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    admonishes them that it would be a most strange &ad shortsighted forgetfulness of the prinGipIes on which this mercy was shown them , to continue in sin ,. under the idea that grace was to abound in excusing the habitual and impenitent sinner . Wherefore , he proceeds , do not relax m your exertions ; but let your Christian ^ pxofessJQiiJbe ^ orjI y ^ an additional incentive to a life of holiness ; giving so much the more diligence to confirm tEis your

    first calling and election , ( namely , your invitation to accept the privileges of the gospel by faith in Christ , and your separation by the grace of God , independently of any previous merit on your part , from the great mass of your unbelieving and idolatrous neighbours , ) seek to establish on a fixed and immovable foundation , the solid benefit both for time and for eternity , which it was intended to procure for you , and which it only depends on your own diligence and exertion to secure .

    When thus understood , it will appear that this passage presents a great and insurmountable difficulty in the way of their principles of interpretation , who derive from the use of such expressions the notion of an unconditional election ; applying that term to the special grace of God , which they suppose to be extended in all ages towards those who are , as they express it , effectually called to eternal salvation ; and not , as it surely ought to be , to the

    separation of those few who were called to enjoy the privileges of the gospel in the apostolic age . This election was through the grace of God ip Jesus Christ , that is through the gospel of Jesus Christ . It was his free grace , unmerited by any previous services or pretensions on their part . Neither Jews nor Gentiles could set up any claim of right by the obedience which they had paid , the one to the ceremonial law of works , the other to the law of

    conscience or of nature written upon their hearts ; nor could any of those to whom the glad tidings of this salvation were made known , and who were thus admitted to the possession of advantages which were denied to the great bulk of their countrymen , show any ground of preference in themselves , which should authorize them to ascribe this distinction to any thing else than the sovereign good pleasure of that Almighty Being who had thought fit so to appoint it . This election of theirs might be considered as predestinated or determined beforehand ; and so it might be said , in the

    language of St . Paul , that they were predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son of God , inasmuch as ail the great events which prepared the way for , and accompanied thegospel "dispensation , doubtless formed an indispensable part of the plan of Divine Providence for the moral government of the world . It related not to their final salvation , but to their present enjoyment of those benefits , of that superior knowledge , and of those facilities for moral and spiritual improvement , which they could not have procured for themselves , and which they could possess only through faith in the divine eoraimjssiott and authority of that

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    1 Q 6 ON TUB CAWINISTIO &OCTRXNE

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 1, 1833, page 106, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2611/page/10/