our heads and rejoice in the destinies of our species.

But though the apostle, in the course of this chapter, extends his regards to futurity; and lays before us, though in dim transparency, the varying fortunes both of Jews and Gentiles in distant ages -he has not yet quitted the consideration of matters as they stood at the time when he was writing, and accordingly tells us in the 5th verse, that even of his own countrymen there was at that moment a remnant who should be saved. We may indeed gather directly from the Scriptural narrative, the evidences of a goodly number of converts to the gospel, or at least of professing disciples, from among the children of Israel. We have first the apostles; and doubtless so many of Hebrew extraction, in the hundred and twenty who were with them on the day of Pentecost; and also of the thousands who believed anterior to the calling of the Gentiles; and further, all of that great company of the priests who were obedient to the faith 3 -all in harmony with the assertion of Paul, that, 'Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.'

Ver. 5. Grace in the New Testament signifies either a gift, or the kindness which prompted the gift. There can be no misunderstanding of it, for example, in the former sense, when in 1 Cor, xvi, 3, the apostle speaks of bringing their liberality to Jerusalem-that is, the fruit of their liberality, so Acts, vi, 7.

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rendered from the original word, commonly translated into grace throughout Scripture. And there can be as little misunderstanding of it in the latter sense, when the same Greek word is translated into favour in Luke, ii, 52, where we read, that Jesus increased in favour with God and man. In those instances where the gift is specified in connection with the grace which originated or conveyed it, this leaves no other meaning for the grace than the kindness, which is a very common and perhaps its primary signification. For example, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation," where salvation is the gift, and grace the kindness of the giver.Grace reigneth unto eternal life,” where eternal life is the gift, and grace the goodness which prompted it of Him whose gift is "Being justified freely by his grace," where the being justified or justification is the gift, and grace is the kind or generous disposition of Him who hath conferred it. And to close our list of instances with the verse which is before us-The election of grace'-where grace is the cause, election the effect; or where election is the gift, and grace is the kindness of the Giver to him on whom He hath bestowed it. It is thus that the election of grace has been defined gratuitous election-the election of pure kindness or good-will-the fruit of a generosity altogether spontaneous—a present in short, and not a payment in return for any service or in consideration of any merit on the part of him who is the object of it.

1 Titus, ii, 11.

Now this distinction between the kindness which prompts a gift and the gift itself; or between the generosity as it exists in the bosom of the dispenser and the fruit of that generosity, as imparted in the shape of a service done or a benefit rendered to him who is, the object of it-in a word, between the beneficence and the benefaction, enables us to discriminate between the different kinds of grace, which, though all emanating from the same fountain, even the good-will of Him who is in heaven, yet are each characterised or specified, and so as to distinguish them from the rest, by the distinct and particular good done to him in behalf of whom the grace and goodness of the Father of all spirits has been exercised. Thus there might be a justifying grace, as when God justifies the ungodly; or a sanctifying grace, as when God bestows His Spirit to help our infirmities; or, comprehensive of both, a saving grace as1 when it is said "by grace are ye saved and that not of yourselves-it is the gift of God:" Or, finally, the grace of our present text, the electing grace, here termed the grace of election-that in the exercise of which He set His special love on certain of His creatures from all eternity, as on the seven thousand of Israel whom He reserved unto Himself, and who, in virtue of this His distinguishing favour, were borne onward in safety through all the dangers and temptations of their earthly pilgrimage, till admitted in secure and everlasting enjoyment to the blessedness of heaven.

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LECTURE LXXXIV.

ROMANS, xi, 6-10.

"And if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway."

be made a snare, and a

THERE is one very obvious distinction between the electing grace of God, and the other sorts of it which have now been specified. In the election

of any man thus favoured and thus signalised, God stood alone. The act took place before that the man was born, nay before the foundation of the world.1 It is not only prior to all the other forthputtings of Divine grace, but it gives birth to them all. If it be true that none but the elect shall obtain the kingdom of heaven; and it be also true that unless we are justified, and unless we are made holy, we shall not enter therein-then must every elect sinner have both the justifying and the sane1 Ephesians, i, 4.

tifying grace put forth upon him, ere that he reaches his final destination; and the connection is not more inseparable between any consequents in nature or history, and the antecedents from which they have sprung, than that which binds together the justification and the sanctification which take place on earth with the election which took place in heaven-the one, in fact, being the source or the fountain-head whence the others flow. They follow each other like the links of a chain stretching backward to the eternity that is past, and forward to the eternity which is to come. Paul enumerates a few of these links, not all of them contiguous,-for other links than these he mentions, and intermediate between them, could be supplied both from other Scripture and from experience. "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, (them he also sanctified; and whom he sanctified,) them he also glorified."

We have already said of the great and primary act of grace, the grace of election, that at the time of passing it, God was the alone party; and in this respect it stands distinguished from the other or subordinate acts of grace. For in these last man bears a part-nay we should hold it the evidence of a sensitive and extreme, and in fact ill-understood orthodoxy, to shrink from the assertion, that in these last man acts a part. By saying so, we infringe not in the least on the supremacy of God; nor abridge by ever so little the agency of His