ye are saved ;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph. ii. 7-10.) Here it is expressly declared that God creates his people in Christ Jesus unto good works, which are the effects of this

creation.

The apostle Paul makes After dwelling at such chapters of the Epistle

The doctrine of election is the foundation of all the great and precious promises contained in the everlasting covenant, and the source of all spiritual blessings, which the people of God ought to contemplate with joyful thanksgiving. And as it is a source of consolation to believers, it is likewise a powerful motive to holiness and obedience, while it imposes on them the most overwhelming obligation to gratitude and the love of God. use of it for this purpose. length in the first eleven to the Romans, on the grand doctrines of divine revelation, and last of all exhibiting the sovereignty of God in the election of his people in the clearest manner, and at the same time in a way most offensive to human pride, he looks back on the whole with mingled astonishment and delight. Under the impression of these feelings he exclaims-"O the depth, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Far from judging, as many do, that Christians have no occasion to occupy themselves with such mysteries, he delight

ed to expatiate on them, he designates them "the mercies of God," on the consideration of which he urges believers to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God; Rom. xii. 1. The doctrine of Election also leads believers to the exercise of the deepest humility, when they remember that God has made them to differ from others who continue enemies to him, and under condemnation, though by nature no worse than themselves. According to this doctrine, their holiness is secured by God himself, who hath predestinated them to be conformed to the image of his Son; and they are addressed by the apostle Peter as elect unto obedience, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, and unto the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Their obedience is thus engaged for and provided by the power and operation of the three persons of the Godhead.

There is nothing, however, in the doctrine of election that supersedes the necessity of using means to arrive at final salvation. The end and the means are both comprised in the same decree, and in the use of means the decree itself receives its accomplishment. This is strikingly illustrated in the account of Paul's shipwreck. Although God had declared that all in the ship should be saved, it was indispensable for this end that the mariners should remain in the ship. "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." "We are bound," says the apostle," to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth." (2 Thess. ii. 13).

This doctrine is entirely a doctrine of love-of the

love of the eternal Jehovah to all those who shall be saved, while in no sense is it the cause of the destruction of those, who, dying in their sins, shall perish. Were it not for the decree of election, not one individual of the human race would be saved. On the other hand, no injustice is done to those, who, not being included in this decree, shall be finally condemned. They remain in the same state in which they would have been had no such decree existed. God, who has mercy only on whom he will have mercy, extending or withholding it according to his sovereign pleasure, ordains them to dishonour and wrath, to be inflicted for their sins, to the praise of the glory of his justice; while those who are saved, are predestinated to salvation, "to the praise of the glory of his grace." The former are vessels of wrath, fitted in themselves to destruction; the others are vessels of mercy, whom he had afore prepared unto glory; Rom. ix. 22, 23. Mercy must, according to its nature, act freely, and select its objects, otherwise it would be no longer mercy but justice. The plan of salvation, therefore, is a plan of mercy conducted according to justice. If sinners obtain the blessing, it must be by free gift. The doctrine of election places God and man in their proper and relative situations. It presents God, as the sovereign disposer of salvation-man, as the dependent and unworthy receiver of a benefit so immense.

Nothing can more clearly manifest the strong opposition of the human mind to the doctrine of the sovereignty of God in the election of his people, than the violence which human ingenuity has employed to wrest the expression, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." By some this has been explained, "Esau have I loved less." But Esau was not the object of any de

gree of the divine love, and the word hate never signifies to love less. The occurrence of the word in the expression," hate father and mother," has been alleged in vindication of this explanation; but the word in the last phrase is used figuratively, and in a manner that cannot be mistaken. Although hatred is not meant to be asserted, yet hatred is the thing that is literally expressed. By a strong figure of speech, that is called hatred which resembles it in its effects. We will not obey those whom we hate, if we can avoid it. Just so, if our parents command us to disobey Jesus Christ, we will not obey them; and this is called hatred figuratively, from the resemblance of its effects. But in the passage in which "Esau have I hated" occurs, every thing is literal. The apostle is reasoning from premises to a conclusion. Besides, the contrast of loving Jacob with hating Esau, shows that the last phrase is literal and proper hatred. If God's love to Jacob was real literal love, God's hatred to Esau must be real literal hatred. It might as well be said that the phrase, " Jacob have I loved," does not signify that God really loved Jacob, but that love here signifies only to hate less, and that all that is meant by the expression is, that God hated Jacob less than he hated Esau. If every man's own mind is a sufficient security against concluding the meaning to be," Jacob have I loved less," his judgment ought to be a security against the equally unwarrantable meaning," Esau have I loved less."

Others translate the word in the original by the term slighted. But if God had no just ground to hate Esau, he could have as little reason to slight him. Why should Esau be unjustly slighted before he was born, more than unjustly hated? However, those who a proper sense of the guilt of man by nature, will

have

be at no loss to discern the ground of God's hatred of Esau. Both Jacob and Esau were conceived in sin, and were in themselves sinners, brought forth in iniquity, and transgressors from the womb. Esau was justly the object of hatred before he was born, because he was viewed in Adam as a sinner; Jacob was as justly the object of God's love before he was born, because he was viewed in Christ as righteous.

The passage in Malachi, i. 2-4, from which these words, "Esau have I hated," are quoted by the apostle, as well as all the other places in the Scriptures, both of the Old Testament and the New, where Esau is spoken of—and they are very numerous-incontestably prove what is meant by the expression, "Esau have I hated." "I have loved you, saith the Lord: yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of Hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever." Do these awful denunciations import that God loved Esau only in a less degree than he loved Jacob? When men in such ways pervert the obvious meaning of Scripture, to maintain their preconceived systems, it manifests, not only disaffection to the truth of God, but the most culpable inattention to his plainest declarations.

"If," says Calvin, "we must be brought to the beginning of election, that it may be certain that salvation cometh to us from no other where, but from the