heirs of salvation, in God's eternal counsel, before either they or the world had a being.

2. The mean whereby God decreed salvation unto the elect, viz.: by Christ, "You hath he chosen in him," not that the merits of Christ are the cause of election (that is the sovereign pleasure of God), but the merits of Christ are the cause of salvation, which is the consequence of election; this is clearly illustrated in the 5th verse of our context. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."

3. That foreseen holiness is not the cause of election; we are elected that we may be holy, and not because God foresaw we should be holy: "that we should be holy and without blame." Holiness is not the cause, but effect, or rather consequent of our election.

4. The arbitrariness and absolute sovereignty of the divine decree : "According to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." Nothing could be a motive unto the eternal predestinating counsel of God; but his free, arbitrary, and sovereign pleasure. There is nothing foreseen in the creature, nor anything out of God himself, that could be a motive unto the divine decree; "for who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?"

These things considered, this doctrine of eternal truth offereth itself from the words.

DOCTRINE. That the eternal God hath eternally, freely, arbitrarily, sovereignly, and infallibly, foreordained our future and final state.

We ought, indeed, to treat of and handle this doctrine with greatest modesty and with most imaginable caution, and not launch too far into the deep abyss, lest we plunge and drown ourselves in confusion; and that which is worse, cause the truths we are treating of, to suffer shipwreck upon the rocks of our perplexing distinctions, as some of the schoolmen have done. But since our glorious Lord and his inspired apostles, have frequently proposed and inculcated this doctrine of predestination, must we be silent (whose duty it is to declare the whole mind and counsel of God), and not do our endeavour to free from the calumniating exceptions of erring and ignorant, as well as prejudiced persons, this doctrine of our blessed Lord? No, surely! It is high time to stand up in the defence of this important article of Christianity, for if we let go this, we shall lose a very considerable part of our most holy faith. I shall endeavour to be something particular, but more plain, in the prosecution of this observation, in these two propositions.

Prop. 1. We are infallibly predestinated to our future and final state, in God's eternal counsel-predestination was an eternal act in God. It is no less unreasonableness than irreligion (if not blas

phemy), to dream that the omniscient God must wait to see our behaviour, ere he determines how he will glorify himself in us. Every rational agent propounds some end unto any considerable undertaking, ere he commence it. How much short of madness would that artificer be deemed, that would undertake a magnificent building and not know why? And shall we entertain such base, low conceptions of Infinite Wisdom, as to attribute that to him, as would be chargeable with highest folly and madness, in imperfect mortals? Could the Most High so far forget himself, as not to predetermine his glory, in so noble a part of the creation, as the rational world? No, surely! his predestinating counsel respecting the eternal display of his glory from us, must forego our creation: for does Infinite Wisdom act precipitately, and without counsel ? God forbid! The words of our text give a clear and radiant light to this cause, as written with a sunbeam, "You hath he chosen in him, before the foundations of the world;" and the 17th article of the Church of England, is very express, "Predestination unto life, is the everlasting counsel of God, whereby before the foundations of the world were laid, he hath constantly decreed," &c. I shall endeavour to set this in a clear light, by these following considerations. It must be acknowledged by all that have any reverential regard to God's eternal majesty,

1. That the flaming eyes of God's omniscience eternally foresaw and foreknew all things future. All things, and all events, that have or ever shall have being, were foreseen of God by one single view, before the worlds were made. To deny God's eternal foreknowledge, is to deny his essence; he can as soon cease to be, as to be omniscient. To suppose anything future not foreknown of God, implies the destruction of that essential attribute, his omniscience; and all other his attributes must be buried under the ruins thereof. We read of "elect according to the foreknowledge of God," 1 Pet. 1: 2. It must needs be that his knowledge extends to everything future, for, "his understanding is infinite," Ps. 147 5. The forecited 17th article of the Church of England, bears testimony to the truth of this particular; for if, "before the foundations of the world, he hath constantly decreed, he must have infallibly foreknown whatsoever will come to pass.'

2. That the prescience and foreknowledge of God can be no ways repugnant unto (nay, it must be most agreeable with it, must be founded upon) his will. Do any grant a foreknowledge and not a prevolition (or forewill) in God? Do they suppose that he knew what he willed not, that he saw the futurition of those things whose being he had not determined? They not only lay the glory of Divine perfection in the dust, but also run themselves into inextricable confusion. Shall we entertain such base, low sentiments of the Almighty, as to suppose him a composition of parts, powers, and faculties; his knowledge one act, and his will another? By no means! Let us beware of harbouring such blasphemous concep

tions! It must be a received principle: "Quicquid in Deo est, est ipse Deus;" whatsoever is in God, is God himself. God is but one pure act. Though he makes himself known unto us by several attributes, it no ways contradicts his simplicity. It helps only our understanding, who can behold only his back parts. Who can conceive nothing of him, but by his communicative attributes.

But there being admitted a distinction in our conception (though not in time), between the knowledge and will of God, his will must forego his knowledge, his foreknowledge must be founded upon his will for what is contrary to his will, he would never suffer to be, and therefore could not foreknow that it should be. For God to foreknow what he does not will, is to foreknow what will never be, for nothing can be contrary to his will: "His counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure." Is. 46: 10. "Predestination to life," says the Church of England, in her 17th article, "is the everlasting purpose of God."

3. This foreknowledge and will of God (which, if you please, I'll style his eternal counsel), respects the future and final state of every particular person. All things, and all affairs (though of the most minute and inconsiderable value), were all foreknown and ordained to their appointed end, in God's eternal counsel. "The very sparrows" are under the influence of Divine Providence. "The hairs of our head are all numbered." Matt. 29: 30. And can God's flaming eyes overlook the least member of the rational creation, and not foresee both his actions and end? Where then is his omniscience! Can he neglect the consultation of his own glory, in any one immortal soul? Where then is the perfection of his counsel !

There's not one of the children of God, but may be addressed with the language of our text: "You hath he chosen in him," &c. There's not one that shall remain finally impenitent, and by their sins make themselves the eternal monuments of God's revenging justice, concerning whom that language, Jude 4, is not true, "That they were of old ordained to this condemnation." This is most agreeable to the doctrine of the Church of England, in the 3d article of Lambeth: "That there is a certain and foredetermined number of the predestinate."

4. That the eternal knowledge and counsel of God admits of no. mutation and change. It is one of the glorious attributes of the Almighty, "that he is without variation or shadow of change." James 1:17. Immutability is his very essence, "I am the Lord, I change not." Mal. 3: 6. The change of his counsel must imply either imperfection of wisdom, or want of power (either of which, I hope none would be so blasphemous as to suppose). If his wisdom were infinite, all his affairs would be so well adjusted in his breast from eternity, as to need no alteration, as to admit of no amendment. If his power were unlimited, what should bar the execution of his counsel, or what should necessitate him to change

his purpose? In this, the 3d article of Lambeth, is both plain and true: That the number of the predestinate can neither be increased nor diminished."

5. That the accomplishment of the divine predestination is infallibly necessary. The eternal counsel of God shall no ways fail of an exact, complete, and full accomplishment: "His counsel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure." It must needs be so; for how can it be within the power of any created being, to bar the execution of the omnipotent will of God? To suppose such shortsightedness, inconsiliateness, impotency, or any other imperfection in the Almighty, as to make it possible, that his counsel should fall to the ground, is in the highest degree irreligious. Nay, the supposition of the contingency, and fallibility of the Divine counsel, does no less labour of highest unreasonableness; which I refer to the judgment of all the judicious, that have any suitable conceptions of the omniscience, omnipotence, immutability, and perfection of a glorious God. Nothing can be more plain and express, than that, Rom. 8:29, 30: "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. . . . Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." This golden chain is irrefragably linked together, not one link of it shall ever be broken. Thus the 4th article of Lambeth: "Those that are not predestinated to salvation, shall necessarily be condemned for their sins."

[To be continued.]

TIMOTHY AT EPHESUS.

BY JEAN DAILLE.

WHEN Paul departed from Ephesus, after having laboured for three years with great success, in that city, he left Timothy there to carry forward the work, and to guard against certain evils which threatened the peace of the Ephesian church. Called away as the Apostle was to another field, he could not have chosen a more fit person to fill his place, than "Timothy, his own son in the faith." In his letters of directions to him, Paul says, "I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine," &c. 1 Tim. 1: 3.

The mild civility of this language of the venerable and holy man deserves a passing notice. Although Timothy was Paul's inferior both as to age and gifts, and although the Apostle was clothed with authority over him as well as the other ministers of the church, yet

he does not say, that he had commanded him, as the hierarchists represent, nor that he had ordained him, nor even that he had exhorted him to abide in Ephesus, but that he besought, or prayed him to do so. We may hence gather what respect the servants of God owe to their brethren, the greatest to the least, the politeness which should mark their mutual intercourse, and how great a distance they should keep themselves from all appearance of lordship and domination, and especially from the insolent tyranny, which some had exercised over their brethren, issuing their commands to the servants of the Lord, with the pride and haughtiness of a master towards his slaves. Whether those associated with us be younger than ourselves or are inferior in station, authority, or endowments, we should never forget that they are our brethren in the Lord.

The hierarchists, having their fancy filled with their grand prelacies, with their Bishops, their Archbishops, and their Primates, strangely enough imagine that all these magnificent things are contained in the simple words of Paul,-"I besought thee (Timothy) to abide at Ephesus." They signify (if our friends above named are to be credited) that Paul ordained Timothy to be not only Bishop of Ephesus, but also Archbishop or Metropolitan of the province, and even Primate of all Asia! How ingenious must be the passion for the crosier and the mitre, when it can discover such mysteries in the words so few and simple. For who that possesses only the ordinary share of intellect, and is biassed by no preconceived theory, would ever dream of finding the mitre, whether of a Bishop, Archbishop, or Primate, in the sentence, "I besought thee to abide at Ephesus!" Unless aided by an extraordinary afflatus, who could ever hope to see far in the depths of these words, a thing so fine and rare; or even imagine that to beseech a man to abide in a city was equivalent to ordaining him as its Bishop, Archbishop of the province, and Primate of the whole region? Surely the cause of the hierarchists must be brought to a bad pass, when they find themselves obliged to have recourse to proofs so pitiable. For myself, looking upon the words of the Apostle without prejudice, I conclude on the contrary, that Timothy could not have been Bishop of Ephesus.

Why beseech a Bishop to abide in his diocese? Is not this beseeching a man to abide in the very place where he is bound to stay? It were no way strange to beseech him to leave it, if there was occasion for his services elsewhere; but to beseech him to abide in the town which contains his charge, and which he cannot quit without neglecting his duty and offending God, is, to say the least, a beseeching not very civil, since it seems to imply that his most solemn obligations sit lightly upon his conscience. Be this as it may, it is very plain that to beseech a man to abide in a place, does not mean to establish him as Bishop in it; if this had been Paul's design he would have so expressed himself; he would have said in so many words that he had installed Timothy Bishop of Ephesus,