SEAM. II.] GOD'S ELECTION OF MEN IN JESUS CHRIST. 31 Christ. Have you given up your souls to the hands of Jesus, the Saviour, without reserve, that you may be made holy and. happy ? Then you may infer with assur- ance, that God has given you also into the hands of Christ for this blessed purpose. Have you the charac- ters of the children of God upon you, and are you made like to his first beloved Son? You may assure yourselves then, that you were predestinated to the adoption ofchil- dren by Jesus Christ. O divine science I O blessed skill ofsearching into the secret of the decrees of God, and of finding that our names are written in the book oflife ! Use II. Let those who by a sincere search have found the blessed marks and evidences of their election in Christ Jesus take the comfort of it, rejoice in it, live upon it, and walk worthy of so divine a privilege. See that you keep your evidences of grace ever clear and bright by holy watchfulness, that ye may have a strong defence in every hour of temptation. " Shall I who am chosen out of the world that I may be holy, shall I mingle myself with sinful men, and indulge iniquity? Shall I who am adopted intoGod's family, live like one of the children of Satan ?" This is a sweet refuge also for us to have recourse to in every outward distress : "Shall I faint and be overwhelmed under a present sorrow, who have the holy evidences of election upon me, who am chosen and prepared of God for everlasting happiness ?" Let us walk in this daily practice, in this joy of the Holy Spirit, and wait for a rich and abundant entrance into the kingdom and glory of our Lord and Saviour. The third thing I proposed to mention was, the abuses of this awful doctrine. There is nothing so true, so sacred and so divine, but it may be abused through the wickedness, or the weakness of the hearts of men, and the temptations of the evil-one: Abuse I. One abuse of this doctrine is, when we per- vert it to nourish presumption, and to indulge our sloth and negligence, when we sit with folded hands like the sluggard in the neglect of duty, or allow ourselves in a course of sin, upon this pretence, " That if I am elected -I shall be called, and sanctified, and saved ; the grace of 'God will take hold of me some time or other, and bring me to faith, and holiness, and eternal life." Answer I. Do you dare venture to argue thus foolish- 5
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