own glorious perfections, and of making all the rights of jus- tice, and truth, and holiness, to consist with the exercise of
mercy ? Or who ever did any thing to merit at his
hands such an interposition in his favour? If there be any one so vain as to arrogate any thing to himself in this respect, let him bring forward his claim, and substantiate it before God, "that he may be recompensed" according to it. But we have no fear that this challenge will be accepted by any upon earth, or any one in heaven itself. The whole work of salvation is God's, and God's alone — the result of his wisdom, and the gift of his grace ]
Who will venture to claim any merit to himself, in reference to the application of this redemption to his own soul ? —
[Who can ascribe any thing to his own ivisdom ? or who to his own goodness ? Who will venture to reverse the saying of our Lord ; and, in direct opposition to him, to assert, that " he first chose the Lord, and not the Lord hima?" What dis- position or ability had any one of you to turn unto the Lord, till " He, of his own good pleasure, gave you both to will and to dob?" Or what had you done for him, that merited this favour at his hands? The salvation itself, and the faith by which you have embraced it, have been both, and equally, the gift of Godc; and, whatever you may have attained, " by the grace of God you are what you ared."]
In connexion with this, let us consider, II. His unqualified assertion —
Every good thing the Apostle refers to God, dis- tinctly asserting him to be,
1. The Source of all —
[God is the one fountain of all good. The fallen angels could as easily have devised a way of salvation as we. We must, of necessity, go back to the period when God proposed to his Son to become our substitute and surety, and promised to him a seed, who should, if I may so speak, remunerate all the sufferings he should endure for use: from that covenant must all our blessings be traced ; and in accordance with it shall they all be vouchsafed ]
2. The Author of all—
[Not only did every thing spring from God, as the fruit of his sovereign love ; but every thing was wrought in us by
a John xv. 16*. b Phil. ii. 13. c Eph. ii. 8.
li 1 Cor. xv. 10. e Isai. liii. 10.