tiles obedient by word and deed, through mighty figns and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. He was alfo fomething, and very high indeed, in the esteem and account of God and Chrift; he was a chosen vessel to bear his name before the Gentiles and fo all Chrift's faithful minifters, on whom he has bestowed gifts and grace, and makes more or less useful, are fomething in his account; they are held as ftars in his right hand and indeed all his people are precious in his fight; his Hephzibah in whom he delights, his Beulah to whom he is married, his jewels, his peculiar treasure, his portion, and the lot of his inheritance. II. Let that fomething the apostle was be what it may, that he was by the grace of God; that is, by the good-will and favour of God; in which sense this phrase is often to be understood, both in the Old and in the New Teftament: when Noab is faid to find grace in the eyes of the Lord; the meaning is, that he enjoyed the free favour and good-will of God, and was well-pleafing and acceptable in his fight; and whatever diftinguishing bleffing he had, he had it through the grace and good-will of God, and not through any merits of his own: and fo in the New Testament, whenever falvation, and the feveral parts of it, are ascribed to the grace of God, as, by grace ye are faved, and the like, it is always to be understood of the unmerited favour and fovereign will and good pleasure of God; and in this fenfe are we to understand it here. And for the farther illuftration of it, I shall endeavour to fhew that what the apostle was, and fo what any other man is, as a man, as a minister, and as a faint, that they are by the grace and favour of God. First, What the apostle was as a man, was owing to the good-will and pleafure of God. And fo is what any man is as fuch. God gives life and breath and being to all his creatures; thou haft granted me life and favour, fays Job; to have life and being in this world, is owing to a grant from God; and that grant is a favour, owing to the good-will and pleafure of God: the fpirit of God bas made me, fays one of Job's friends, and the breath of the Almighty bath given me life"; life, in the firft fpring of it, is a gift of God; and the continuance of it. depends on his will and pleasure: his vifitation preferves the fpirits of men; he upholds their fouls in life; in him they live, move, and have their being; and whether their continuance in life is longer or fhorter, it is juft as his fovereign will and pleasure is; it is through his good hand upon them, that they remain in being in this world fo long as they do. All the mercies of life are from God; hence he is called, the father of mercies: and these are many and various, and are continually repeated; they are new every morning, and continue all the day, and are renewed every day; and having food and raiment, we should not only be therewith content, but be thankful for them; fince, as good old Jacob fays, we are not worthy of the least of all the mercies fhewed us; not of the least morfel of bread we eat, nor of the clothes we wear and how fenfible of the divine goodness was that patriarch to the laft; and how thankful for it? The God that fed me all my life long until this day-blefs the lads. Some have a greater affluence of the good things of this life than others; more they have than they can make use of themfelves, and which are given them for the relief of others; these are wisdom's left-hand-bleffings. When David and his princes offered to largely and fo willingly towards the building of the temple, he acknowledges it was all of God, both the ability and the willing mind; Riches and honour come of thee-Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer fo willingly after this fort! For all things come of thee, and of thine own kave we given thee'! Riches are the property of God, he gives and takes them away at his pleature, and this he does to fhew his fovereignty; he made Job the greatest man in all the east for wealth and worldly fubftance, and in one day ftripped him of it all; The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; it is all according to his good pleasure. All the endowments of the mind, the natural parts and abilities of men, their intellectual and reasoning powers and faculties, are of God; There is a spirit in man, a rational fpirit, and that is of God, a gift of his to men: The infpiration of the almighty, giveth them understanding; which diftinguishes men from brutes, and gives them the pre-eminence to them; for God is he, who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven. Now whatever the apoftle had of this kind, as well as of other things, it was through the favour and good-will of God: as he certainly was a man of great natural abilities, of strong reasoning powers, his enemies themselves being witneffes; his letters, fay they, are weighty and powerful; written in a masculine style, and full of strong nervous reasonings and arguments, they were not able to answer. Secondly, What he was as a minifter and an apostle, was through the favour and good-will of God; he did not become one of himself, through his own attainments, or by any merits of his; for he before says, he was not meet to be called an Apoftle; nor was he made a minister of the gospel, or an apostle, by man; this he difavows: Paul an apostle, not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father; the commiffion and qualifications he had as such, were not of men, but of God; the gospel he preached, the doctrines of it he delivered, and the instructions he had for that purpose, were not after men, neither received he them of men, nor was he taught them but by the revelation of Jefus Chrift: it was not owing to his education, to his being brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and inftructed in all the learning of thofe times, which qualified him for a minifter of the word; this ferved only to make him a keener adversary, and a more bitter enemy to Chrift and his gofpel. Whenever he speaks of his being put into the miniftry, he attributes it to the grace and favour of God; making mention of the gospel, he adds, whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto ME, by the effectual working of his power: unto ME, who am less than the least of all faints, is this grace given; that I should preach among the Gentiles the unfearchable riches of Chrift: and that he was an extraordinary minister, an apostle of Chrift, he afcribes to the of God; by whom we have received grace and apostleship; that is, grace to make us apostles, and to qualify for that office: and ordinary minifters of the word become fuch through gifts, which Chrift, their afcended Lord and King, has received for men, and gives to men; and which gifts are of grace and free favour difpenfed to whomfoever he pleases; to fome more, and others lefs, but all of grace: having gifts differing according to the grace that is given us; whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith: and again, as every man hath received the gift, even so minifter the fame one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God"; so that whatever any one is as a minister of the word, he is fo by the gift of grace, by the free grace and favour of God. grace Thirdly, What the apostle was as a faint, he was by the grace of God, as every faint is; what diftinguishes a faint from a finner, or one man from another, is entirely owing to the grace and free favour of God. k 1. Was the apostle a chofen veffel, not only to preach the gospel, but chosen to grace here and glory hereafter, as he undoubtedly was; he often puts himself among the chosen ones; thus, fpeaking of the veffels of mercy afore prepared unto glory, he adds, by way of explanation, even us whom he bath called; and in an another place, according as he hath chofen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love this he was by the grace of God, as all the chosen ones be; for they are chofen, not for any good works done by them, or foreseen to be done by them; for the act of election paffed before any were done by them, and without respect to any; for the children not being yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might fand, not of works, but of him that calleth': befides good works are the fruits and effects of election, and therefore cannot be the cause of it; we are his workmanship, created in Chrift VOL. I. 4 F Jefus › Rom. xii. 6. 1 Rom. ix. A m Jefus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them to which add, that they are the evidences of election unto others; hence that exhortation of the apostle, give diligence to make your calling and election fure"; not election by calling, though the latter is an evidence of the former, fince both are to be made fure; and therefore must be by fome third thing, and that is good works; by which these are made not sure in themselves; nor fure to the faints, but to the world; which give to them a certain evidence that the faints are, what they profefs to be, the chofen and called of God; and is the best evidence they are capable of giving to the world of those things, and of their receiving from them. Nor is it owing to the holiness of men, either internal or external, that any are chosen to eternal life. Men are chosen, not because they are holy, but that they should be holy and without blame; they are chosen not for, but through sanītification of the fpirit°; they are chosen to it as an end, and through it as a mean, and it is infured by election. And fo far is this doctrine from being a licentious one, as it is ignorantly traduced by fome, that it is the fource and spring of all real holiness that has been in the world fince the fall of Adam; had not God referved to himself a remnant according to the election of grace, the whole world had been as Sodom and Gomorrah, both for sin and for punishment; there would have been no such thing as holiness among the fons of Adam. Nor is the choice of men owing to their faith; they are chosen not for their belief, but through the belief of the truth, through faith in Chrift, the Way, the Trub and the Life: faith is the fruit and effect of election, and is fecured and afcertained by it; as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed; hence faith is called the faith of God's elect, because it is a consequent of their election, and is peculiar to them. It remains that men are what they are, as chofen ones, not by any thing of theirs, but by the grace, favour, and good-will of God; hence this act of God is called the election of grace, on which the apostle argues in this strong and nervous manner; if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace: for grace is not grace, unless it is altogether free; but if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwife work is no more work; to blend and confound them together, is to deftroy the nature and use of both. 2. Was the apostle an adopted son of God? this he was by the grace of God; which is the next spiritual bleffing that follows election, in that famous first chapter of the epistle to the Ephefians; and where the apostle ranks himself among those that are predestinated to the adoption of children, and which he afcribes to the good-will and pleasure of God; having predeftinated us unto the adoption Ephes. ii. 10. Acts xiii. 48. » 2 Peter i. 10. • Ephes. i. 4. 2 Thefs. ii. 13.. adoption of children by Jefus Chrift to himself, according to the good pleasure of his 3. Was the apoftle redeemed by Chrift? as without doubt he was, and he had the faith of affurance of intereft in this bleffing of redemption; which stands next in order to election and adoption, in the abovementioned chapter, and |