43 / 652
EERM.
II.1
GOD'S
ELECTION
OF MEN IN
CHRIST
JESUS.
33
.
granted
indeed,
that
the Holy Spirit
is
the
first,
but se-
cret, agent
in this
important
affair:
Pray
earnestly
then
for
the
Holy Spirit, and set thyself
in
a
course
of
duty,
according
to
the
appointment
of
Christ
in
his
gospel,
and
thou
hast many promises
to
support
thy hope,
that
such
prayers
shall
be
answered.
Luke
xi.
13.
"
Your hea-
venly
Father
will give his
Holy Spirit
to them who ask
him."
Thy
first business
is
not
to
enquire after thy
election, which
is
a secret
thing,
but
hearken
to
the
pub-
lic call
of
the
gospel,
repent of
every
sin,
and receive the
grace
that
is
there
offered
and
when
thou
art
become
a
lover
of
God, and
a
believer
in
Christ, thou mayest
then
trace
up these graces to
their
original spring,
even to
thy election
in
Christ Jesus, before the foundation
of
the
world.
The last thing
I
proposed
is,
to make
some
few
re-
marks
on this subject.
Remark
I.
I
infer,
that
there are
some
doctrines wherein
the
reason
of
man
finds many difficulties,
and which
the
folly
of
man
would abuse to
unhappy
purposes,
which
yet are
plain and express
truths
asserted
in
the word
of
God.
Among
these,
we
place the
great doctrine
of
the
election
of
sinners
in
Christ
to be
made
holy and
happy.
We
intreat our
brethren
who differ from
us
in this point,
to
be
so
candid
as
to
suppose,
that
we
feel
the
difficulties
as well as
they,
and
we
see
the
awful
consequences which
seem
to affright them from
receiving it;-
we
have had
our
doubts
about
it,
and found
our
reasoning
powers
a
little perplexed
and
unwilling to receive
it,
'lest
God
should
be
represented
as
partial
in
his
favours,
and lest
man should
,cavil
against
his
proceedings
:
But
we
feel
ourselves overpowered with
evidence and conviction,
when
we
see
the doctrine
so
plainly
and
frequently as-
serted
in
scripture, that
we
cannot
resist
the
light and
force
of
it:
The
express words
of
God demand our
sub-
mission
and constrain our
belief,
and
we
are
persuaded
our brethren
would believe it
too.,
if
they
saw
it
in
the
same light.
We are sensible also
of
the
abuses
of
this doctrine,
and
the sinful
purposes
to which
it
is
sometimes
pervert-
ed;
yet
since
it
is
a
truth
God
has
seen
fit
to
reveal, in
several
parts
of
his
word,
and
since
it
has
some
valuable
purposes and
uses in
the
Christian life,
we
cannot
bu4
VOL.
III.
D