he fhould give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. --- I have manifefted thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known furely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst fend me. Ι pray for them ; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou haft given me, for they are thine.

Keep thro' thy own name, those whom thou hast given me. Sanctifie them thro' thy truth. Let them be one, as thou father art in me, and I in thee. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast giver me, be with me, where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. And that none might reftrain this prayer to the apoftles, our faviour fhews how extenfive it was in the intention of it; that it included all that in every age fhould obtain the faith of God's elect. v. 20. Neither pray I for thefe alone, but for them also which shall believe on me thro' their word. Thus far we have quoted the words of Chrift Himself, the great prophet of the church; who, came from the bofom of the father, the feat of his counfels as well as love, and therefore was well able to reveal the fecrets of heaven to men upon earth; and was faithful to him that appointed him, as alfo Mofes was faithful in all his boufe.

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The

The difciples whom our Lord fent forth to preach under the special guidance of his fpirit; and the apostles who were train'd up for the work of the miniftry under the perfonal inftructions of their divine mafter, or were taught the gospel they were to preach by immediate revelation from Chrift himfelf ; they taught this doctrine after him without the leaft hesitation, and preach'd and wrote in the fame ftrain with him.

The Evangelift Luke, (who was very probably one of the feventy difciples, and with good reason is fuppos'd to have wrote the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, as well as the third of the four gofpels which bears his name) giving an account of the fuccefs of the gofpel among the Gentiles, upon the Jews refufal of it, makes the work of faving faith in thofe in whom it was wro't, to be the refult of that act of grace which we call predeftination. Acts 13. 48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were ORDAINED unto eternal

life believed.

The apostle Paul, the great doctor of the Gentiles, was a zealous aflertor of this truth in almost all his epistles.

When he writes to thofe in Rome who were beloved of God,

and

and called to be faints, he takes care to let them know the ground of all the privileges they enjoy'd in time, and of that happinefs they hop d for thro' eternity, was laid in God's free electing love. The 8th ch. at the 28th v. And we know that all things Shall work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. Then follows the words of our Text, For whom he did fore-know, he also did predeftinate to be conformed to the image of his fon, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predeftinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom be justified, them be alfo glorified. And to fhew the immutability of this electing love of God, and that nothing fhould hinder the objects of it from being put into the actual poffeffion of the grace and glory to which they were defign'd, he leads them into that noble triumph with which the chapter ends, Who fhall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? Who shall feparate us from the love of Chrift? I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things prefent, nor things to come; nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, fhall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Chrift Jefus our Lord. In the 9th chapter he goes on to illuftratethis doctrine

doctrine from particular instances, and to vindicate it againft fome objections. When Rebecca bad conceived twins by our father Isaac, it was faid unto her, the elder fhall ferve the younger; as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Efau bave I bated; tho' the children being not yet born,bad done neither good nor evil: That the purpofe ofGod according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. What shall we fay then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For be faith to Moles, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will bave compassion. For the (cripture faith to Pharaoh, Even for this fame purpose have I raifed thee up, that I might fhew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Thou will fay then unto me, Why doth be yet find fault? For who bath refifted bis will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that replieft against God? Shall the thing formed fay to him that formed it, Why bift thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the fame lump to make one veffel unto honour, and another unto difhonour? Some will reply to this, and fay, It is not a perfonal, but a national preference which is here spoken of; and the apoftle does not refer to Jacob and Efau in their fingle capacity, or to the fpiritual and everlasting ftate of either of them; but intends only

their pofterity, and the difference made between the Ifraelites and the Edomites, in the external difpenfations of providence ; which he mentions to juftifie God, and filence the Jews from complaining, tho' they were caft off, and the Gentiles called But tho' Jacob and Efau

in their room. are here spoken of with respect to their defcendents, it does not follow that they are not to be perfonally confider'd alfo; efpecially fince Pharaoh is mentioned, and bro't in as an inftance with them. And whoever attends to the manner of the apoftles difcourfe, I think must see that he has fomething higher than any temporal concerns of men in his eye all along, and refers to their fpiritual & everlasting state. Why else does he draw that inference from it in the 16 v; So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy? And speak in the 22 and 23 verfes, of God's fhewing his wrath, and making his power known, on the vessels of vessels wrath fitted for deftruction, whom he here endured with much long suffering; and his difplaying the riches of his glory, in the veffels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory? In the 11th chap. he further vindicates the divine conduct in cafting off the Jews, and reconciles it both with the promise made unto the fathers, and with the divine goodness