afterward that which is spiritual." (1 Cor. xv. 44-46.) Accordingly the purpose of God was with great wisdom, that the elder should serve the younger; that the flesh should serve the Spirit, being in subjection to it, and not rule over it, as has been the case in the family of the first Adam ever since the first transgression.

Jacob and Esau are not the only two who have been types of the Spirit and the flesh, in whom it may be seen, that the elder serves the younger, or that the Spirit will finally supplant the flesh and root it out forever. Ishmael was the elder and Isaac the younger; but Ishmael was born after the flesh, of a bond-woman, and Isaac by promise, of a free-woman; and "what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bond-woman and her son; for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman." (Gal. iv. 30.) Saul was the first king of Israel, but David who kept covenant with God, took the kingdom. And in many things hath God shown that the old creation which is according to the flesh, is to be dissolved, and the new creation in Christ, which is according to the Spirit, to remain forever.

But the Apostle proceeds: "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." Does God appoint any man to wrath without any cause in the man as the reason of it? or does he select some to eternal life, and leave the rest to perish, until they first make choice of the road to destruction? Never. God does no such things; for there is no unrighteousness in him. But is it unrighteous in God to condemn the flesh which lusteth against the Spirit, and to promote the Sprit to eternal life? By no means; Who can gainsay him? Might not God purpose, without unrighteousness, in the first creation of man according to the natural order of the flesh, to bring that order to a close; but especially now when it and its children are corrupted, when it is become the cage of every unclean and hateful bird, may he not in righteousness have decreed its dissolution, and promote the Spirit as the superior state of happiness for men, in the new creation, to eternal glory? It is unexceptionable.

"For he saith unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, [or on whom I have mercy, in the Greek,] and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, [or on whom I have compassion.] So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." And who ever thought any thing else than that salvation is all of God? Would any man by his willing or running ever have found the way to be saved? Would any ever have thought of everlastingly condemning the flesh for the final redemption of the spirit? Not one. All would have gone their own way, in the flesh-they would all have willed its life.

With respect to the use which some make of this saying of God to Moses, as if in the hands of the Apostle it proved that God appoints men to life or to wrath, without respect to their proper character, it only exposes the weakness of such a plan. The work of the ministers of Christ is, after his own example, to set forth the righteousness of God to men, and show them that in all his dealings with them he is just, consistently with that reason with which he has indued them. Come, saith the Lord, let us reason together. But the

argument is forced and arbitrary indeed to prove that it is righteousness in God to dispose of men in that sovereign or absolute manner, to say, He said he would do it. This kind of reasoning would not justify the character of a man, but highly criminate him as a willful, unreasonable being, and how shall it justify that conduct in God, from whom more justice is expected than from men? And what is in that saying as delivered to Moses, to show that God would deal with the souls of men in that absolute manner? Moses had been pleading with him to continue his favours to the people of Israel, and to show him his glory, and he promised to do so; "And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy," (Exod. xxxiii. 19;) as much as to say, What I have promised I will do-I will keep my covenant. Accordingly, he kept, covenant with Israel, wicked as they were, because he had made promise to their fathers and they kept the remembrance of the name of God and his Church, until out of them, as pertaining to the flesh, Christ came, whose seed are the faithful only. But what have these things to do with appointing any man to eternal wrath, without respect to his real or personal character? Nothing at all. Hence when God came to make himself known to Moses according to promise, it was to this purpose: "The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear (the guilty." So in this proclamation of dread sovereignty, so reputed, to Moses, the guilty alone, and they only by remaining impenitent, are excluded from the favour of God; for he forgiveth iniquity, transgression and sin, and will not clear certain who are called the guilty. The word guilty is not in the Hebrew, but seems to be a very proper supplement. (Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7.) In like manner the Apostle's reasoning will terminate, as we shall see, that they only are rejected who do not comply with God's offers in the Gospel.

"For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. And whom will he harden? the obedient and disobedient without discrimination? God forbid. But the disobedient and profane as Pharaoh was; and who could say, "Who is the LORD that I should obey his voice ;" and who harden themselves as Pharaoh did. But who will produce an example of an obedient man, or one who does the best he knows, or can know, whom God has set aside to wrath by this abetted sovereignty which men have palmed upon God? Where is the wise man? Where is the disputer of this world? Where is the philosopher? Who is able to establish such a notion of God's dealings with men? Has not God in these last days confounded such wisdom? "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will?" True enough; if God appoints every man to this condition or that, without regard to the faith or works of any one, who has resisted his will ? or who can ? Come

forth, Paul, and vindicate the character of God on that plan. But as thou hast no reason to give, I will give thee an answer according to truth and righteousness, and clear the character of God, before all men, until they shall all confess that the way of the Lord is equal. The soul that sinneth it shall die. And therefore doth he justly find fault, because all they who are not saved have resisted his will; for he is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." "Who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye. " (2 Pet. iii. 9; 1 Tim. ii. 4; Acts vii. 51.) "Nay but, 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?" What now, Paul? wilt thou confound a man by sovereign mandates, without rendering him a reason? God forbid, that any man should be so foolish as to yield, so far as to conclude that God forms men for wrath until they first form themselves! "This only have I found," said Solomon, [and that will relieve us now,] "that God made man upright; but they" [not God for them] "have sought out many inventions." (Eccl. vii. 29.) "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) Now, Paul, yield; and we also will grant to thee, that a man needs not reply against God, until God does something unfair, which will never be. "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour." Now, Paul, I will answer thee again, out of the book of God, (Jer. xviii. 1, 2, &c.:) "The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there will I cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house; and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it," (such as it appeared to him fit to make.) "Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord God. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel! At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it: if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what time I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them." So much power then has the potter over the clay, to make a mean vessel of the clay which will not form into an honourable one. And so has God power over the people (the mass was the whole house of Israel, and under the Gospel, it is the whole world,) to do evil against those who do wickedness. Now, Paul, wilt thou not be satisfied; especially after thou hast thyself acknowledged that "in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself

from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, prepared to every good work." It is, therefore, decided by thy own words that the vessel to dishonour or to wrath, may purge himself from his connection with these vessels of wrath, and become a vessel to honour and mercy: for a man cannot purge himself from that which is not attached to him.

Nay, but let me plead once more, at least thus far: "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." Yea, Paul, that reasoning will do. There is no unrighteousness in the thought, that God should endure long with those who are already vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, that he may show his wrath against sin, or the flesh which they serve, and make known his power eventually in their destruction, as in the case of Pharaoh, that his name may be known and feared throughout the earth; or that he should long preserve the vessels of mercy, and not remove them immediately out of the view of the world, that he might make known the riches of his glory and grace on those whom he has afore prepared thereto. For God to manifest his grace and glory on the subjects of his grace, and to make known his wrath on the vessels of wrath, is rational and justifiable. But that is a very different thing from predestinating men to mercy or to wrath without respect to their faith or works. Let us then hear the conclusion in Paul's own words: "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles who followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: but Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law; for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone." Thus when Paul bringeth the matter to a final conclusion, the principle on which any fall, is their not complying with God's terms. And a little after; (Rom. x. 3;) "For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God."

I grant the Apostle's language is somewhat abstruse on this subject, yet not unintelligible; and the conclusion which he has drawn from the whole in his own words decidedly proves the above exposition to be correct. But he did not write so without his reason; it being often necessary to give a subject a very awful cast, to impress the mind more deeply with a sense of how important it is to act in all things conformably to the will of God. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Heb. x. 31.) Neither let it be forgotten that Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written some things hard to be understood, which they who are unlearned and unstable [though not the honest and the wise toward God,] wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Let people, therefore, beware how they tarnish the justice and glory of his character with whom we have to do; "for our God is a consuming fire." (Heb. xii. 29.)

CHAPTER XII.

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED.

WE have already seen concerning the election of God that he has reprobated the flesh, and by consequence all who cleave to it, and chosen his people in the Spirit. We have also seen it proved, that the natural seed of Jacob are not, on that account, elect in the Spirit; as well as that the Gentiles who receive the faith of Christ by the Gospel, are of the true seed, and heirs according to the promise; so that Jews and Gentiles have equal freedom of access to the promised salvation in Christ. We have seen farther, that those Israelites who have not attained to the law of righteousness, have failed through unbelief; "for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone; as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion, a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." (Rom. ix. 32, 33.) But we have to inquire still farther concerning the elect of God both among the people of Israel and among the Gentiles. For although the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs with the Jews, and partakers of the same covenant of eternal life, the middle wall of partition being taken away, God still remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and in the seed promised in that covenant will include all the faithful, whether Jews or Gentiles. "God hath not cast off his people whom he foreknew." (Rom. xi. 2. &c.) "Wot ye not, what the Scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, LORD, they have killed thy prophets and digged down thy altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life? But what saith the answer of God to him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, (even all the men,) who have not bowed the knee to Baal, or have not kissed him.” (Compare 1 Kings xix. 18.) As these had not worshipped Baal, nor joined in killing the prophets, of whom Elijah alone seems to have been left at that time, God had reserved them from the destruction to be made by Hazael, Jehu and Elisha, which the Apostle considers as a figure of the election to salvation in Christ. And very properly, because as they had their lives preserved by obedience to the true God and refusing to worship Baal, so the ingrafting into Christ and continuing there depended on complying with the Gospel offers and continuing therein, as will appear in the sequel. Reader, understand.

But the Apostle proceeds: "Even so, then, at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work." It has been before shown that the works of the law are they which the Apostle every where condemned as having no part in our acceptance with God, and which were a separating wall between Jews and Gentiles. But the language is here so decisive and absolute that it will certainly be understood to exclude works of every description from any part in our justification, or in numbering us among God's elect. But men who judge of the letter by short-sighted, carnal reason, are exposed to err. To view this passage as respecting the election of indi