of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. It were easy to accumulate the proofs of this doctrine: but we need go no farther than the first chapter of the epistle from which our text is taken. There we are told, in language which all the efforts of violent criticism cannot torture into any other meaning, that God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world: having predestinated us to the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will. 'Tis true, many who are too proud to be indebted for their eternal salvation to the free favor of God, insist that the election by which he distinguishes sinner from sinner, is grounded upon good disposition, upon faith and holiness foreseen in the objects of that election. But if men be allowed to interpolate divine revelation, and to add to the oracles of Jehovah the figments of their own invention, we may lay aside our Bibles. The fashionable tenet which was just now mentioned, some may deem an ingenious interpretation of the apostle; but sober inquiry will say, that instead of explaining it contradicts him. The apostle asserts that God hath chosen us in Christ, that we should be holy; or which is the same thing, we are holy because he hath chosen us. But the doctrine against which I

contend is exactly the reverse, viz. that he hath chosen us because we are holy. Upon whatever principle the election proceed, it will hardly be denied that God chooses men to salvation, and that by Jesus Christ. But if good dispositions, if faith and holiness foreseen, are the cause of election, then sinners are saved before the Lord chooses them: for faith and holiness undoubtedly constitute salvation; and where, upon this plan, where is the obligation to grace? The same plan requires, as a previous qualification for receiving Christ, the very thing which is the effect of receiving him; for it is the office of Jesus to save his people from their sins, i. e. beyond controversy to make them holy. Moreover, the apostle roundly affirms that whatsoever is not of faith is sin, and that they who are in the flesh cannot please God. But how a man can become holy by accumulating sin, is a point which deserves better elucidation than it has yet received. Salvation, then, originates in grace; and not only so, but,

2. It is grace in its execution.

The meritorious executor of the new covenant is the Lord Jesus. And what but grace, large, unbounded grace, could have prompted him to become a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief? To obey perfectly, as the cove

nant head of his people, all the precepts of the righteous law? To endure as their substitute, the tremendous evils which are included in its penalty? Infinitely happy and glorious in himself, he needed neither our services, nor ourselves: he might have left us to perish in our wilful apostasy, and his justice would have shone in our eternal destruction. Thus he treated the angels who kept not their first estate. But while in the exercise of sovereignty he passed by the angelic nature, in the exercise of the same sovereignty he took on him the seed of Abraham, and made his soul an offering for sin. The universal Lord, he can suffer no compulsion: and those for whom he interfered had nothing to merit his condescension. They were not innocent creatures in distress; but thankless, wanton rebels against the God of their mercies; in their crime, without excuse; in their characters, supremely vile. It was, then, free love; it was his voluntary act, by which he entered into covenant with his Father; when, before all worlds, the counsel of peace was between them both. In virtue of that counsel, Lo, I come, said he, to do thy will, O God. In virtue of that counsel, he laid down his life for the sheep. No man took it from him; but he had power to lay it down, and he had power to take it

again; this commandment had he received from his Father. Well, therefore, might our apostle remind the Corinthians of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.

Nor does the grace which reigns in the origin and purchase of salvation, exceed the grace which, in the

3d. Place, we find to characterize its appli

cation.

By the application of salvation, I mean, that preternatural and supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, by which he creates in (elect) sinners, the temper, and bestows on them the privileges, of God's dear children—privileges which were bought and secured by the unblemished obedience, and the vicarious suffering, of their Elder Brother. Without deep reflection upon the nature of things, or the experience of every believer, the least veneration for the oracles of God is enough to convince all who are not blinded by the god of this world, that the work of the Holy Spirit, of which we are speaking, is entirely of grace. It is grace in its commencement; grace in its progress; grace in its completion.

To the commencement of this work, may be referred all benefits of redemption, which,

however different in their natural order, take place, in fact, at one and the same moment. We can barely mention some of them. One of them is justification; and we are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Another, is the infusion of spiritual life. When I passed by thee, they are the words of Jehovah, when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, behold, thy time was a time of love: and I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live: yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live. With these we may connect regeneration, pardon, and adoption. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, even the renewing of the Holy Ghost. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake--and in Christ we have forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace-and we were predestinated unto the adoption of children, according to the good pleasure of his will. And if salvation begin with grace, it must proceed by grace. The apostle tells us that when we are united to Christ, we are made new creatures; one of the first ideas that will occur to the mind when reflecting upon the wants of a living creature, is, that it cannot thrive unless it be properly fed. And as the new creature is of hea