honor of his righteousness. If he does so, there is no injustice nor unfairness in it. There is no natural man living, let his case be what it will, but God may deny him salvation, and cast him down to hell, and yet not be chargeable with the least unrighteous or unfair dealing in any respect whatsoever. This is evident, because they all have deserved hell; and it is no injustice for a proper judge to inflict on any man what he deserves. And as he has deserved condemnation, so he has never done any thing to remove the liability, or to atone for the sin. He never has done any thing whereby he has laid any obligations on God not to punish him as he deserved.

2. God may deny salvation to any unconverted person whatever without any prejudice to the honor of his goodness. Sinners are sometimes ready to flatter themselves, that though it may not be contrary to the justice of God to condemn them, yet it will not consist with the glory of his mercy. They think it will be dishonorable to God's mercy to cast them into hell, and have no pity or compassion upon them. They think it will be very hard and severe, and not becoming a God of infinite grace and tender compassion. But God can deny salvation to any natural person without any disparagement to his mercy and goodness. That which is not contrary to God's justice, is not contrary to his mercy. If damnation be justice, then mercy may choose its own object.

They mistake the nature of the mercy of God, who think that it is an attribute, which, in some cases, is contrary to justice. Nay, God's mercy is illustrated by it, as in the twenty-third verse of the context: "That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory."

3. It is in no way prejudicial to the honor of God's faithfulness. For God has in no way obliged himself to any natural man by his word to bestow salvation upon him. Men in a natural condition are not the children of promise; but lie open to the curse of the law, which would not be the case if they had any promise to lay hold of.

III. God does actually exercise his sovereignty in men's salvation.
We shall show how he exercises this right in several particulars.

1. In calling one people or nation, and giving them the means of grace, and leaving others without them. According to the divine appointment, salvation is bestowed in connection with the means of grace. God may sometimes make use of very unlikely means, and bestow salvation on men who are under very great disadvantages; but he does not bestow grace wholly without any means. But God exercises his sovereignty in bestowing those means. All mankind are by nature in like circumstances towards God. Yet God greatly distinguishes some from others by the means and advantages which he bestows upon them. The savages, who live in the remote parts of this continent, and are under the grossest heathenish darkness, as well as the inhabitants of Africa, are naturally in exactly similar circumstances towards God with us in this land. They are no more alienated or estranged from God in their natures than we; and God has no more to charge them with. And yet what a vast difference has God made between us and them! In this he has exercised his sovereignty. He did this of old, when he chose but one people, to make them his covenant people, and to give them the means of grace, and left all others, and gave them over to heathenish darkness and tyranny of the devil, to perish from generation to generation for many hundreds of years. The earth in that time was peopled with many great and mighty nations. There were the Egyptians, a people famed for their wisdom. There were also the Assyrians and Chaldeans, who were VOL. IV

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gwat, and wise, and powerful nations. There were the Persiana vegth and policy subdued a great part of the world. There wet pations of the Greeks and Romans, to vere came over the we then excellent civil governments, for beir visdom and www and war, and who by their military prowess in her the O over the world. Those were rejected. God do not close Va sege, but left them for many ages under gross heathenista wed on ck of vision; and chose one only peonie. Te posterity ta Ne to our people, and to give them the means of are: Psal 4. shows word unto Jacob, his statutes and as judgments Ahad my xat so with any nation; and as for his magments, te tarz dom" This nation were a small, inconsiderate people i e people: Deut. vii. 7, "The Lord did not set his love

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je se z Pena, are they all children; but in Isaac sta and gaz a verses 10, 11, 12, 13: “And not only this; ve Raad die had concerved by one, even by our father Isaac; moreover being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, the prouse of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of b deth; it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As s teu, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." The apostle has not rege merely to the election of the persons of Isaac and Jacob before Ishmae Esau; but of their posterity. In the passage, already quoted from Ma God has respect to the nations, which were the posterity of Esau and Ja Mal. i. 2, 3, "I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein ar thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet Jacob; and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste fr dragons of the wilderness." God showed his sovereignty, when Christ ca in rejecting the Jews, and calling the Gentiles. God rejected that nation were the children of Abraham according to the flesh, and had been his pe people for so many ages, and who alone possessed the one true God, and chase dolatrous heathen before them, and called them to be his people. When the Messiah came, who was born of their nation, and whom they so much expected he rejected them. He came to his own, and his own received him not, i. 11. When the glorious dispensation of the gospel came, God passed by the Jews, and called those who had been heathens, to enjoy the privileges of it. The were broken off, that the Gentiles might be graffed on, Rom. xi. 17. She now called beloved, that was not beloved. And more are the children of the desolate, than the children of the married wife, Isa. liv. 1. The natural chil

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raham are rejected, and God raised up children to Abraham of stones. ›n, which was so honored of God, have now been for many ages reA remain dispersed all over the world, a remarkable monument of diAnd now God greatly distinguishes some Gentile nations from d all according to his sovereign pleasure.

eance.

od exercises his sovereignty in the advantages he bestows upon partisons. All need salvation alike, and all are, naturally, alike undeservbut he gives some vastly greater advantages for salvation than others. he assigns their place in pious and religious families, where they may nstructed and educated, and have religious parents to dedicate them to 1 put up many prayers for them. God places some under a more i ministry than others, and in places where there are more of the outof the Spirit of God. To some he gives much more of the strivings awakening influences of the Spirit, than to others. It is according to : sovereign pleasure.

tod exercises his sovereignty in sometimes bestowing salvation upon and mean, and denying it to the wise and great. Christ in his sovepasses by the gates of princes and nobles, and enters some cottage and there, and has communion with its obscure inhabitants. God in his ;nty withheld salvation from the rich man, who fared sumptuously every 1 bestowed it on poor Lazarus, who sat begging at his gate. God in y pours contempt on princes, and on all their glittering splendor. So netimes passes by wise men, men of great understanding, learned and cholars, and bestows salvation on others of weak understanding, who mprehend some of the plainer parts of Scripture, and the fundamental les of the Christian religion. Yea, there seem to be fewer great men than others. And God in ordering it thus manifests his sovereignty: 1 26, 27, 28, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise ter the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God aosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; se things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, ad things which are not, to bring to nought things that are."

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In bestowing salvation on some who have had few advantages. God mes will bless weak means for producing astonishing effects, when more ent means are not succeeded. God sometimes will withhold salvation from who are the children of very pious parents, and bestow it on others, who been brought up in wicked families. Thus we read of a good Abijah in mily of Jeroboam, and of a godly Hezekiah, the son of wicked Ahaz, and godly Josiah, the son of a wicked Amon. But on the contrary, of a wicked on and Absalom, the sons of holy David, and that vile Manasseh, the son od Hezekiah. Sometimes some, who have had eminent means of grace, rejected, and left to perish, and others, under far less advantages, are saved. s the scribes and Pharisees, who had so much light and knowledge of the iptures, were mostly rejected, and the poor ignorant publicans saved. The ater part of those, among whom Christ was much conversant, and who ard him preach, and saw him work miracles from day to day, were left; and woman of Samaria was taken, and many other Samaritans at the same time, 10 only heard Christ preach, as he occasionally passed through their city. So e woman of Canaan was taken, who was not of the country of the Jews, and it once saw Jesus Christ. So the Jews, who had seen and heard Christ, and aw his miracles, and with whom the apostles labored so much, were not saved

But the Gentiles, many of them, who, as it were, but transiently heard the glad tidings of salvation, embraced them, and were converted.

5. God exercises his sovereignty in calling some to salvation, who have been very heinously wicked, and leaving others, who have been moral and religious persons. The Pharisees were a very strict sect among the Jews. Their religion was extraordinary, Luke xviii. 11. They were not, as other men, extortioners, unjust, or adulterers. There was their morality. They fasted twice a week, and gave tithes of all that they possessed. There was their religion. But yet they were mostly rejected, and the publicans, and har lots, and openly vicious sort of people, entered into the kingdom of God before them, Matt. xxi. 31. The apostle describes his righteousness while a Pharisee, Philip iii. 6: "Touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless." The rich young man, who came kneeling to Christ, saying, Good Master, what shall I do, that I may have eternal life, was a moral person. When Christ bade him keep the commandments, he said, and in his own view with sincerity, "All these have I kept from my youth up." He had obviously been brought up in a good family, and was a youth of such amiable manners and correct deportment, that it is said, "Jesus beholding him, loved him." Still he was left; while the thief, that was crucified with Christ, was chosen and called, even on the cross. God sometimes shows his sovereignty by showing mercy to the chief of sinners, on those who have been murderers, and profaners, and blas phemers. And even when they are old, some are called at the eleventh hour. God sometimes shows the sovereignty of his grace by showing mercy to some, who have spent most of their lives in the service of Satan, and have little left to spend in the service of God.

6. In saving some of those who seek salvation, and not others. Some who seek salvation, as we know both from Scripture and observation, are soon converted; while others seek a long time, and do not obtain at last. God helps some over the mountains and difficulties which are in the way; he subdues Satan, and delivers them from his temptations: but others are ruined by the temptations with which they meet. Some are never thoroughly awakened; while to others God is pleased to give thorough convictions. Some are left to backsliding hearts; others God causes to hold out to the end. Some are brought off from a confidence in their own righteousness; others never get over that obstruction in their way, as long as they live. And some are converted and saved, who never had so great strivings as some who, notwithstanding, perish.

IV. I come now to give the reasons, why God does thus exercise his sovereignty in the eternal salvation of the children of men.

1. It is agreeable to God's design in the creation of the universe to exercise every attribute, and thus to manifest the glory of each of them. God's design in the creation was to glorify himself, or to make a discovery of the essential glory of his nature. It was fit that infinite glory should shine forth; and it was God's original design to make a manifestation of his glory, as it is. Not that it was his design to manifest all his glory to the apprehension of creatures; for it is impossible that the minds of creatures should comprehend it. But it was his design to make a true manifestation of his glory, such as should represent every attribute. If God glorified one attribute, and not another, such manifestation of his glory would be defective; and the representation would not be complete. If all God's attributes are not manifested, the glory of none of them is manifested as it is: for the divine attributes reflect glory on one another. Thus if God's wisdom be manifested, and not his holiness, the glory

of his wisdom would not be manifested as it is; for one part of the glory of the attribute of divine wisdom is, that it is a holy wisdom. So if his holiness were manifested, and not his wisdom, the glory of his holiness would not be manifested as it is; for one thing which belongs to the glory of God's holiness is, that it is a wise holiness. So it is with respect to the attributes of mercy and justice. The glory of God's mercy does not appear as it is, unless it is manifested as a just mercy, or as a mercy consistent with justice. And so with respect to God's sovereignty, it reflects glory on all his other attributes. It is part of the glory of God's mercy, that it is sovereign mercy. So all the attributes of God reflect glory on one another. The glory of one attribute cannot be manifested, as it is, without the manifestation of another. One attribute is defective without another, and therefore the manifestation will be defective. Hence it was the will of God to manifest all his attributes. The declarative glory of God in Scripture is often called God's name, because it declares his nature. But if his name does not signify his nature as it is, or does not declare any attribute, it is not a true name. The sovereignty of God is one of his attributes, and a part of his glory. The glory of God eminently appears in his absolute sovereignty over all creatures, great and small. If the glory of a prince be his power and dominion, then the glory of God is his absolute sovereignty. Herein appears God's infinite greatness and highness above all creatures. Therefore it is the will of God to manifest his sovereignty. And his sovereignty, like his other attributes, is manifested in the exercise of it. He glorifies his power in the exercise of power. He glorifies his mercy in the exercise of mercy. So he glorifies his sovereignty in the exercise of sovereignty.

2. The more excellent the creature is over whom God is sovereign, and the greater the matter in which he so appears, the more glorious is his sovereignty. The sovereignty of God in his being sovereign over men, is more glorious than in his being sovereign over the inferior creatures. And his sovereignty over angels is yet more glorious than his sovereignty over men. For the nobler the creature is, still the greater and higher doth God appear in his sovereignty over it. It is a greater honor to a man to have dominion over men, than over beasts; and a still greater honor to have dominion over princes, nobles, and kings, than over ordinary men. So the glory of God's sovereignty appears in that he is sovereign over the souls of men, who are so noble and excellent creatures. God therefore will exercise his sovereignty over them. And the further the dominion of any one extends over another, the greater will be the honor. If a man has dominion over another only in some instances, he is not therein so much exalted, as in having absolute dominion over his life, and fortune, and all he has. So God's sovereignty over men appears glorious, that it extends to every thing which concerns them. He may dispose of them with respect to all that concerns them, according to his own pleasure. His sovereignty appears glorious, that it reaches their most important affairs, even the eternal state and condition of the souls of men. Herein it appears that the sovereignty of God is without bounds or limits, in that it reaches to an affair of such infinite importance. God, therefore, as it is his design to manifest his own glory, will and does exercise his sovereignty towards men, over their souls and bodies, even in this most important matter of their eternal salvation. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens.

APPLICATION.

1. Hence we learn how absolutely we are dependent on God in this great matter of the eternal salvation of our souls. We are dependent not only