not inconsistent with human responsibility, because God does not make men wicked. Though, as their Creator, he has a right to dispose of wicked men as he pleases, he only of the same corrupt mass chooses one to honour, and the other to dishonour, vs. 14 — 23.
4. Scripture must ever be consistent with itself. The rejection of the Jews could not be inconsistent with any of God's promises, v. 6.
5. The true children of God become such only in virtue of a divine pro- mise or by the special exercise of his grace. They are born not of the will of the flesh, but of God, v. 8.
6. Though children prior to birth do neither good nor evil, yet they may be naturally depraved. They neither hunger nor thirst, yet are hunger and thirst natural appetites. They exercise neither love nor anger, yet are these natural passions. They know probably neither joy nor sorrow, yet are these natural emotions, v. 11.
7. The manifestation of the divine perfections is the last and highest end of all things, vs. 17, 23, 23.
8. The fact that the destiny of men is in the hands of God (that it is not of him- that willeth, or him that runneth), is not inconsistent with the necessity of the use of means. The fact that the character of the harvest depends on the sovereign pleasure of God, does not render the labour of the husbandman of no account. The same God who says, " I will have mercy on whom I will," says also, " Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." The sovereignty of God and the necessity of human efforts are both clearly taught in the Scriptures. At times the former, as in this chapter, at times the latter doctrine is most insisted upon. Neither should be forgotten or neglected, as both conspire to produce the right impression on the mind, and to lead us to God in the way of his own appointment, v. 16.
9. Men, considered as the objects of election, are regarded as fallen. It is from the corrupt mass that God chooses one vessel to honour and one to dishonour, vs. 22, 23.
10. The judicial abandonment of men to their own ways, the giving them up to work out their own destruction, is a righteous but dreadful doom, vs. 18, 22, also ch. 1 : 24, 26.