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muft daily become more and more alienated from bim and from his duty: but this is faying no more than that a wicked man cannot be a good man, or please God fo long as he continues wicked. But it by no means follows that this man is unable to hear, understand, and receive falutary convictions from the truths of God, revealed by his Son Jefus Chrift, and thereby become changed in his fentiments, difpofitions, and conduct, and from carnally-minded become spiritually-minded. The various forms of fpeech which the apoftle uses in the preceding and following verfes feem only to exprefs one and the fame thing, viz. the change produced in the difpofitions and conduct of men by preaching the gospel to them, and their attention to it, and fincere reception of it, together with the happy effects and confequences of it.

Ephefians ii. 3. And were by nature children of

wrath even as others.

If we compare the paffages in which the apoftle ufes the word nature, we shall find that he did not mean by it that internal frame, conftitution, or condition of being wherewith God our maker hath formed us; but that external condition, or those outward circumftances (efpecially with relation to God and religious concerns) in which divine providence hath caufed us to be born and live. Human nature, in our sense of the phrafe, is the fame in all mankind; but different perfons may be brought

brought forth into life, and spend it under very dif ferent natural circumftances, in the apoftle's fenfe of the word nature. Thus Rom. ii. 14. He fays,. when the gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, and v. 27. Shall not uncircumcifion, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, &c. He here plainly speaks not of an internal frame, conftitution, or powers, or what we call a nature, which the gentiles had, different from that of the jews; but of their external, moral, and religious ftate and circumstances, as deftitute of the inftructions and affiftances of the law of Mofes, by which they were much below the jews. Again, in the remonftrance which he tells us he made to Peter, we find thefe words, Gal. ii. 15. We who are jews by nature, and not finners of the gentiles; when certainly he doth not mean to intimate that the jews had a different fort of nature, or internal conftitution, whereby they were jews; but only we who are natural-born jews, and have all along enjoyed the privileges of that people. So likewife in the text under confideration, having fpoken of the Ephefians, as formerly dead in trefpaffes and fins, wherein, in time past, ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; he adds, v. 3. among whom alfo we all had our converfation in times paft, in the luft of our flesh, fulfilling the defires of the

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flesh and of the mind. Observe, hitherto he speaks of external condition and circumftances, and of perfonal character and actual vices, and not at all of internal conftitution, or a nature corrupted by the effects of Adam's fin. He adds: and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. i. e. (conformable to his ufe of the word nature in other places) in confequence of our birth and fituation among children of difobedience, where we were kept ignorant of the truth, deceived by false principles, and mifled by bad examples, we ourfelves were children of wrath, as others about us were, and many ftill continue. By children of wrath I apprehend the apoftle does not mean here objects of the wrath and difpleasure of God, but only defcribes further the perfonal character of those whom he fo denominates. As in the clofe of the former verfe he had mentioned children, or fons of disobedience, i. e. difobedient children, (and Peter, 1 Ep. i. 14. fpeaks of obedient children, in the original it is children of obedience) fo here he mentions children of wrath, i. e. wrathful, furious, malignant, and mifchievous perfons. In a ftriking and beautiful figure, he reprefents difobedience and wrath under the perfons of two fruitful mothers, whofe offspring they had been. Accordingly, when the apoftle comes in the beginning of the fourth chapter to exhort the Ephefian chriftians to a converfation conformable to the vocation wherewith they were called, and quite

the

the reverfe of the defcription he gives in this verfe of their former character and conduct, he begins with defcribing it thus, v. 2, 3. With all lowliness and meekness, with long-fuffering, forbearing one another in love. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He alfo concludes the chapter thus; Let all bitterness and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Chrift hath forgiven you. Do we not fee a greater propriety and, force in thefe exhortations, when we confider them as addreffed to perfons who had formerly been children of wrath ?

III. OF ELECTION AND REPROBATION.

Rom. ix, 11, &c. For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was faid unto her, The elder fhall ferve the younger; as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Efau have I hated. What fhall we fay then, is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid; for he faith to Mofes, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compaffion on whom I will have compaffion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God. that heweth mercy, &c.

These

Thefe verfes, and the whole of this chapter, relate not to the election of particular persons to eternal life, but to the calling of the gentiles, and the re*jection of the jews from the privileges of the gospel; and it is manifeft that the apostle is not fpeaking in this place of the final ftate, or indeed of the perfons of Efau and Jacob, but of their pofterity, and that only with a view to temporal privileges and prerogatives.

The whole body of chriftians, confifting of jews and gentiles, are frequently tiled the chofen, and elect of God, on account of their external privileges, as the whole jewish nation had been fo named before, on the fame account. This is an eafy and plain sense of election, reflects not at all on the perfections of God, is confiftent with the offers and exhortations of scripture, and preserves a harmony between the language of the old and new teftament.

It must be acknowledged, however, that in order to vindicate the divine conduct in the calling of the gentiles, the apostle alledges fome facts, in which not whole nations, but particular persons are spoken of, and which feem to imply, that their minds were under fupernatural influence in forming bad as well as good refolutions; and there are other paffages of fcripture which at firft fight feem to look the fame way.

The

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