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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 whom
he chose to
certain
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
any
of
his
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.