their duty to let their light shine before men, that they may see their good works and glorify their Father which is in heaven.

Election, in short, as it is specified in Scripture and as it was understood by the Primitive Church, confers, no doubt, high and special advantages upon the Chosen People of God: for, in the course of the divine providence, without any particular merit or fitness on their own parts, they are elected into the Church Catholic, in order that, obeying the heavenly call, they may, through the medium of faith and holiness, attain to everlasting life. But the ultimate END of their Election, or the RATIONALE of the whole plan of divine Grace, is, if I mistake not, THE PRESERVATION OF SOUND RELIGION AND ITS WIDEST POSSIBLE DIFFUSION TO THE VERY ENDS

OF THE EARTH. God will allure; and, by the reasonable persuasion of his free Spirit, will inAuence but, consistently with his Scheme of Moral Government, he will not violently and irresistibly constrain *. The comparatively few

* Quoniam injustè dominabatur nobis apostasia, et cum natura essemus Dei Omnipotentis, alienavit nos contra naturam, suos proprios faciens discipulos, potens in omnibus Dei Verbum: et, non deficiens in sua justitia, justè etiam adversus ipsam conversus est apostasiam, ea quæ sunt sua redimens ab eo; non cum vi, quemadmodum illa initio dominabatur nostri, ea quæ non erant sua insatiabiliter rapiens; sed secundum suadelam, quemadmodum decebat Deum suadentem et non vim inferentem accipere quæ vellet, ut neque quod est justum confringeretur, neque antiqua plasmatio Dei deperiret. Iren. adv. hær. lib. v. c. 1. p. 317.

are elected, not in order that the many may be fatally excluded, but in order that the many, learning righteousness from God's Chosen People, may gradually and finally be included. We will go

with you, it is foretold of the language of the last period: for we have heard, that God is with you*. Consistently with the notion of a moral government, it may be doubted, whether, for the ultimate reclamation of lost mankind, any other plan, than that of An Ecclesiastical Election, could, in the very nature of things, have been adopted.

III. As the Primitive Church, in IDEALITY and in CAUSATION, taught the doctrine of An Ecclesiastical Individual Election through Grace according to the Sovereign Will and Pleasure of God, under the aspect of its being the doctrine intended by the well known scriptural phraseology employed throughout the New Testament: so we may, I think, in the writings of more than one of the ancient Fathers, distinctly trace a knowledge of what I deem its true RATIONALE or PRINCIPLE.

1. Thus, for instance, the venerable Irenèus speaks of a successive Election of Patriarchs and of Churches, out of the great mass of a corrupt and unbelieving world, for their own spiritual benefit indeed, but still for the grand and palmary purpose of preserving sound religion from utter extinction and of thus finally illuminating all mankind †.

*Zechar. viii. 23.

Quem igitur illi Dominum præconabant incredulis, hunc

This is precisely my own view of the matter: and, since he in no wise delivers his sentiments as if they were at all peculiar to himself or as if they constituted any new discovery of his own; we may, I think, fairly conclude, that this eminent pupil of

Christus tradidit his qui obediunt sibi: et qui priores, sive primum, per servilem legis dationem, vocaverat Deus; hic posteriores, sive postea, per adoptionem assumpsit. Plantavit enim Deus Vineam Humani Generis, primo quidem per plasmationem Adæ et Electionem Patrum: tradidit autem colonis per eam legis dationem quæ est per Moysen. Sepem autem circumdedit; id est, circumterminavit eorum culturam et turrim ædificavit. Hierusalem elegit: et torcular fodit. Receptaculum prophetici Spiritûs præparavit: et sic prophetas misit, antequam esset in Babylonem transmigratio. Et, post transmigrationem, alios iterum plures quam priores, expetentes fructus. — Non credentibus autem illis, novissimè Filium suum misit Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum : quem, cum occidissent mali coloni, projecerunt extra vineam. Quapropter et tradidit eam Dominus Deus non jam circumvallatam, sed expansam in universum mundum, aliis colonis reddentibus fructus temporibus suis, turre electionis exaltata ubique et speciosa: ubique enim præclara est Ecclesia, et ubique circumfossum torcular; ubique enim sunt, qui suscipiunt Spiritum. Quoniam enim Filium Dei reprobaverunt, et ejecerunt eum, cum eum occidissent, extra vineam: justè reprobavit eos Deus, et extra vineam existentibus gentibus dedit fructificationem cultura. Sed, quoniam et, patriarchas qui elegit et nos, idem est Verbum Dei, et illos semper visitans per propheticum Spiritum, et nos qui undique convocati sumus per suum adventum, super ea quæ dicta sunt, verè hæc dicebat: Multi ab oriente et occasu venient, et recumbent cum Abraham et Isaac et Jacob in regno coelorum; filii autem regni ibunt in tenebras exteriores, ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium. Si igitur hi, qui, per præconium Apostolorum ejus, ab oriente et occidente,

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St. John's disciple Polycarp stated nothing more than the general received doctrine of the early Church Catholic.

2. Accordingly, the outlines of the same theory may be traced also in the writings of Justin Martyr.

This eminent person tells us that the Gentiles, who had been elected into the Church, were the people promised to Abraham; when God called him forth from an unholy world, and entered into covenant with him, and foretold that he should be the father of many nations. Whence he views the call of Abraham, as having an immediate reference to the future vocation of the Gentiles: because it prepares the way for their imitation of the great spiritual parent of the faithful, in coming out from the evil polity in which they originally lived, and in thus being made heirs of the figurative land of promise*.

credentes in eum, cum Abraham et Isaac et Jacob in regno coelorum recumbent, participantes cum eis epulationem : unus et idem Deus ostenditur, qui elegit quidem patriarchas, visitavit vero populum, gentes vero advocavit. Iren. adv. hær. lib. iv. c. 70. p. 301, 302, 305.

* Ἡμεῖς δὲ οὐ μόνον λαὸς, ἀλλὰ καὶ λαὸς ἅγιος, ἐσμὲν, ὡς ἐδείξαμεν ἤδη· Καὶ καλέσουσιν αὐτὸν λαὸν ἅγιον, λελυτρωμένον ὑπὸ Κυρίου. Οὐκοῦν οὐκ εὐκαταφρόνητος δῆμος ἐσμένο — ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡμᾶς ἐξελέξατο ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ ἐμφανὴς ἐγενήθη τοῖς μὴ ἐπερωτῶσιν αὐτὸν. Ιδού, Θεὸς εἰμι, φησὶ, τῷ ἔθνει, οἳ οὐκ ἐπεκαλέσαντο τὸ ὄνομα μου. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἐστιν ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἔθνος, ὃ πάλαι τῷ ̓Αβραὰμ ὁ Θεὸς ὑπέσχετο, καὶ πατέρα πολλῶν ἐθνῶν θήσειν ἐπηγγείλατο.—Τὶ οὖν πλέον ἐνθάδε ὁ Χριστὸς χαρίζεται τῷ ̓Αβραὰμ ; Οτι, διὰ τῆς ὁμοίας κλήσεως, φωνῇ ἐκάλεσεν αὐτὸν, εἰπὼν

3. A similar estimate of the matter is taken

likewise by Cyril of Alexandria.

After following at considerable length much the same train of reasoning as that adopted by Ireneus, he briefly develops his principle in this assertion.

The Election of the Hebrews is the Calling of the Gentiles *.

4. On the same grounds, Augustine spiritualises the prophecy, respecting Jacob and Esau, that the elder should serve the younger.

The elder brother represents the whole body of the Jews: the younger brother represents the whole body of the converted Gentiles.

Now the elder serves the younger, when he is known to carry throughout the world the sacred books of God's Law for the instruction of all the nations t.

ἐξελθεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἐν ᾗ ᾤκει· καὶ ἡμᾶς δὲ ἅπαντας, δι ̓ ἐκείνης τῆς φωνῆς, ἐκάλεσε· καὶ ἐξήλθομεν ἤδη ἀπὸ τῆς πολιτείας ἐν ᾗ ἐζῶμεν, κατὰ τὰ κοινὰ τῶν ἄλλων τῆς γῆς οἰκητόρων κακῶς ζῶντες· καὶ, σὺν τῷ ̓Αβραάμ, τὴν ἁγίαν κληρονομήσομεν γῆν, εἰς τὸν ἀπέραντον αἰῶνα τὴν κληρονομίαν ληψόμενοι, τέκνα τοῦ ̓Αβραὰμ διὰ τὴν ὁμοίαν πίστιν ὄντες. Just. Dial. cum Tryph. Oper. p. 272.

* Ὥστε καὶ ἐθνῶν κλῆσιν εἶναι τῶν Ἑβραίων τὴν πρόσληψιν. Cyril. cont. Julian. lib. iii, p. 110. See Ibid. p. 109-112.

+ Quod autem dictum est; Populus populum superabit, et major serviet minori: secundum literam, in Esau vel in Jacob, non videmus impletum. Non enim corporaliter beato Jacobo Esau servisse commemorat Scriptura. Quomodo ergo hoc oporteat intelligi, aut qualiter major populus minori serviat, spiritaliter debemus intelligere. Nisi enim fieret, non hic Sancta Scriptura commemoraret. Quomodo ergo populus major serviat minori,