come, without any condition lurking in some secret place in your heart, and say; Lord do with me as seemeth thee good; glorify thy great NAME? By such a surrendry, we give evidence, that we prefer the glory of God, before all other good in the universe. Thus, losing ourselves in God, and throwing our all, for time and eternity, into his bright train of glory, submitting to his justice, and rejoicing in his mercy, we cannot fail, to the full extent of our faculties, to participate with him, in the delight and complacency, with which he views the accomplishment, of the grand designs of his benevolence. Feel, O sinner, that your only refuge is the grace of God; and come, and bow down, in humble submission, at the feet of ADORABLE SOVEREIGNTY.

ין

SERMON III.

"For many are called, but few are chosen." MATTHEW Xxii, 14.

THE only difference that exists, between God's dealings with those who are called, and also chosen, and those who are called, but not chosen, is, that he makes the former willing to obey the call.-It is my design

I. TO CONFIRM AND ILLUSTRATE THIS GREAT TRUTH-And, II. TO SHOW THAT THERE IS NO PARTIALITY IN THE DEALINGS OF GOD TOWARDS SINNERS IN THIS PARTICULAR.

To show, that the reason, why those who are called, and also chosen, do embrace the offers of mercy, whilst others, under similar external advantages, do not, consists wholly in the fact, that God makes the former willing, whilst he does not the latter; and to explain what we mean, by God's making those who are chosen, willing-We would observe

1. That none would ever come to Christ, if some were not made willing, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

The Scriptures every where assert, that the grand difficulty, in the way of the sinner's coming to Christ, is his

unwillingness. "Ye will not come unto me,

that

ye might have life." Now if this is the grand difficulty, then the change in the sinner's will, if it is ever changed, must be produced by the operation of some cause, different from that, which has always led him to reject Christ. 'Tis thence evident, his will being uniformly opposed to the will of God, and this being the only obstacle in the way of his accepting the offered salvation, that, if left to himself, no sinner would ever come to Christ. The Scriptures plainly maintain, that it is by the agency of the Holy Spirit, that one man is made to differ from another; and that the great work which the Spirit accomplishes for one, and which he does not accomplish for another, is, that he makes the one willing, but does not the other. "But as many as received him, to them GAVE HE power to become the sons of God; even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of BLOOD, nor of the WILL of the flesh, nor of the WILL of man, but of GOD." Here we perceive, that those who received Christ, are represented as having had power given them to become the sons of God; and that they were born, or regenerated, not by reason of any alliances of blood with a pious ancestry, nor because their fleshly, carnal, or natural will chose it; nor yet because of any power exerted, nor any solicitude manifested on their behalf, by their fellow creatures, but by the efficient energy of that invisible Spiritual Agent, whose distinctive office work it is, to bring the sinner into willing subjection at the feet of Christ.

That any of our guilty race are chosen, and effectually called, "Through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience,

and belief of the truth," and finally persevere in holiness, unto eternal life, is ascribed, throughout the Bible, to the sovereign purpose, and good pleasure of God. "According as he hath chosen us in him," CHRIST, "before the foundation of the world." "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by Christ Jesus, to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." Being predestinated, according to the purpose of him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." Paul, speaking to his Ephesian brethren, observes- "And you hath HE QUICKENED who were dead in trespasses and sins," and " wrath, even as others."

were, by nature, the children of "But God who is rich in mercy, for

his great love wherewith he loved us, hath QUICKENED US together with Christ." "For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

"Not

"For it is

of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before ordained, that we should walk in them." God that worketh in you to will, and to do." From these passages, and a multitude besides, that might be named, we may learn, that God has elected, or chosen a certain number, from among the guilty children of men, as heirs of salvation; that those whom he has thus chosen, he does, in his own time and way, make willing to choose Christ as their hope and portion; and that it is the operation of his Spirit on their hearts, and that only, that makes them differ from their impenitent fellow men, who enjoy the same external advantages with themselves, and are capable of being influenced