you have done, and according to both will he judge you. They who have never heard of the gospel, will meet a more tolerable doom, than such as have known and despised it. These will perish wonderfully. Their punishment will be such as they would not believe and could not imagine, though one should declare it to them. The men of Sodom, in their days were sinners of distinguished guilt, and their destruction, in the conflagration of their city, is set forth as an example of God's righteous severity. But justice has not done with them. In the day of judgment they will receive a still sorer condemnation; and after all, it will be more tolerable for them, than for those who despise the gospel.

To us the word of salvation is sent. Let us hear it with care and receive it with joy, accept the blessings which it offers, and walk worthy of him who has called us to his kingdom and glory.

SERMON III.

EPHESIANS 1. 4-6.-According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved.

In the verse preceding the words now read, the Apostle thankfully acknowledges the great mercy of God, "who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus." These blessings he proceeds to enumerate; and the first which he mentions is, God's choosing us to be an holy people to himself, and adopting us to the privileges of children.

The Jews, for many ages, had been the peculiar people of God, separated from other nations, and distinguished by special advantages. God had now seen fit to take the Gentiles into covenant with himself, and to abolish the distinction between them and his ancient people.

The Jews believed that God from the beginning had chosen them to salvation, and had appointed the Messiah in due time to appear in the world, that none of them might perish. But the Apostle, to remove from the Jews all cause of boasting, and from the Gentiles all ground of discouragement, here declares, that God from the beginning had chosen the Gentiles in Christ, and predestinated them to a place in his church, that, in the enjoyment of

the gospel, they might become holy and be made meet for heaven.

In our text we may observe the following particulars: That God had chosen and predestinated these Ephe

sians.

That they were chosen to be holy and without blame before him, in love.

That they were predestinated to the adoption of children to himself.

That they were chosen in Christ Jesus.

That the reason of God's choosing them was the good pleasure of his own will.

That the purpose for which they were chosen was the praise of the glory of his grace.

I. We may, first, observe, that God chose and predestinated these Ephesian Christians before the foundation of the world.

Those spiritual privileges and blessings, which they enjoyed or expected, were the result of that glorious plan, which the infinite wisdom and abundant grace of God had formed: For, as it is said, verse 11, "They were predestinated according to the purpose of him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."

When we speak of God's foreknowledge or predestination of events, we must always keep in mind this idea, "that his thoughts are not as our thoughts, but as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his thoughts higher than ours."

This Apostle speaks of Christians, as "predestinated according to God's purpose." Peter says, "They are elected according to the foreknowledge of God." But this mode of speaking rather expresses things according to the imperfect manner in which we apprehend them, than according to the perfect manner in which they exist in the

He views Darkness "He seeth

divine mind. God's understanding is infinite. things immediately and intuitively as they are. and light, past and future, are alike to him. not as man seeth, nor are his years as man's days. But he inhabiteth eternity; and one day is with him as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Therefore all the phrases, which we meet with in Scripture, concerning God's remembrance of things past, foreknowledge of things to come, and deliberation on things present, are to be understood, not as literally expressive of the real operations of his mind, but as figuratively adapted to the weak conceptions of ours. "His knowledge is too won

derful for us; it is high, we cannot attain to it.”

We know things past by memory, and our memory we assist by records; so God is often said to remember things, and to keep a book of remembrance. But we are sensible that these expressions only denote God's perfect knowledge of those things, which to us are past—not a laborious recollection of them, or an artificial method of assisting his memory. So, on the other hand, God is said to foreknow things which are future, to foreordain things which shall be done, to write, in the volume of his book, things which his counsel has determined; which phrases do not signify that things are really future and distant to his view, that his mind is reaching forward, that he writes down a plan of operations for his own direction; but they represent the perfect, consummate, unerring wisdom with which he governs the universe.

Viewing the matter in this light, we shall be sensible that our perplexity concerning God's foreknowledge and decree, arises from the imperfection of our minds, and the narrowness of our comprehension; and that there is no more inconsistency between the freedom of moral agents and God's foreknowledge, than there is between this and

his present knowledge; for, with respect to him, foreknowledge and present knowledge are the same; the difference is only with respect to us, with whom things exist by suc

cession.

The word election, or choosing, is, in Scripture, used in various senses.

Sometimes it signifies the appointment of a person to some eminent office or service. Christ says to his disciples, "I have chosen you twelve;" i. e., I have chosen you to be my disciples, and preachers of my gospel. He does not mean that he had chosen them all to salvation, for one of them was a son of perdition. In this sense Paul was a chosen vessel to bear Christ's name among the Gentiles. And Cyrus, Saul, and David are called God's chosen, because they were designated to be kings, for the execution of some great purposes of Providence.

The word sometimes intends approbation; as when Christ says, "Many are called, but few are chosen ;" i. e., few are accepted and approved.

Often the word is used in a large sense, to comprehend the whole body of God's professing people, whom he has chosen out of the world to be a peculiar people to himself. The whole nation of the Jews are styled God's elect, and his chosen. The Christian church, the whole number of professed believers, are called a chosen generation, a peculiar people.

But this general sense of the word implies a more particular sense. If God has chosen some nations rather than others, to enjoy the means of salvation, then he gives. some an advantage above others to obtain salvation; and this is as much an act of sovereignty as the election of particular persons. And, without question, some, in the nation, chosen to these privileges, will thereby eventually be made partakers of the salvation revealed. And there