The grounds of his thanksgiving are,
I. Their election of God to the blessings of sal- vation— In his thanksgiving he distinctly specifies,
1. The end to which they were elected —
[It was " salvation," even " the salvation that was in Christ Jesus with eternal glory a." It was not to the means of salvation merely ; for many enjoyed the means of salvation, on whose behalf he could not give thanks, yea, on whose account " he had continual heaviness and sorrow in his heart :" it was to salvation itself, with all its inconceivable and everlasting blessings that they were chosen b; and this too, not merely from the beginning of the period when the Gospel was preached to them, or that they began to listen to it, but " from before the foundation of the world c."
From hence it appears, that there is, and ever has been, " a remnant according to the election of grace d," unknown indeed to man, but known to God, and from all eternity given by him to his Son, to be the purchase of his blood, and the partners of his glory e.]
2. The means by which that end is to be attained —
[The great argument against the doctrine of election is, that if we are elect, we shall be saved, even though we live in all manner of sin ; and that if we be not elect, we cannot be saved, even though we live the most holy and blameless life. But that argument, especially the former part of it, is most effectually answered : for God has ordained the means as well as the end : and he has ordained the end no otherwise than by and through the appointed means. God decreed to add fifteen years to the life of Hezekiah : but did this supersede the necessity of his subsisting by daily food? Yet the use of food is not so inseparably connected with the animal life as holiness is with the life of the soul : for Elijah lived forty days, and Moses twice forty days, without food ; and God, if he had pleased, might have supported Hezekiah fifteen years without it : but he cannot save a man without holiness, because he has declared he ivill not ; and " he cannot lie," " he cannot deny himself:" and therefore to expect to attain salvation in any other way than that which is here ordained, is to expect from God what he has never promised, and what, so far from having ever ordained, he has ordained shall never come to pass : for " without holiness no man shall see the Lord."
a 2 Tim. ii. 10. » 1 Thess. v. 9.
c Eph. i. 4. 2 Tim. i. 9. A Rom. xi. 5.
e John xvii. 6, 9, 10, 22, 24.