and, if it were really and of necessity connected with all the evils with which men load it, I should not wonder at the pre- judices which are entertained against it. But indeed, when stated as it is revealed in Scripture, it is replete with godly comfort. For, who is there that would ever be saved, if he were left, like the fallen angels, without any succour from on high? Who would ever turn effectually to the Lord his God, if " God did not first give him both to will and to do of his good pleasure**?" And T may further ask, Wlio is there, of whom we need despair? I will suppose him to be at this moment as bitter a persecutor as ever Saul was ; yet may he, if God see fit, become a vessel of honour, like St. Paul, who was, even in the midst of all his violence, a chosen vessel, and had been so even from his mother's womb^. If any man ever seemed beyond the reach of divine grace, it was Manasseh, who filled the temple of God itself with idols, and " made the streets of Jerusalem to run down with the blood of in- nocents:" yet even he, in consequence of God's electing love, was converted, and sanctified, and saved^. So it may be, that some of our dear friends and relatives, who are at this moment immersed in wickedness of every kind, may yet have the eye of God fixed upon them for good, and, in despite of all their impiety, be " made willing people in the day of God's powers." We read, that " whom God did foreknow, he did also pre- destinate to be conformed to the image of his Son; and whom he did predestinate, them he also called ; and whom he called, them he also justified ; and whom he justified, them he also glorified'^:" and, for aught that we know, the same process may await some of whom we are ready to despair; and we may have the joy of seeing God's purpose, which was formed before the world began, effected in the conversion of our friends, and consimamated in their glorification before the throne of God. In fact, the persons who are now most eminent in the divine life were once dead in trespasses and sins, even as others: and they all, without exception, will gladly acknowledge, in their own case, the truth of our Lord's declaration to his Apostles, " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you':" for all of them have within themselves an unquestionable evidence, that as soon would a cannon-ball return of its own accord to the orifice from whence it has been discharged, as they, if left to themselves, would ever have returned to God, from whom they had so deeply revolted.]
But to this cheering truth I must add,
^ Phil. ii. 13. e Gal. i. 13—15. with Acts ix. 1,2, 14, 15,
f 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3—13. s Ps. ex. 3.
^ Rom. viii. 29, 30. ' John xv. 16.