1. No external circumstance, no descent from pious parents, no con- nexion with the true church, can secure admission for men into the king- dom of Christ, vs. 6 — 12.
2. Paul teaches clearly the doctrine of the personal election of men to eternal life, an election founded not on works, but on the good pleasure of God. The choice is to eternal life, and not to external privileges merely. 1. Because the very point to be illustrated and established, through this and the two following chapters, is the free admission of men into the Messiah's kingdom and its spiritual and eternal blessings. 2. Because the language of the apostle seems of itself to preclude the other idea, in vs. 15, 16, and especially in v. 18, " Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth." This is not applicable to the reception of men to a state of peculiar external privileges or their rejection from it. 3. The case of Pharaoh is not an illustration of the refusal to admit some men to peculiar privileges. 4. The choice is between the vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath ; vessels of mercy chosen unto glory, not unto church privileges, and vessels of wrath who were to be made the examples of God's displeasure against sin. 5. The