of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to have done. That the divine foreknowledge of that criminal disposition, which led the murderers of our Saviour to the perpetration of the deed, is here asserted, admits no doubt.

Nor is the immutability of God taught with less perspicuity : The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, and the thoughts of his heart from generation to generation. He is of one mind, and who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? The apostle speaks of the immutability of God's counsel; and asserts, that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For reasons already assigned, this immutability of his counsel, proves that there can be no defect in his foreknowledge.

If the foreknowledge of God is perfect, the present characters, and future destinies of all men, are comprehended in it. Whether the doctrine of election is true or false, it will hardly be called in question, that the sentence which each member of the human family will receive at the last day, is now as distinctly known to God, as it will be at that most awful period.

I am by no means prepared to assert that the foreknowledge of God necessarily implies predetermination. But there is, I think, in the doctrine of divine prescience, something of more interesting sublimity than is usually thought; and something calculated to prepare the mind for a candid examination of the arguments relating to the choice, or election of God.

There is mentioned in Scripture a twofold election: one to the enjoyment of temporal favours and external advantages; the other to spiritual and endless felicity.

1. There is an election to the enjoyment of temporal favours and external advantages. In this sense the Jews were the elect people of God. They were called the people whom he had

chosen for himself. Speaking of Cyrus he saith: For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel, mine elect, I have called thee by thy name, &c. He brought up his people with joy, and his chosen, (or elect,) with gladness. The children of Jacob are called his chosen ones. Agreeably to this Moses says to the Israelites: Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all the people that are upon the face of the earth. Yet we know that the nation of Israel, as a community, were ungrateful, refractory, and idolatrous, and by consequence, the objects of divine displeasure. Their election must, therefore, have had respect exclusively to their visible relation to God,— their privileges their covenant, and means of grace.

Should you inquire whether God universally bestows temporal and external advantages, according to the previous character of the recipients, it must doubtless be answered in the negative. If the conduct of Israel left any reason to doubt, whether their election were the reward either of absolute, or comparative goodness, we might settle the question at once by recurring to the divine declaration: Not for thy righteousness, nor for th euprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess the land. Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not the good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people.

This people eventually became reprobate in the same sense, in which they had been elected. And though their election had not been founded on any good deserving; their reprobation was unquestionably the result of their disobedience. Moses had threatened them, that if disobedient, they should be consumed. Christ declared to them that the kingdom of God should be taken from them and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. Accordingly the apostle has informed us, that the Jews were cut off because of unbelief, and because they had killed the Prince of life.

In a sense, similar to the above, was Judas a chosen disciple. Have I not, saith Christ, chosen you twelve; and one of you

is a devil. He was elected into Christ's family, to the enjoyment of privileges, which if rightly improved, would have secured salvation. Yet this same Judas was unquestionably lost. Concerning him it is expressly said: It had been good for that man, if he had not been born.

Should it occur to you, as an objection to Christianity, that even such an election, as that now mentioned, should be taught in it, it must be answered, that if it be an objection of any weight, its influence is not confined to Christianity, but extends to natural religion. For, if we examine the whole of the divine government, which is exposed to human observation, it will be found, that God dispenses favours in such a manner, as human reason would by no means, a prori have conjectured; and that unlimited diversity is obvious in this distribution. Of all the creatures which God has brought into existence, some are known to occupy a rank vastly more elevated and desirable than that of others. Man stands much higher in the general scale, than other animals. The difference is scarcely less between the native powers of some men and those of others. Extremely various is the human condition, as to the means of present happiness, as to intellectual, and moral improvement. There are not a few, who are chilled by cold, and pining with hunger. There are not a few, who, by a severer destiny, are exposed to the contumely, the chains, and scourges of despotism. Contrast this with the security and affluence, to which others are born, and in which they continue during the whole of life.

As to advantages for intellectual cultivation, what can be more different than the condition of the Hottentot, or the native of New Holland, and the favoured European, who draws his first breath in the atmosphere of letters? As to moral improvement, what can be more different, than the condition of a child, educated by enlightened and exemplary Christian parents, and that of those who are acquainted with no worship, but the orgies of Juggernaut.

If the comparison be between our own species and celestial

beings, the same idea of diversity will still be presented. The angels are raised to a high degree of superiority above men.

Now in the establishment of all these differences, a regard to previous character, is by the nature of the case precluded. We have been speaking, you perceive, of the various circumstances in which different orders of beings, and different individuals of the same order, begin their existence. That one being is made an angel, is not a reward for services rendered before he was made. That one man is born a Hottentot, or Hindoo, is not in punishment for crimes previously perpetrated. This idea is very clearly conveyed by St. Paul, when discoursing of the different fortunes of Israel and Edom: The children not being yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said, the elder shall serve the younger. (Rom. 9: 11.)

It appears, then, to be an undeniable fact, whatever may become of the doctrine in question, that God has distributed his favours variously, and has placed some men independently of any thing preceding, in a condition vastly more favorable than others for knowledge, virtue and piety. As this is a thing open to universal observation, it will probably be neither denied, nor thought to impugn the doctrine of divine justice.

Whatever it is just in God actually to perform, it could not be unjust for him to predetermine. If, therefore, without any violation of justice, he actually distributes to some, very great advantages of a religious kind, and to others, those which are inconsiderable, he might, without any violation of justice, have determined this from eternity.

2. From various passages of Scripture, there appears to be an election to spiritual and eternal enjoyments. Our Saviour, speaking to the Jews, uses the following remarkable language: All that the Father hath given me, come unto me; and him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out, (John vi. 37.) The same divine teacher has informed us that in the day of judgment, it will be said to the righteous: Come, ye blessed of

my Father; inherit the kingdom, prepared for you before the foundation of the world. Then it is asserted, you observe, first, that a kingdom was prepared before the foundation of the world; and secondly, that it was prepared for those who shall actually inherit it.

In the vinth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans, we have the following passages in connexion: We know that all things shall work together for good to them that love God; to them that are called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. The following question is subjoined: Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?

The sacred writers, in obvious agreement with reason, represent the heavenly state, as that for which all men are not prepared. If the enjoyment of this state result from virtuous society, devout exercises, and from contemplation on the measures and attributes of God, it is extremely obvious that nothing is less calculated to make most men happy. Accordingly St. Paul in the name of himself and fellow Christians gave thanks to God, who had made them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, and our Saviour speaks of those who are not fit for the kingdom of heaven; and speaks of sinners in general as of those who without alteration of character cannot see, i. e. cannot enjoy the kingdom of God.

To accomplish this preparation, to produce this fitness for the celestial paradise, external means and divine agency are employed. That the former, i. e. light and moral advantages are dispensed with great variety, has been shown already: To this undeniable fact, unequal communications of divine grace would be perfectly analogous. If those influences, which God imparts to men, dissuading from vice and urging to virtue, tending to produce a radical change of character, are made to different persons in different degrees, it is strikingly similar to the