$Q GOD'S ELECTION OF MEN IN JESUS CHRIST., (SEEM. 1I. ly in the common affairs of this life, or tó'.act, under the influence of such arguments ? You believe that God has determined the time of your continuance in this world, and do you live idle, and refuse to procure food, or to partake of it, on this pretence, that God will prolong your life to his appointed hour, and that he will provide food for you. and make you eat and drink, if he design you shall live ? No : You apply yourselves with dili- gence to obtain your daily bread, and to partake of it; you take care to make use of the appointed means to preserve natural life, notwithstanding God's decree : and why do you not practise the same with regard to your salvation,' and seek after faith and holiness as the ap- pointed means ? But it is a sign you value, eternal life at a very low rate, if you will venture the loss of it upon such a weak pretence, as you dare not trust to in the things óf this life. That man that goes, down to the grave, or goes down to hell. upon these principles, pe- rishes like a fool, and deserves to perish. ,Answer II. Electing grace, as it works in calling and converting us to faith and holiness, generally operates in so gentle, só imperceptible a manner, and so suitable io our natural faculties, by awakening them to seek after heaven, that we can hardly distinguish it from the opera- tion of our own spirits, but by the blessed effects of it; and if we will never stir up ourselves and our natural powers to seek after the salvation of Christ, it is a dan- gerous sign, that we are not elected. For though divine grace be really the first agent in our salvation, yet it never doth violence to our natural powers, nor will-it ever save us without our own activity and diligence in duty. Abuse II. Another abuse of this doctrine is, when per- sons indulge despairing thoughts under this pretence: " If I. am never so watchful, never so diligent, I.cannot be saved, unless I am elected; and therefore it is in vain for me to seek after salvation: for the scripture tells me ; Rom. ix. 16. " It is not of him that willeth, nor ofhim that runneth, but of God that shewethmercy." Answer. But remember also, O tempted and despair- ig soul that there was never any one who had"a will to obey the gospel, and who did run the christian race, but that he obtained the blessed prize of salvation. It is
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