(1 Pet. iv. 12.) For we know that this also is a regular part of the Divine Purpose concerning our redemption, that Christians should be made perfect through sufferings. It is not only his Purpose, that they should be conformed to the image of his Son in glory; but that they should be conformed also to the image of his sufferings; that so he might be the firstborn among many brethren; that he might behold those assembled around him in glory in the heavens, who upon earth had followed the Captain of their salvation in the same path of sufferings. Let this, therefore, be your consolation, (which to the end of time must be the great consolation of all Christians under their afflictions)* that all things work together for good to them that love God; that our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Consider these things, and let them have their full effect upon your minds; and then I am confident, that nothing shall be able to separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord; but that in all these things ye are more than conquerors, through him that loved us.

* See Note (C.)

Now according to this representation of the Apostle's argument, every thing, it must be allowed, lies plain and straight; and all runs so smooth and easy, that we feel confident of having followed the right clue. We conclude therefore, with a degree of evidence amounting almost to demonstration, from the united argument of the language and the context; that the Purpose of God intended by St. Paul in the text, is His Purpose of taking in the Gentiles to be his people.

BUT this being the case, it necessarily follows, that Predestination according to St. Paul, must be a thing totally different in kind from Predestination according to Calvin. For Predestination being the Decree for carrying into effect the Purpose of the Divine Will, it must necessarily follow the nature of that Purpose; and the Decree for carrying into effect God's Eternal Purpose of calling the Gentiles, which is St. Paul's Predestination; must be totally different from a Decree for carrying into effect a supposed Purpose of saving infallibly certain individuals; which is Predestination according to Calvin.

II. WE observed that the text furnished us with three tests, for ascertaining the truth or falsehood of Calvin's system; in the three parts which it sets before us of the work of God's Predestination; viz. the Purpose, the Means, and the End:

I proceed now to the second of these, the Means adopted by Divine Wisdom for the execution of his Purpose: these are Calling and Justification; in which I shall comprise also the Objects, the Called, and the Justified.

Now these two, we may observe, Calling and Justification are the very means of grace which in this same Epistle are either positively asserted, or undeniably proved, to have been afforded by God to the Gentiles, in order to their admission into the kingdom of his Son:

As for Calling, i. e. the offer of the Gospel by divinely-commissioned teachers, (a truth of infinite consequence to be well assured of) the Apostle asserts it, in the most positive terms, in the very opening of his Epistle: "Paul, a ser

vant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; by whom we have received grace and Apostleship, for obedience to the faith, among all nations, for his name: among whom are ye also, the called of Jesus Christ: to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be Saints. I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise so, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also." (Chap. i. 1. 3. 5, 6, 7. 14, 15.) And as for Justification, it is the scope of the four first Chapters to prove, that that was offered equally, of God's free grace, both to Jew and Gentile, as a necessary qualification for admission to the Divine favour :-Observing therefore that certain Means, viż. Calling and Justification, had been insisted on by the Apostle, as made use of by God for the adoption of the Gentiles; observing also the same Means to be so particularly described in the work of Divine Predestination; a presumption arises in our minds, that in both these cases, in which the Apostle, speaking to the same persons, describes the same Means to be used, he regards

the same End or Purpose; in other words, that Predestination, in St. Paul's sense, respects the Divine Purpose in taking in the Gentiles.

AND this presumption will be raised to a good degree of assurance, if we observe further, that on this supposition, we can see a reason, why, after reminding them, "that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose," the Apostle should add, so very remarkably, those words in the 30th Verse: "Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified:" For it will be as if he had said; The consolation of being the objects of God's peculiar regard, how great soever it may be, (as undoubtedly it is the greatest) you may take to yourselves. For what are the tokens, whereby this Purpose of love is manifested to the world? Are they not these, Calling and Justification?

But

both these, you know, belong to you Gentiles; ye are both called and justified: therefore, notwithstanding your present trial of afflictions, ye are the objects of God's love; who has predes