God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God, 2 Thess. ii. 4.

The grand controversy, between corrupt nature, and the Almighty God, is not, whether any or all of the human race shall be saved; but who shall have the glory of salvation ascribed to him, God or the creature. The pride of man prompts him to say, the glory of salvation is due to me, for I save myself; but the great Jehovah justly challenges the glory of salvation to himself, and says, I will have all the glory thereof, for it is by my sovereign and efficacious grace that men are saved. Thus pride is the unhappy parent of unbelief, and a principal cause of the eninity there is in the carnal mind against God; yea, this is at the bottom of all the rude opposition made to those doctrines of Scripture, which illustrate and advance the Almighty power and free grace of God in the salvation of sinners.

Whence is it that the doctrines of special election, of efficacious grace in regeneration and conversion, of justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, and of the infallible perseverance of the saints, though so clearly revealed, and strongly proved in the word of God, are, notwithstanding, so generally denied, opposed, and ridiculed; but because they give all the glory of salvation to God, and will not allow man so much as to boast a little? This I apprehend to be the main reason of the furious assaults, that, in all ages, have been made against these glorious truths; but let God be true and every man a liar, Rom. iii. 4. To God belongeth mercy, but to us shame and confusion of face, Dan. ix. 7, 8, 9. O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor! Or who hath first given to him, and it shall recompensed to him again? for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: To whom be glory for ever, Amen. Rom. xi. 33-36.

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The words of our text give us an account of the

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ground of the difference between the believing Thessalonians, and those reprobates that the Apostle is speaking of in the context: They, says he, shall be damned, but you shall be saved; they believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness; you have believed, and are sunctified; they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved; you have been effectually called, through the gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. A wide and awful difference! But whence arises this discrimination? What is the cause and reason of it? How comes it about that these Thessalonians shall be saved, and the others shall not be saved? That these receive the truth in the love of it, and the others do not thus receive it? The Apostle tells us, that it is the distinguishing grace of God in election, they had the Gospel preached to them, as well as these Thessalonians, but they refused it, and chose darkness rather than this light; these received it with pleasure, and walked with comfort in the light of it; and the reason is, because God had, from the begining, chosen them to salvation: We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord; because God hath, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.

Some, by the word beginning here, understand the beginning of the Apostle's preaching the Gospel to these Thessalonians, and would have the words to be read thus, Because God has, from the beginning (of our preaching to you, shewed that he had) chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, which gives the earnest of it, and makes us meet for it, and belief of the truth, which promises it. I am glad to find such a paraphrase as this upon the text, given by one who was a known opposer of our doctrine; for though his sense of the words, " From the beginning," is certainly wrong, as I may shew hereafter; yet the exposition in general, is so far from being repugnant to the doctrine of particular election, that it abundantly confirms it.

Another commentator gives this as his sense of the

text; "We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord; because he hath, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth;" that is, says he, "because he hath been so favourable to you above others, as to appoint the Gospel to be preached to you, and you to be called to the faith of Christ so early, and to be taken out of that wicked generation by the preaching of the Gospel, and that grace which is annexed to it, and by your receiving the truth." But this interpretation of the words is so very low and jejune in itself, and so contrary to the plain meaning of the text, that the common reader may easily discern the weakness and falseness of it. I shall therefore give what I apprehend to be a just paraphrase upon the words: "We are bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord; because God has, from the beginning, or, from eternity, chosen you to salvation, even eternal life, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, as the necessary means whereby you are to enjoy this salvation."

In the words we may observe these several parts.

1. The affectionate compellation; Brethren, beloved of the Lord. Brethren, a title denoting nearness of relation, and carrying in it strong affection. Beloved, not only of us apostles, but of the Lord. Blessed are they who are beloved of the Lord; therefore persons are drawn to God in time, because he loved them from everlasting, Jer. xxxi. 3. We love him, because he first loved us. 1 John iv. 19. He redeemed and pardons us, because he loved us, Rev. i. 5.

2. We have the Apostle's acknowledgment of praise due to God on the account of these Thessalonians; We are bound, or we ought to give thanks always to God for you. We do give thanks, and we look upon ourselves as obliged to do so. We give thanks to God on your behalf, and that not occasionally, or for a time only, but incessantly, always. This shews the high opinion the Apostle had for the blessing bestowed

on these persons, and was a testimony of the great respect he had for them.

3. We have the ground and cause of the Apostle's acknowledgment of praise due to God for these Thessalonians; and that is, their election of God: because God hath chosen you to salvation. This is an evidence that they were beloved of the Lord, and this is the foundation of praise to God for them.

Here we may observe-the act, chosen; hath chosen or elected. It is such a choice as discriminates them from others, and it is a choice will secure the end. The agent, God; God hath chosen. God who made you, God whom you had rejected and affronted, God who has power and authority to choose whom he pleases, he hath chosen: and the object or persons chosen, you Thessalonians, once unbelieving and unholy, but now faithful and sanctified. God has chosen you, who might justly have rejected you; he has chosen you, when he refused others: he chose you before chose him. This appears,

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4. From the antiquity of the choice from the beginning; not from the beginning of your effectual calling, nor of our preaching to you, nor of the Gospel, nor of time, but from eternity: for though the phrase, from the beginning, seems to have respect to time, yet by it eternity is generally to be understood, in the sacred writings; as were God is called the ancient of days, to signify his eternity, Dan. vii. 9. and where wisdom, speaking in the person of Christ, says, I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was, Prov. viii. 23. And that this must be the sense of the words in our text, is evident, from that place where God is said to choose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, Eph. i. 4.

5. We have the end of the choice, or the blessing that they were chosen to, even salvation: Not to external privileges, not to the enjoyment of the Gospel, not to the means of salvation only, but to salvation itself; complete and final salvation, even to eternal life. This was what God had chosen them to; and this was

to be the consequence of their faith and sanctification. That this must be the meaning of salvation here, is indisputable; not only from the following words in the text, which tell us, that they were chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, but also from the subsequent verse; Whereunto he called you, by our Gospel, to the obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; i. e. to which sanctification and faith he called you, by the preaching of our Gospel to you, that you might by these obtain the glory of Christ, which is your salvation. Here is salvation mentioned, not only distinct from sanctification and faith, but from the Gospel, the means of salvation: and therefore by it must be meant eternal salvation consisting in our obtaining the glory of Christ, or beholding his glory, John xvii. 24.

6. We have the means in the use of which they were to enjoy the salvation, to which they were chosen; and they are sanctification and faith: "He hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth." God did not choose them to salvation, without holiness and faith: he did not by one decree, choose them to salvation, and, by an after-act determine the means; he did not choose them to salvation, because they were holy and faithful; he did not choose them to a possible or probable salvation, that is, provided they performed the conditions of salvation, and did believe they were holy, which he left entirely to their own choice; but he chose them,

one determinate decree to a certain salvation, which they should infallibly obtain, through faith and sanctification and these two, even sanctification and faith, the Apostle here joins together to let us see that they are inseparable; and to assure us, that they shall both be found in all those whom God will save.

From the words thus divided and explained, we may observe,

(1.) That there are a certain number of fallen Adam's race, whom God has chosen to salvation. The Thessalonians in the text were, as elect, plainly distinguish