvould fail me to show how full this chapter Of St_ Paul is of the distinctions, which are made between men by divine grace, even before they had done good or evil, whether it be for a temporal or eternal inheritance, and the one as a type of the other. St John concurs in the same doctrine. If we love God, the first source of it was his love towards us. 1 John iv: 10, 19. Herein islove, not that we loved God, but that he loved us ; and if we love him, it is because he loved us first." Proposition IV. " This choice of persons to sanctifi- cation and salvation by the grace of God is represented in scripture, as before the foundation of the world, or from eternity. So my text expressly declares; and in deed it must be so in the nature of things, for whatso- ever the power or the mercy of God Both in time, he decreed to do it from eternity. He has no new designs. " Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world ; Acts xv. 18. So n Thess. ii. 13. " God bath from the beginning chosen, or taken, you from. amongst the other gentiles, unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." A'nd to this he called you by our gospel. There was a book of life written before the foundation of the world ; Rev. xiii. 8. " All that dwell upon the earth, that is, all this part of the world to which the prophecy refers, shall worship the beast, or follow -after antichrist; except those whose naines are written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain ;' for that I take to be a much more proper translation of c 3
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