SERMON XLVI. 55 word, and since it has some valuable purposes and uses in the christian life, we cannot but think it proper sometimes to mention it on special occasions as part of the counsels ofGod toward our salvation. II. However this doctrine may be opposed by the. reasotí- ings of men, and even ridiculed by a bold jest, yet if it then ap- pear to be a divine truth as the scriptures now seem to teach us the blessed God will not be ashamedof it in the last great day; then shall he unfold all the scheme of his original counsels, and spread abroad his transactions toward Mankind'before the face of all his intelligent creatures. Rev. xx. 12. When the judgment shall be set, and the books shall be opened, that is, the book of divine laws,and the several dispensations ofgrace, as well as the book of divine records, wherein the lives and actions of men were written down, there shall alsoanother book be opened, even the book of life : And as those former books compared together, viz. the records of the behaviour of men whether good or evil, compared with the laws and dispensationsof God shall shew the equity of the great Judge in his rewards and punishments ; so the Lamb's book oflife wherein the names of -his people were written down as elected in Christ before the world began, shall discover the blessed correspondence betweenthe final sentence of happiness pronounced on holy believers, and the original grace of God whichchose them in Christ Jesus unto faith and holiness, and secured this happiness for them. A glorious harmony of divine wisdom, grace and providence ! , I cannot think that any of the cavils of wit against this doc- trine will stand before the light of the great tribunal. Banter and ridicule Of electing love, and of the names written in the book of life, however they may be applauded in a degenerate age will meet with no applause before that tremendous appearance. Every mouth shall bestopped, the righteousness of God shall be cleared from everyimputation, the grace of God shall be glorified in all his chosen ones in that day, and Christ shall be admired in all his saints. But this leads me to the third remark : III. The whole chain and current- of our salvation from the beginning to the end, arises and proceeds all the way from the free grace of God, through the mediation of hisSonJess Christ. God and his Son must have the glory, and pride mustbe hid from man for ever. Are we chosen, are we called; are we justified and sanctified, and at-last advanced to heaven? It is all by the mercy of the Father, by the mediation of the Son, by the power, and the grace of God, and his Spirit exerting themselves in all the stages of our salvation before. time began," and when time shall be no more. Grace and Christ run through all, and reign and triumph through ti,e whole schemeOf our happiness from the
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