31 / 652
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
is
love,
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
T
hess. 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