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SERM
II.
GODS ELECTION
OF
MEN
IN
JESUS
CHRIST.
I
proceed .therefore immediately to the second thing
I
proposed, which was to
shew
what
are
the
proper
uses
of
this
doctrine of
Gód's
election
of
sinners to salvation,
and
giving them into
the hands
of
,his Son.
This
great
truth
is
not
designed
to be a
matter of
mere
speculation,
and
much less to be tossed
and bandied
about
in
noisy
quarrels and controversies among
the disciples
of Christ,
but
it
bath
its
sacred
and glorious
uses;
among
which
are
such
as these
:
Use
I.-
-Since
we
are chosen
to
be
holy,
as well
as
happy,
we
may
search and
find
out
our election
by
our
sanctification, and make
it
sure and
evident.
So
the
apostle
Peter
advises;
2
Pet.
i.
10;
Give diligence
to make your calling
and
election sure,"
that
is,
to
make
standing
to
take in
the
meaning
of the
word
preached
;
they have
also
a
will to
accept
or refuse
the
proposals
of grace,
to
receive
or
reject
'this all-
sufficient
Saviour:
But
there
is
an aversion
in
them
to
attend
to
and obey
the
gospel,
through
the corruption
of
their nature
by original
sin
;
their
minds
will not
learn divine things, because
they
shut
their
eyes
;
their
wills refuse to
receive
the grace of the
gospel,
they shut it
out
of
their
hearts; they
have a
delight
in sin,
a dislike
of Christ, and
of his salva-
tion,
which consists in holiness
and the
love
of God
;
they
have
a
rooted
obstinacy of
will
against the
methods
of
divine mercy.
"
This
is
their
condemnation
;
John
iii.
19.
that
light came into the
world,
and
they
loved darkness
rather than light
;"
and therefore
they
must die
in
their
sins, because
"
they
would
not
come
Unto
Christ,
that
they might have
life ;"
John
v.
40.
I
confess
this aversion, this obstinacy
of mind and
will
against
the
gospel
may
be
called
natural,
or
rather
native,
as
it
conies to
us
by nature
in its
present corrupted state
;
and
in
scripture it
is
sometimes
represented
as
impotence
or
inability
to
repent,
to
return
to
God,
to
receive Christ,
and
his grace
;
John
vi. 65.
"
No
man
can come
to
me,
except
it were
given
him
of my
Father."
And it
is
termed
blindness of
mincl
and
hardness
of heart,
and
a
death
in
sin
;
not
that
there
is,
really
such
a
natural inca-
pacity
in
their
mind
and
will to
receive
this
grace,
as
there
is
in
a
blind
or
dead carcase; but
it
is
a
moral
impotency,
as
it
is
well
expressed
by
our
divines, because
the
aversion
is so
strong and
so
rooted
in
their hearts,
that they
will
never renounce
sin, and receive
the
salvation of
Christ,
without the
powerful influences
of divine
grace.
And
that
it
is
a
moral impotence and not
properly'natùral,
appears by
the
moral remedies
applied
to
cure it,
viz.
commands, promises,
threaten
-
ings,
4-c.
which
it
would
be useless
and ridiculous
to
apply
to
natural
im
potence,
that
is, to
make
the blind
see, or
the dead
arise.
Both
the
first
and
second answer
to
this
objection,
may be
represented
by
á
very
fair
similitude.
Suppose
God
has
decreed,
that
he will
make
the rising
sun
-beams shine
so
effectually on
a
thousand certain
persons;
that
they shall
be
roused
thereby
to
their
morning
work,
and
enjoy
the
pleasare of
it
!
May
'we
not say,
the
sun
has
beams sufficient to
enlighten
the
whole nation, and
they
have all
a
natural
power
to
behold
and enjoy