ds, who said of old, We are
delivered to do abominations." We fear the Lord; "and will ascribe
righteousness to our Maker."

But doth not God choose some to eternal life, and to this end bring
them into his kingdom, and leave others to perish in their sins?

God chooseth those who hear his voice, and cherish the divine
influences, and leaves those who refuse his grace and grieve his
spirit. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; _if any man hear my
voice, and open the door_, I will come in to him, and sup with him,
and he with me. Every one that asketh receiveth; hath that seeketh,
findeth; and to him that knocked it is opened," Asking is antecedent
to receiving; seeking, to finding; and knocking is the work of those
yet without. When trembling, astonished Saul, of Tarsus enquired,
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" he was directed by one sent of
Christ--"The Lord said to Annanias, Arise--go--enquire--for one called
Saul of Tarsus: _For, behold, he prayeth_."

It is further asked, Whether God doth not act as a sovereign, in his
choice of those whom he sanctifies and saves?

God acts as a wise and impartial sovereign. God is not a sovereign in
the sense in which most earthly monarchs are so. Whim, caprice,
passion, prejudice often influence their preferences of some to
others. Not so the divine sovereign. There are reasons for all his
discriminations. They may be veiled at present from our view; but will
one day appear--"The day will declare them," and justify God in them.*

*1 Corinthians iii. 13.

But the elect, it is said, "are chosen from the foundations of the
world; before they have done either good or evil."

Election is indeed, "according to foreknowledge." "Whom God did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son."

But God could not foreknow, say some, how a free moral agent would
act, unless he had first determined how he should act!

_A free moral agent, all whose volitions and actions, are fixed by an
immutable decree_! We are ignorant how God knows, or how he foreknows.
Perhaps past and future relate only to creatures, Every thing may be
present to the divine mind--with God there may be _an eternal Now_.
"Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Much which
is known to us, is locked up from creatures below us--they can form no
ideas about it. Still less do we know of God, or t