dation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, vs. 1 — 4.
2. Those only are safe whom the Lord keeps. Those who do not bow the knee to Baal, are a remnant according to the election of grace, and not according to the firmness of their own purposes, vs. 5, 6.
3. All seeking after salvation is worse than useless, unless properly directed. Those who are endeavouring to work out a righteousness of their own, or to secure the favour of God in any way by their own doings, are beating the air. Success is to be obtained only by submission to the righteousness of God, v. 7.
4. As the fact that any attain the blessing of God is to be attributed to their election, there is no room for self-complacency or pride ; and where these feelings exist, and are cherished in reference to this subject, they are evidence that we are not of the number of God's chosen, v. 7.
5. Men should feel and acknowledge that they are in the hands of God ; that, as sinners, they have forfeited all claim to his favour, and have lost the power to obtain it. To act perseveringly as though either of these ^ruths were not so, is to set ourselves in opposition to God and his plan of mercy, and is the very course to provoke him to send on us the spirit of slumber. This is precisely what the Jews did, vs. 7, 8.
6. Men are commonly ruined by the things in which they put their trust or take most delight. The whole Mosaic system, with its rites and ceremonies, was the ground of confidence and boasting to the Jews, and it was the cause of their destruction. So, in our day, those who take refuge in some ecclesiastical organization instead of Christ, will find what they expected would prove their salvation, to be their ruin. So, too, all misimproved or perverted blessings are made the severest curses, vs. 9, 10.