death ; in all this, I say, has not God clearly shewn, that " he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and that whom he will he hardeneth, or giveth over to the blindness and obdu- racy of their own hearts*?" But, as among Abraham's seed " all were not Israel who were of Israel," so it is now in the Christian world : there is a great and visible distinction made between the different hearers of the Gospel : some have " their hearts opened," like Lydia's of old, to receive and embrace the truth, or, like Saul, are arrested in their mad career of sin, and made distinguished monuments of grace ; whilst thousands around them find " the word, not a savour of life unto life, but of death unto death." " Who is it that makes these per- sons to differ1?" To whom is it owing that " the deaf hear, the blind see, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised ? " We answer, It is all of God : " It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy m. " The favoured objects '" are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God". "]
The existence of this right being thus incontro- vertibly manifest, we observe,
III. That all in whose favour it is exercised, are bound to acknowledge it with most ardent gratitude —
Impious indeed would it be to arrogate the glory
to ourselves—
[We have not of ourselves a sufficiency for the smallest thing, even for the forming of a good thought : what folly then is it to suppose that we can create ourselves anew, and reno- vate our souls after the divine image ! This is the work of God alone. If then we have any reason to hope that God has wrought this great work within us, what base ingratitude is it to rob him of his glory ! Is it for this end that he has shewn to us such unmerited regard ? or is it such an use that we ought to make of his distinguishing mercy? Surely, what he has done, he has done " for the praise of the glory of his own grace0:" and if we have been made partakers of his grace, we should strive to the uttermost to answer the ends for which he has bestowed it.]
Those who have been the most highly favoured by God, have always been most forward to acknowledge their obligations to him —
k Rom. ix. 18. '1 Cor. iv. 7. m Rom. ix. 16.
" John i. 13. ° Eph. i. 6.
vol. I. P