GOD'S ELECTIÒN OF MÉÌT JESVS CHRIST. II. your election sure by your calling, by your obedience to the heavenly call. And St. Paul infers, that the Thessa- lonians were " elect of God, because the gospel came to them, not in word only, but in power, and they be- came followers of him, and of Christ;" 1 Thess. i. 4-6. Have you chosen God for your portion and happiness, as he reveals himself by Christ Jesus in the gospel ? Then his word will assure you God has chosen you in this light ; though perhaps only that thousand will see the sun rising, be- cause their sloth confines the rest to their beds, they have an aversion to the early business of the morning ; and this lazy !humour hangs so heavy upon them, that they cry, they cannot rise. Thus though the Sun of Righteousness has light and grace enough in him to save all mankind, yet their own sloth and obstinacy, and evil inclinations, exclude then from this salvation. Both these events arise without a just complaint against the God of nature, who called up the morning sun to enlighten the na- tions, or against the God of grace, who sent forth the Sun of Righteous- ness, to bless the dark and sinful world. Answer Ill. No condemned sinner shall have reason to say, that there was any bar or hinderance laid in the way of his salvation, by this de- cree of God, or by his chusing some sinners, and giving them to Christ, for,, though he provided effectual grace for those whomhe chose tocertain salvation, yet he only Ieft others to their own natural state, as corrupted by the fall of Adam ; he left them to the wilful blindness of their own minds, and the wilfttl hardness of their own hearts. While this original counsel of God, this decree of election provides and secures grace and glory to some, it does not in the least hinder others from receiving and obeying the gospel. Answer W. None shall be condemned at last, because they were not chosen in Christ, but because they were impenitent sinners, who in some measure have resisted the light of their own consciences, under whatsoever dispensation they have lived, whether under the law of nature, the law of Moses, or the gospel of Christ. These consciences of theirs shall lay them under a dreadful and unanswerable conviction of their own guilt, shall give sentence against them, and confirm the condemning sentence of Jesus, the Judge of all. There are other difficulties which are started against this doctrine, which might perhaps be as easily answered, if time would allow. But if all our reasoning powers should fail us in the vindication of this sovereignty of God, in chusing particular persons to be the objects of anyofhis favours, whether earthly or heavenly ; yet St. Paul teaches us to answer ; Rona. ix. " O man ! who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and that not among the Jews only, but also among the gentiles. Nor is there any unrighte- ousness with God in any of these transactions; and the purpose of God accottding to election must stand." And we may remark by the way, that such a sort of answer as this makes it pretty eiident, that our doctrine is the same with that of St. Paul : for if persons were chosen of God on the account of foreseen good works, there would have been no room for such an objection and such an answer.
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