THE FREENESS AND SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD'S JUSTIFYING AND ELECTING GRACE. BY MARY JANE GRAHAM, LATE OF STOKE FLEMING, DEVON. SECOND EDITION. PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE : MDCCCXXXIV. PREFACE. MANY plain persons, who have not time to read long treatises, or to enter into the intricacies of controversy, entertain doubts upon some of the leading doctrines of the gospel, and suffer those doubts to remain unsatisfied, either because they deem the subject unprofitable, or think they have not time for its investigation. No subject, however, can justly be deemed unprofitable, a right knowledge of which is essential either to our eternal salvation, or to the comfort and consistency of our Christian walk. I believe the doctrine of free justifying grace to belong to the former class of subjects; that of sovereign electing grace to the latter. Every person who has time to read his Bible, and to pray over it, may obtain a clear and experimental knowledge of these truths; and to assist him in doing so, is the object of the following B pages. And for the comfort of those who are members of the Church of England, the Author has on every subject, brought the words of that church forward to prove how strictly they agree with the Scripture statement of that subject. Not that any single doctrine can be either proved or disproved from the Service and Articles of our Church, but that having examined the doctrine by Scripture, it is satisfactory to find our Church bearing her testimony to the truth of what the Scripture says. May the Lord the Spirit, without whom not one word can be written or read to any good purpose, bless both the writer and reader of this little treatise, with such a spiritual understanding of His word, as may enable them, with one mind and one mouth, to glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. |