2. If this doctrine be true, / may sit still, till God
shall come and help me —
[Where, we would ask, do the Scriptures countenance any such inference as this ? They invariably enjoin the use of means, and promise a blessing to those who use them in a dependence upon God; " Ask and ye shall have, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you ; for every one that asketh, receiveth, &c." Will you after this sit down and say, "I will not ask?" Be it so; you are helpless in yourselves, and incapable of doing any thing that is truly good : but so was the man with the withered arm : yet, when our Lord said to him, Stretch out thine arm, did he reply, 'Lord, I cannot?' No: he attempted to fulfil his Lord's command ; and in the attempt was strengthened to perform it. So is it your duty to use the means to the best of your power, in obedience to God's command, and in dependence on his grace : and if you do so, you are assured that " you shall never
' See Matt. xxii. 11, 13. 1) D 2
seek his face in vain." You should do as much for yourselves, as if you had in yourselves an all-sufficiency for all things : but, whilst doing it, you should remember, that " your sufficiency is of God" alone. This is precisely what St. Paul has taught us. He addressed persons who were asleep, yea, dead ; yet did he bid them awake, and act ; and promised, that in obey- ing his injunctions they should obtain from Christ all needful aid: "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light g."]
3. If this doctrine be true, / am in no danger, whatever I may do —
[Does any one who professes to believe the doctrine of election make this use of it ? He needs nothing more to prove, that he at least is not of God's elect : for, if there be one mark of a reprobate more strong and decisive than another, it is that of " turning the grace of God into licentiousness." There is not a word in all the book of God that gives any man a hope of salvation whilst he lives in sin. On the contrary, it is expressly declared, that, " without holiness no man shall see the Lord." If we are " chosen of God before the found- ation of the world," it is " that we may be holy, and without blame before him in loveh :" if " we are chosen to salvation, it is through sanctijication of the Spirit, and belief of the truth1." God will never make his own Son " a minister of sin." If he save us at all, it will be from our sins, and not in them. Hear how indignantly God rejects the idea of his leaving men at liberty to sin : " Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will ye commit all manner of sins, and come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations ? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord of HostsV Yes ; God does see it; and whoever maintains such a delusion as this, shall ere long find, to his cost, " whose word shall stand ; God's, or his1."]
That no solid objection lies against this doctrine, will appear, whilst we,
III. Suggest the proper improvement of it —
1. It should encourage all to seek for mercy at God's hands —
[If God's election were determined only by some good that was naturally inherent in man, and man's hope of the Divine favour were built on some superior excellence that was
e Eph. v. 14. h Eph. i. 4. j 2 Thess. ii. 13.
k Jer. vii. 8—11. > Jer. xliv. 28. with Gal. vi. 7, 8.