1. What they do not mean — [They do not, as many imagine, restrict the Supreme Being in the exercise of his grace. God's grace is his own ; and lie dispenses it according to his own sovereign will and pleasure. That he has done so in former times, it is impossible to deny. Was not Abraham an idolater in the land of Ur ? yet " God called him alone, and blessed him*." In blessing the seed of Abraham, did God take Ishmael, who was born according to nature ? No ; but gave Abraham a son in a prasternatural way, even Isaac : and limited the blessing to his line. In the seed of Isaac, God exercised the same sovereign grace ; choosing, even whilst they were yet in the womb together, the younger son, Jacob, in preference to Esau, the elder ; saying, " Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated b." Now, whether we suppose these persons chosen to everlasting salvation or not, it is evident that they were chosen to enjoy the means of salva- tion ; and consequently either God is " a respecter of persons," or ' the respecting of persons' must mean something very dif- ferent from the sovereign distribution of God's favours unto men. We all know that God did vouchsafe peculiar mercies to the Jews above the Heathens ; as he still does to the Christian world. If this was not wrong formerly, it is not so now : but Christ himself made this free exercise of God's grace and mercy, a ground of praise and thanksgiving; and therefore we also may adore God for it, and say, " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes ; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight c."
Neither do these ivords establish the doctrine of salvation by works. If there be any thing plain in God's word, it is, that God has given us a Saviour, through whose obedience unto death we are to be saved. As the whole Jewish ritual sha- dowed forth our acceptance through the Great Sacrifice, so the epistles to the Romans and the Galatians were written on purpose to establish this great truth, that we are to be saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and not by any works of our own. Indeed, if salvation were by works, even in any degree, Christ would so far have died in vain. Moreover, salvation could no more be of grace ; because works and grace are opposite to each other ; the one implying, that salvation is paid us as a debt ; and the other, that it is freely and gratuitously bestowed upon us. Now this being the uniform declaration of God throughout the whole Scripture, it is manifest, that this single expression must not be so understood, as to set aside the universal testimony of the written word.
a Isai. li. 1,2. b Rom. ix. 7—13. c Matt. xi. 25, 2(3.