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great upon the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 1 Thess. v. 23. "Now the God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,"

Q. How is the body infected by it?

A. In the readiness of the bodily members to further sin, and its temptations in the soul, Rom. iii. 13-15. “Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, and their feet are swift to shed blood."

Q. What learn we from original sin?

A. To bear patiently the miseries we see on our children, and their death also, without murmuring, Rom. v. 14. "Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.”

Q. What is the second instruction?

A. It teaches us humility, and should be a matter of confession and humiliation, when we sin actually, Psal. li. 5. "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."

Q. What is the third instruction?

A. It should provoke parents to use their utmost diligence for the conversion of their children, who draw sin from them. Q. What is the last instruction?

A. It teaches us the necessity of regeneration, and should pro voke us greatly to desire it.

Flavel's Exposition of the Assembly's Cateckism.

In the preceding sheets it has been made sufficiently evident that man is possessed of a soul, and by the most irrefragable arguments it has been made equally clear that this soul is immortal; we have also given a portrait of man in his fallen and depraved state, his aversion to good, and his propensity to evil; but we have not been able to discover any germ, or principle, within him, whereby he is able to conceive a good thought, or a holy purpose; for "the very

imaginations of the thoughts of his heart are only evil, and that continually."

This will lead us, in the next place, to direct our attention to the most important inquiry that can possibly employ the mind of man; viz. "What shall I do to be saved?" or, How shall I be delivered from the dreadful consequences of sin, and be restored to the forfeited favour of the Most High?

For man shall not be lost; but sav'd who will;
Yet, not of will in him, but grace in Me,

Freely vouchsaf'd,

That he may know how frail

His fall'n condition is; and to Me owe

All his deliverance, and to none but Me.

MILTON,

There appears to me to be a chain of events, by which this important work is brought about. It is like a rainbow reversed, each end above the clouds, and out of my natural sight; yet by faith I trace it, till it reaches the throne of God; and the first link of this chain appears to me to be

ELECTION, OR THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.

Perhaps I shall better explain my idea of this subject, by calling in the aid of a comparison. I shall presume that Sir Christopher Wren, when he was about to erect St. Paul's, first drew in his mind a plan of the form, bulk, &c. of the building he was about to erect; and when it was finally decreed, either by himself or others, what was to be done, then were the materials brought together in great abundance, and a great number of workmen employed to prepare and shape them for their various uses. To a stranger passing by, this might appear a mass of confusion; but to the architect every stone would appear correct, and fitted for its station in the building.

Nor can I for a moment suppose, but that the Great Univeral Architect, when he was about to create this little ball, which, according to Sir Isaac Newton, is no more than a speck, or a grain of sand, in the boundless creation, laid down his plan, (so to speak)

and clearly saw the end from the beginning. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning."

The daring worm, who lifts his puny arm
Against Jehovah's sovereignty, attempts

No less, than that which hurl'd from heaven above
Apostate angels to the lowest hell!

A king, and not to reign! preposterous thought!
A God, and not a king! strange Deity!
Such are the pagan gods! such is not mine.

I own, adore, and love the mighty God,

Whose WILL controls all worlds, whose high decrees
Fix bounds to time, and destiny to souls.

He took my nature, guilt, and shame, unask'd!
And gave me righteousness and life, unsought!
He bows, he melts, he hardens whom he will,
Nor of his matters gives account to man.

Thus we find it recorded in the Scriptures :

Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. i. 2.

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by

There are some who deny that there is any such thing as election at all. They start at the very word, as if it were a spectre, just come from the shades, and never seen before. I shall waste no time on these men: they are out of the pale, to which my allotted plan confines me at present. They cannot be Church of England men, who proscribe a term that occurs so frequently in her offices and standards of faith; nor can they even be Christians at large, who cashier, with affected horror, a word, which, under one form or another, is to be met with between forty and fifty times, at least, in the New Testament.

It is not, however, proper to be silent on the subject, since the Bible is not silent; it is our duty to promulgate and to hold up our testimony for all that we find there. But certain it is, that the doctrine has been so injudiciously meddled with—it bas tempted so many injenious and speculative men to transgress the limits of Scripture-it has engendered so much presumption among some, and so much despondency among others-it has been so much abused to the mischief of practical Christianity, that it were well for us all, could we carefully draw the line between the secret things which belong to God, and the things that are revealed, and belong to us and to our children.

Jesus Christ, to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. Eph. i. 4, 5.

For the children being not 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. Rom. ix. 11.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. 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. Rom. viii. 29, 30.

Even so, then, at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Rom. ii, 5.

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault, for who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, Oman, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What, if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory. Rom. ix. 19—23.

Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering. Col. iii. 12.

Blessed be God, &c, according as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, &c. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will; to the praise of the glory of his grace, &c. Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, &c. Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Eph. i. 4, 5, 6, 9,

Some I have chosen of peculiar grace,
Elect above the rest; so is my will.

11.

MILTON.

Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, he hath constantly decreed by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankiud, and to bring them, by Christ, to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour.

Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called, according to God's purpose, by his Spirit working in due season. They, through grace, obey the calling; they be justified freely; they be made sons of God by adoption; they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; they walk religiously in good works; and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity.

As the godly consideration of predestination, and our election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things; as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation, to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God: so, for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's predestination, is a most dangerous downfal, whereby the devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than deșperation.

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Furthermore, we must receive God's promises in such wise as they be generally set forth in holy Scripture and in our doings, that will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God.

Article XVII. of the Church of England. "Our eleccyon is by grace, and not by workes. Few are electe, or chosen. We are the electe of God the Father, thorow his good wil, before the construcyon of the world, that by the grace and merite of Christ, we should have health, (i. e. salvation,) serving al men by charite. The predestinate are sainctes, or holy people,

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