Perhaps it may be said that election is, and has always been, conditional. But this is not true. As far as related to the possession of Canaan, the election of the Jews might be said to be conditional: but on what conditions was the election of Abraham, or of Isaac, or of Jacob, suspended ? On what was the election of their posterity to the means of salvation sus- pended? On what conditions has God chosen us to enjoy the sound of the Gospel, in preference to millions of heathens, who have never been blessed with the light of revelation ? The truth is, we know nothing of the doctrines of grace but as God has revealed them : and his choice of some to salvation now stands on the very same authority as his choice of others to the means of salvation in the days of old. If such an exer- cise of sovereignty was wrong then, it is wrong now : if it was right then, it is right now : and if it was right in respect to nations, it cannot be wrong in reference to individuals. The same principle which vindicates or condemns it in the one case, must hold good in the other also. The extent of the benefits conferred cannot change the nature of the act that confers them : it may cause the measure of good or evil that is in the act to vary : but the intrinsic quality of the act must in either case remain the same.]
That this doctrine may not appear injurious to morality, I proceed to observe, II. That the circumstance of God's exercising this sovereignty is so far from weakening our obli- gation to good works, that it binds us the more