spoken to him. Was here no proof of God's electing love ? Take the ministry of this Apostle : some received his testi- mony, and others rejected it. And whence was it, that, at Philippi, a poor woman, named Lydia, embraced the truth, whilst the magistrates and a great mass of the inhabitants joined in persecuting the ministers who proclaimed it? We are told, that " the Lord opened her heart to attend to the things that were spoken by Paul0." The same words made one cry out, "Paul, thou art beside thyself;" and another, " Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian p." And is it not so at the present day ? Are not still, as formerly, " many called, and few chosen ? " Does not the Saviour himself, as preached xmto men, still become a sanctuary to some, whilst he proves a stumbling-block and a rock of offence to others0-? And whence is this ? To what must it be traced, but to God's electing love ? Assuredly, to that does the Apostle trace it, in the case of his Thessalonian converts : for, in his first epistle to them he says, " Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God ; for our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance r." So then it is in every instance, where persons are enabled to receive the word aright : " it is given them to believe5;" and "they believe through grace';" or, in other words, they are " quickened from the dead11," and " made willing in the day of God's powerx:" and to God must they trace their new creation, as entirely and exclusively as the creation of the world y. To these "the word becomes a savour of life unto life ; whilst to others it is made a savour of death," to their deeper condemnation2.]
3. All are not heirs of the same eternal glory —
[All are not vessels unto honour. But this, however, must be remembered, that whilst it is God alone who prepares any to glory, the wicked fit themselves for destruction. This is marked, in a peculiar manner, in the chapter from whence my text is taken a; and we must never forget it: for though the salvation of man is altogether of God, his condemnation is of himself alone, the fruit of his own wilful perseverance in sin. That those who are saved owe their happiness to God's electing love, is clear from hence, that " God hath from the beginning- chosen them to salvation** ;" and " called them unto his eternal glory c." The process, as ordained in God's mind, and executed
0 Acts xvi. 14, 15. p Acts xxvi. 22, 28. i 1 Pet. ii. G— 8.
r 1 Thess. i. 4, 5. s Phil. i. 29. t Acts xviii. 27.
« Eph. ii. 1. x Ps. ex. 3. >' Eph. ii. 10.
z 2 Cor. ii. 16. a ver. 22, 23. See the Greek.
» 2 Thess. ii. 13. c 1 Pet. v. 10.