cometh, and reckoneth with them," proceeding first to the election of rewarding grace. "He that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more." Here you see in an exemplifying glass the doctrine which Zelotes abhors, and which St. John recommends thus: "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment," 1 John iii, 21; iv, 17. His Lord [instead of driving him to hell as a poor, blind, unawakened creature, who never knew himself; or as a proud, self-righteous Pharisee, who was never convinced of sin] said unto him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, [thou vessel of mercy,] thou hast been faithful over a few things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" through my merciful Gospel charter, and the passport of thy sincere, blood-besprinkled obedience.

The servant, who through free grace and faithfulness had gained two talents, beside the two which distinguishing grace had given him, came next; and when he had been elected into the joy of his Lord in the same gracious manner, the trial of the faithless heathen came on. His plea would almost make one think that Zelotes had instilled into him his hard doctrine of reprobation. He is not ashamed to preach it to Christ himself. "Lord," says he, "I knew thee, that thou art a hard man," who didst contrive my reprobation from the beginning of the world, and gavest me only one talent of common grace, twenty of which would not amount to one dram of saving grace. "I knew thee," I say, "that thou art an austere" master, "reaping," or wanting to reap where thou hast not sowed the seed of effectual grace; "and gathering," or wanting to gather" where thou hast not strewed" one grain of true grace; "and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent," thy ineffectual, false, common grace "in the earth. Lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, &e, thou oughtest to have put my money to the exchangers," who sometimes exchange to such advantage for the poor, that their "little one becomes a thousand." Hadst thou made this proper use of my "common grace,' as thou callest it, "at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents: for every one that hath" to purpose," shall have abundance: but from him that hath not" to purpose, "shall be taken away even that which he hath"-his unimproved, hidden talent: "and cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness;" i. e. into hell: "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth," Matt. xxv, 15, 31. Hence it appears that a man may be freely elected to receive one, two, or five talentsfreely chosen to trade with them, and afterward be justly reprobated, or cast away into outer darkness for not improving his talent, that is, for not "making his calling and election sure."

Zelotes, indeed, as if he were conscious that the parable of the talents overthrows all his doctrinal peculiarities, endeavours to explain it away by saying that it does not represent God's conduct toward his people with respect to grace and salvation, but only with regard to parts and natural gifts. To this I answer, (1.) The Scriptures no where mention a day of account, in which God will reward and punish his servants ecording to their natural parts, exclusively of their moral actions.—

(2.) The servants had all the same master. Luke xix, 13, they are all represented as receiving "one pound" each, to "occupy," or trade till their master came. He that did not improve his pound, or talent, is called "wicked" on that account. Now the non-improvement of a natural talent, suppose for poetry or husbandry, can never constitute a man "wicked;" nothing can do this but the non-improvement of a talent of grace. (3.) We have as much reason to affirm that the oil of the virgins, mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, and the good works of the godly, mentioned at the end of it, were "not of a gracious nature," as to assert it of the improvement of the pound, which constituted some of the servants "good and faithful." (4.) It is absurd to suppose that Christ will ever take some men into his joy, and will command others to be cast into outer darkness, for improving or not improving the natural talent of speaking, writing, or singing in a masterly manner. (5.) The description of the day of judgment, that closes the chapter, is a key to the two preceding parables. On the one hand the door is shut against the foolish virgins merely for their apostasy-for having burned out all their oil of faith working by love, so that their "lamps went out." The slothful servant is cast into outer darkness merely for not improving his talent of opportunity and power to believe, and to work righteousness according to the light of his dispensation. And the goats are sent into hell merely for not having done the works of faith. On the other hand, (considering salvation according to its second causes,) the wise virgins go in with the bridegroom, because their lamps are not gone out, and they have oil in their vessels; the faithful servants enter into the joy of the Lord, because they have improved their talents; and the sheep go into life eternal, because they have done the works of faith. The three parts of that plain chapter make a threefold cord, which, I apprehend, Zelotes cannot break, without breaking all the rules of morality, criticism, and common sense.

I shall close my parabolic illustration of the Scripture doctrine of unconditional and conditional election, by presenting Zelotes and Honestus with a short view of our election in Christ; that is, of our election to receive freely, and to use faithfully, the five talents of the Christian dispensation, that we may reap all the benefits annexed to "making that high calling and election sure."

I.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in [the person and dispensation of] Christ: according as he hath chosen us [to beleve] in him, before the founda. Lon of the world: that [in making our bigh calling and election sure]

II.

Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world? [Yes, but not absolutely, for Zelotes knows that all the poor are not elected in his way: and St. James insinuates that their election to "the kingdom of heaven" is suspended on faith and love; for he adds that] God hath chosen

• This passage will be explained in the next section. In the meantime I desire the reader to take notice that the election of which St. Paul writes is not of the Aatinomian kind; I mean, it is not Calvinian election, which insures eternal alvation to all fallen believers. That the apostle was an utter stranger to such a doctrine, appears from his own words to those elect Ephesians: "Putting away

lying, speak truth: let him that stole steal no more: be not drunk: let not for. nication or uncleanness be once named among you, &c, for this ye know, that no unclean person, &c, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience," that is, upon the disobedient children, who, by their bad works, lose their inheritance in the kingdom of God. Is it not surprising, that when St. Paul has thus warned the Ephesians against Antinomian deceptions, he should be represented as deceiving those very Ephesians first, by teaching them a doctrine which implies that no crimes, be they ever so atrocious, can deprive fallen believers of their "inheritance in the kingdom of Christ ?”

I.

(that is, the unbelieving Jews have not obtained righteousness, because they sought it not by faith, but by blindly opposing their Pharisaic works of the law to Christ and the humble obedience of faith,] Rom. xi, 5, 7; ix, 32.

II.

hath showed no mercy, Col. iii, 12; James ii, 13.

If I am not mistaken, the balance of the preceding scriptures shows that Honestus and Zelotes are equally in the wrong: Honestus, for not rejoicing in free grace, in the election of grace, and in God's power, love, and faithfulness, which are engaged to keep believers while they keep in the way of duty: and Zelotes, for corrupting the genuine doctrines of grace by his doctrines of Calvinian election, necessity, and unconditional reprobation from eternal life.

SECTION XIII.

A view of St. Paul's doctrine of election, laid down in Eph. i-That election consists in God's choosing, from the beginning of the world, that the Gentiles should Now share, through faith, the blessings of the Gospel of Christ, together with the believing Jews, who BEFORE were alone the chosen nation and peculiar people of God-It is an election from the obscure dispensation of the heathens to the luminous dispensation of the Christians; and not an election from a state of absolute ruin, to a state of finished salvation—It is as absurd to maintain Calvinian election from Eph. i, as to support Calvinian reprobation by Rom. ix-What we are to understand by the "book of life," and by the "names" written therein from the foundation of the world -A conclusion to the first part of this work.

WHEN Zelotes is made ashamed of what Calvin calls "the horrible decree," he seems to give it up ;-I have nothing to do with reprobation, says he, my business is with election. Thus he is no sooner beaten out of Rom. ix, than he retires behind Eph. i, where he thinks he can make a more honourable defence. It may not be amiss, therefore, to follow him there also, and to show him that he entirely mistakes the "predestination," "p purpose," ," and "election," mentioned in that chapter.

The design of the apostle in his Epistle to the Ephesians is twofold. In the three first chapters he extols their gracious election, their free vocation, and the unspeakable privileges of both; and in the three last, he exhorts them to walk worthy of their election and calling; warning them against Antinomian deceivers; and threatening them with the loss of their heavenly inheritance if they followed their filthy tenets and immoral example. This epistle therefore is a compendium of the New Testament: the former part contains a strong check to Pharisaism, or the doctrine of self-righteous boasters; and the latter part a severe check to Antinomianism, or to the doctrine and deeds of the Nicolaitans; see Eph. v, 5, 6; Rev. ii, 6, 15, 20.

To be a little more explicit: in the three first chapters St. Paul endeavours to impress the hearts of the Ephesians with a deep sense of

God's free grace in Christ Jesus, whereby he had compassionately called, and of consequence mercifully elected them, ignorant and miserable sinners of the Gentiles as they were, to partake of all the blessings of the Christian dispensation. The apostle tries to inflame them with grateful love to Christ, for setting them on a level with his "peculiar people, the Jews, to whom pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the [explicit] promises; whose were the fathers, and of whom Christ came, as concerning the flesh.”

To prove that this is St. Paul's design, I produce his own words, with short illustrations in brackets: "Remember, [says he,] that ye were in time past GENTILES in the flesh, called uncircumcision by the circumcision [&c, abhorred by the circumcised Jews, because you were uncircumcised heathens. Remember] that at that time ye were without [the knowledge of] Christ [not having so much as heard of the Messiah,] being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, [hating the Jews, and hated of them,] strangers to the covenants of promise [which God had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,] having no [covenant] hope, and without [a covenant] God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus [who has sent us into all the world to preach the Gospel to every creature.] Ye [Gentiles,] who were sometimes afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ: for he is our peace, who hath made BOTH [Jews and Gentiles] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between rs, &c, that he might reconcile both [Jews and Gentiles] to God, &c, by the cross; having slain the enmity thereby and came and preached peace to you [Gentiles] who were afar off, and to them that were nigh, [that is, to the Jews.] For through him we BOTH [Jews and Gentiles] have an access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye [Gentiles] are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the [Jewish] saints, and of the household [or peculiar people] of God: and are built upon the foundation of the [Christian] apostles, and [Jewish] prophets; Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone [which unites the Jews and Gentiles who believe, as a corner stone joins the two walls which meet upon it, &c.] In whom you also [Gentiles of Ephesus] are builded together [with us believing Jews] for a habitation of God through the Spirit," Eph. ii, 11, &c.

The apostle explains his meaning still more clearly in the next chap"For this cause," [namely, that you might be quickened together with us (see Eph. ii, 5, 6, in the original,) unto Christ, that you might be raised up together, and placed together with us in heavenly privileges in or by Jesus Christ.] "For this cause, I Paul am the prisoner of Christ for you Gentiles; if ye have heard of the DISPENSATION of the grace of God, which is given me to yoU WARD: how he made known to me [once a Jewish bigot] the mystery, &c, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of the promise of Christ by the Gospel, whereof I am made a minister, &c, that I should preach among the Gentiles [as Peter does among the Jews] the unsearchables riches of Christ, &c. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribu lations for you [Gentiles] which is your glory," Eph. iii, 1-13.

The two preceding paragraphs are two keys, which St. Paul gives to open his meaning with, and to make us understand "God's eternal pur