Now, who shall say what Almighty God foresees respecting us ? The probability is, that were futurity now to be disclosed to our view, it would be said, ' One in that assembly will betray me, and, for the sake of some present gain, will sacrifice my honour and interests in the world. Another will commit such or such an enormity, and afterwards will terminate his own life with suicide.' Suppose, now, that such a prediction were uttered, shall any one of us presume to say, ' It cannot relate to me : I am not within the reach of such evils as those ? ' No: rather let every one, with holy fear, suspect himself; and say, ' Lord, is it I ? O that it may not be me ! Lord, grant that / may never be left so to dishonour God, and so to ruin my own soul !'
But I will suppose that God foresees such an event in any one of you ; Are you the less free agents in all that you do ? God has foreseen all that you have hitherto done : but did he ever impose upon you a necessity to do it ? or will your con- science acquit you of having contracted guilt by means of it? Learn, then, neither to deny God's foreknowledge on the one hand, nor to make it an occasion of questioning your own respon- sibility, on the other. God knows, at this moment, who will dwell with him for ever in heaven ; and who will take up his abode in hell for ever, as much as if our doom had already taken place. But this must not affect our conduct in the least; nor are we at liberty to make his prescience a ground either of presumption or despair. We must look to our ways, and run with holy diligence the race that is set before us : God's final decision will be the result of our conduct, and not of his decrees. He will never save any one purely because he had decreed to save him ; nor condemn him because he had decreed to make him " a vessel of his wrath :" if He award eternal life to any one, it will be because he had sought it in Christ, and " by a patient continuance in well-doing :" and, if any one be made a monument of God's indignation and wrath, it will be altogether on the ground of his evil deeds, and of his having rejected that Gospel whereby alone he could be saved g. Let us rest assured, that in the last day no one will have reason to complain of the divine decrees ; but that, both in those that are saved and those that perish, the wisdom and equity of our God will eternally be glorified.]
s Rom. ii. G — 10.