UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION. WE come now to the place which has been frightful to all that would not see, from which they have turned away in evident dislike. "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth," &c.: Rom. ix. 11. Many folio volumes have been written to explain away the doctrine of Divine sovereignty from this chapter, but still it stands as the rock in the midst of the ocean, against which the raging billows of many generations have dashed themselves in vain, crying to the sons of men, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy:" I will not be dictated to; my own will alone shall rule with absolute, uncontrolled sway: and who is he that dare say unto Me, What doest thou? This is no new rule of government. It was declared to the heir of promise regarding the two children, before they were born, the elder shall serve the younger; for the children were not yet born:-even when there could be no condition, for neither of them had done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, not of condition, but of him that calleth : that is, the will of him that calleth. It may be objected here again, that the difference did | not respect spiritual and eternal things, —not eternal life, but some worldly advantage. Even if this were granted, what follows in the chapter will show that God acts by the same rule in the salvation of the ungodly; that, as Jacob came to the birthright, not on condition of being the firstborn, to whom it legally belonged, we come to be children of God, not by any legal right or natural claim to such a blessing; and the conclusion is,—"therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy" "it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." The whole is in perfect harmony with the other Scriptures we have noticed, directing us uniformly to the good pleasure of God alone as the ground of our election, and not the perverse will of man,—a will which chooses reprobation, not salvation. As to man's will, the question is not whether it be free, but whether it be good. A free will we grant, a good will we deny: and as man's will is-"We will not have this man to reign over us," it is as clear as anything can be that, where there is in man a change for the better, it is not of man, but of God, who makes men willing in the day of his power. The denial of Divine sovereignty was the great, the aggravated sin of a great man, a great monarch; it met with a singular correction, and he made a remarkable confession."And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" Dan. iv. 35. "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began:" 2 Tim. i. 8. In this Scripture, as in those we have before noticed, the apostle states the fact of salvation, and points out the source whence it has come. We have it in a direct negative to conditional election,-not according to our works. There are but two grounds upon which man's salvation can rest-works and grace; and we say, moreover, that they who deny unconditional election can stand on no other ground but works: there is no middle point between these two extremes. And now, let anyone consider which side is the more liberal-more agreeable to men as fallen, polluted sinners. On the ground of works no man can be saved, "for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." It has often been charged upon the Calvinists that they are not liberal-are only for the salvation of a few; but on the principle I have now referred to, there is no salvation for any. If there had not been an unconditional election, there would have been nothing but eternal damnation. Again: we have evidence from the fact of conversion, and the confessions made by the believer himself. Take the case of the woman of Samaria. What was there in the record of her previous character, and in the circumstances of her conversation with the Lord Jesus, that looks like a condition, on the ground of which the mercy and grace of the Lord were shown her. When Christ said, "Go, call thy husband," she said, "I have no husband." "Thou hast had five, and he whom thou now hast is not thine husband;" from which, so far as we can see, she had been, up to this very time, living in prostitution. Look also at the jailer. Guilty and alarmed, be came saying, "What must I do to be saved?" Could there be any ground, any predisposing process of virtuous reformation going on in this case? No, none. Look also at Paul. Where was he at the time of his conversion?-In the house of God? in the way of life? No, in the high-road to hell. To what does he attribute the change? "By the grace of God," he says, "I am what I am." Hear any man in his prayers before God, and if he be not a rank Pharisee, you will find his confessions confirm this doctrine. In fact, the doctrine of election holds many that may not hold the doctrine. Again: how can we account for the difference which there is between one man and another? A favourite notion entertained by many is, that God deals to all men alike—gives all a measure of grace alike draws all alike. If it be so, God does not make the difference. If Jacob had made all his sons' coats of many colours, he would have made no difference in their dress. "Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou boast, as if thou hadst not received it?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. Conditional election says, I have made the difference myself; unconditional election says, God has made it. This dealing to all alike is neither agreeable to the plain statements of revelation nor to the dispensations of providence. If God deal with all alike, either all will be saved or all will be lost, so far as God's work is concerned. When Paul speaks of the grace which operated in his conversion, he says it was exceeding abundant." These very terms, if there be any meaning in words, regard something more than common. If I say a man exceeds in knowledge, he knows more than men do ordinarily; but if he exceed abundantly, he knows a great deal more than men generally do. This common grace, then, is not the grace which converts and makes one man differ from another. People may say what they will, but the truth is, efficacious grace is that alone which makes the difference and saves the soul. Men go to hell with what is common to all, and to heaven only by that which makes a difference. God makes a difference in his providence, and such a difference as cannot be ascribed to anything but his will. On what condition was I born in this part of the world, rather than on the plains of Hindoostan, in Turkey, or Lapland, or Western Africa? There is a difference in the form and size of men's bodies, and the endowments of the mind: one man has his gift after this manner, and another after that. The difference in the kingdom of grace is in harmony with his general mode of proceeding. "Order is heav'n's first law; and this confest, Some are and must be greater than the rest." If all distinction were blotted out of the Book of revelation, one bright mark of its inspiration would be lost; for infidels could refer us to the book of nature and providence, which God has most certainly written, and say, The same hand cannot have traced those various lines. In the book of nature we have variety,-in the Book of common grace nothing but a dull uniformity. But I need not, I feel persuaded, spend more time on this part of the subject, or many more witnesses could be brought forward than would abundantly confirm the position we have taken. All that we contend for is included in one single statement of the apostle John:-"We love him because he first loved us." Conditional election should read it with the other end first:-"He loved us because we first loved him." Fragments and Choice Sayings. FAMILY RELIGION. That action of David, though I do not find it taken notice of by others, seems to me to be mighty observable to this purpose that, in the history given us of his bringing home of the ark to the place which he had appointed for it, we find how greatly he was transported with the solemnity of that action and undertaking. But when all that was over which was public and solemn, we are told that he retired at length "to bless his household." (2 Sam. vi. 20.) He went home to bless his household. Nothing is more probable than that this was a stated course with him, and that he had so continued and ordered the work of that public solemnity as that it might not interfere with the worship of his family; and, therefore, amidst all the great pompous triumph wherein he was more publicly engaged, upon this account he bethinks himself, "Well, now, my hour of prayer is come at home;" and so the matter was prudently ordered, that, that solemnity being over, he might return home to perform the ordinary duty that was to be done there; that is, to bless his household and call upon the name of the Lord there. If you compare this with that which was his declared resolution in Psa. ci. 2:-"I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way; I will walk within my house with a perfect heart"-(I will keep an even, steady course: there shall be no baulks, no ups and downs in my way in my family; undoubtedly meaning a way of religion.) If you compare, I say, that resolution with his sudden bethinking himself when he had been engaged in that great solemnity but now mentioned, Now the time is come that I must go home and bless my house;" it appears to have been a stated thing with him. If from thence you look further to that great instance of Daniel, when he was, though a great prince in another land, yet an exile from his own; and that terrible and severe interdict was published, that for thirty days no man should pray to God or man, but to the prince of those countries only (a snare purposely laid for Daniel's life); you read that he went on in his course, as he was wont to do, as it is expressly said. And no doubt but those wicked conspirators against his life knew his course, otherwise they could not have laid this snare for him. And how should they know it? It is said, (Dan. vi. 10):- "He went into his house, and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime." It was a stated course with him. And that this must be family prayer and the ordinary religion of his household, is the most reasonable supposition imaginable. For otherwise, if it were secret closet-prayer, how should it be known to have been his course before? And how should they be able to accuse him now? But consider him as a great prince in a foreign country, and as havinga family, and how heroic and generous a resolution he had taken up, and with how holy a fortitude and bravery of spirit, to own God against that insolent decree of the wicked creatures who would arrogate that honour to the prince that was only due to God. Considering all these things, it is with the greatest reason imaginable to be supposed that this was a stated course with him of family religion. He resolved that his worship should be, as it was aforetime, open in his house. And thereupon the advantage was taken against him.-John Howe. THE BOLDNESS OF FAITH. To be permitted to enter the holiestthe presence of God-at all, surely ranks among the highest of the privileges which man can enjoy. But to be permitted to enter with boldness-to come without slavish fear, but animated rather by the spirit of adoption, and confiding in the Holy God who cannot look on sin, constitutes one of the chief wonders of redeeming love, yet one in which the contrite soul may most assuredly rejoice. Nay, more; the more boldness he displays the more is God glorified. To come as if he grudged a pardon, as if he was reluctant to blot out iniquity, or admit us into the holiest, is to grieve his Spirit or undervalue his love. But to come perfectly abased as to ourselves, yet con fiding in the finished work of Christ, and understanding that God is more glorified in forgiving through him, than in condemning our race had no Mediator appeared that is the right evangelical ground, and the right evangelical spirit. As long as I think salvation in any degree depends upon me, I cannot but come before God with fear and trembling. But when I see the work was finished in the Divine counsels before the world began, and actually accomplished at Jerusalem in the fulness of time, then the spirit of bondage disappears. The soul glories now in the Lord; God is honoured, and man is at once exalted-abased as a sinner, exalted as one to whose conscience that blood which cleanses from all sin has been applied. and raiment for these twenty, forty, or God has freely given you food and sixty years; have you nothing to give to Him who has given all to you? Nothing for Him who became poor and shed His And how is the case with my soul? Him who has promised heaven to you? precious blood for you? Nothing for Let every one who would deal faithfully Did Christ think souls so valuable regarding his eternal concerns solemnly that He laid down His life for their ransay, Have I learned to come boldly som, and are they to you so insignificant, through the blood of Jesus? Then my that you cannot part with the superfluireligion is the religion which God has re-ties of life for their sake? Can you bear vealed, which came from heaven, and which guides us to it. But do I still come haunted by fear, as if God would not hear and answer, even for Christ's sake? Then my religion is not yet God's; I need the unction of the Holy One to show me the liberty which the Son of God imparts.-Wonders of Re-the means of obtaining to the knowledge of deeming Love. ON READING SERMONS. to bestow that on fine clothes, or fine houses, or sumptuous entertainments, which might maintain a servant of Christ among the heathen? O, beloved, if there be any consolation in Christ, if any bowels of mercy, fulfil ye our joy, and rather deny yourselves, than deny poor sinners the Saviour. Consider what blessings you enjoy by the gospel! Did that man Mandate addressed by Charles II. to the the news of a Redeemer first to England? of God sacrifice too much who brought University of Cambridge. "Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen,Whereas his Majesty is informed that the practice of reading sermons is generally taken up by the preachers before the University, and therefore continues even before himself: his Majesty hath commanded me to signify to you his pleasure that the said practice, which took its beginning from the disorders of the late times, be wholly laid aside, and that the said preachers deliver their sermons, both in Latin and English, by memory, without book, as being a way of preaching which his Majesty judgeth most agreeable to the use of foreign churches, to the custom of the University heretofore, and to the nature of that holy exercise; and that his Majesty's commands in these premises may be duly regarded and observed, his further pleasure is, that And can you sacrifice too much to send those transporting tidings to Asia or Africa? God will fulfil His own word, and give "the uttermost parts of the earth unto His Son for His possession;" let your love to Christ decide whether you shall be helpers in this glorious cause, or no.-Samuel Pearce. THE SCRIPTURES ABOVE ALL. Neither may I lay to thee the Council of Nice, nor mayst thou lay to me, Council of Ariminum, either of us thinking thereby to find prejudice against the other; but let us lay matter to matter, cause to cause, and reason to reason, by the authority of the Scriptures, which are indifferent witnesses for both.--Augustine. Hear me, ye men of the world!-get ye the Bible, that most wholesome remedy for the soul. If ye will have nothing else, yet, at the least, get the New Testament, St. Paul's Epistles and the Acts of the holy Apostles, that they may be your continual and earnest teachers.Chrysostom. If any hard affliction has surprised thee cast one eye upon the hand that sent it; and the other, upon the sin that brought it if thou thankfully receive the message, he that sent it will discharge the messenger.-Quarles. Correspondence. AMERICAN BAPTISTS AND SLAVERY. To the Editor of the Primitive Church Magazine. very. I will just add that though it employs seven steam presses, and though its head quarters are in New York city, it has not, thus far, printed one page against slaWilliams, a distinguished Baptist minisOne of its committee is Dr. W. R. ter. Dr. Wayland, another Baptist mithe time-serving policy of the Tract Sonister, has written an able letter, censuring ciety. than six hundred slaves since the AntiAmong those who have set free more United States, I find the name of Dr. Slavery agitation began in 1832, in the Brisbane, a Baptist minister, who emancipated twenty slaves. EDWARD MATHEWS. Liverpool, Feb. 18th, 1858. DEAR SIR,-In the February number of the Primitive Church Magazine, I read the address of the Baptists of South Carolina declaring that they would no longer support the American Tract Society, because they feared it would say something about slavery. When I read the name of Dr. Manly, as chairman to the committee, it struck me that he was a befitting person to sign the address; not from the name itself, but from his unmanly antecedents, and his anti-Christian position. He is a slaveholder, and sold a valuable female slave, and with the slavery disreputable in the American Thanking you for aiding to make price paid his subscription to the Mission-churches, thus securing its abolition, I ary Society. I inquired of a Baptist am, dear sir, yours very truly, minister, from South Carolina, how it was that Mr. Manly, in paying the treasurer of the society, stated this fact himself? He replied," that Mr. Manly considered it a praiseworthy act to forego the services of the slave for the good of the missionary cause; that as a defender of slavery he had no idea of the abominable wrong done to the woman as it would present itself to other minds." Some years since Mr. Manly was exceedingly mortified by a movement of the English Baptists. He was honoured by being appointed from the American Baptists as one of the deputation to England, to reciprocate the visit of the English Baptist deputation. The Baptist associations declared throughout England that they would have no fellowship with slaveholders. So the deputation, learning this, stayed at home. That was an anti-corrected without being first known. slavery triumph. "Ours is not the tented field SHALL THE BAPTIST DENOMINATION II. To the Editor of the Primitive Church hearts of some of our brethren to inquire Baptists are accused of being the most disposed to quarrel among themselves. Of the correctness of this observation my experience does not enable me to determine; but I must honestly confess that I am quite Baptist enough to maintain In regard to the American Tract Society, that if they contend for "the truth," they We no earthly weapons wield- Truth our panopoly." |