M. And sin has brought upon us the anger of our Creator, and the danger of eternal punishment, and many other fearful consequences, from which the blood of Christ, applied by faith to the soul, can alone deliver us'

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D. Yes, dear mamma, I know this; I know that till we are reconciled to God we cannot do or enjoy any good thing, but must live in guilt and folly.'

M. The first step, then, to the procuring the health of the soul, is to feel and understand the causes of its sickness; we must be convinced of sin, brought to the foot of the cross, and reconciled, through faith in Christ, to the Father, and receive the Holy Spirit into our hearts, to enable us to love God, and walk in obedience to his laws.'

D. But, dear mamma, why is it that many persons have felt and understood all this, and yet they do not seem to be at peace.'

M. 'It is often with the soul as with the body, the cause of sickness may be removed, and the foundations of a perfect recovery laid before health may be fully enjoyed the barren-ground is not immediately covered with grass or wheat, though it may have been enclosed, and manured, and ploughed; the work of peace, in most cases, is progressive; but it is a sure work if begun aright, for it is God's work. But it would be well, if we considered each of us for ourselves, how we might forward its growth and advance the health of the soul by our own exertions; for, to pursue our analogy, there must be a labour for the soul as well as for the body.'

D. 'Do, dear mamma, explain this subject more fully.'

M. 'To a certain degree, as you yourself re

marked just now, all the servants of God enjoy conIsolations to which the world is a stranger; even Christians, in their lowest state, do so; but I believe there are many persons who may be considered in a safe state, who do not enjoy the privileges they might, because they regard God more in the light of a master than a father; perhaps ignorance of a certain sort may be the cause of this.'

D.

M.

Ignorance of what? dear mamma.'

• Ignorance of the promises of God; the bible is full of many precious promises, which we are too apt to read as though we read them not. It would be no bad exercise for each of us to select these sweet promises, and write them down, or commit them to memory, and ponder them over when we are alone. This kind of ignorance, for ignorance we must certainly call it, is naturally the parent of unbelief, for how can we believe what we do not know?'

D. 'Certainly not.'

M. And if we do not believe, fully believe, these promises, we shall not ask God to fulfil them to us, and we shall not expect those exceedingly glorious privileges to be given to us. Oh! how many of us may be justly reproved, as well as comforted, by these words of our Saviour—“ hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name; ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full."

[To be Continued.]

THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS.

ELECTION.

Ir becomes fallible man to be cautious how he reasons on the counsels of the Highest. For in them there is much that by searching we cannot find out.—“ As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."—In the matter of election, therefore, I would be, as bishop Ridley says, 'so fearful, that I dare not speak further, yea, almost none otherwise than the very text doth (as it were,) lead me by the hand.' Yet this doctrine, because it is mysterious, is not to be thrust away from its place. For the godly consideration of predestination, and our election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things.'

I set out with the principle that every good thing proceeds from God: and I shall, in this paper, respect only predestination to life,—that is, all the predestination which I find in scripture;-of reprobation, therefore, in the common sense of the term, I shall not speak further than to say that it is not in the bible. Indeed, it would not be difficult to show, that evil, or defect, cannot, in the nature of things,

proceed from the Creator, but has its origin in the necessary infirmity of the creature. To man then, is the blame of his ruin to be assigned; to God, the praise of his salvation. And this is what is to be understood by election, that God, out of the ruined mass of men, saves, in the exercise of his sovereign mercy, a people to be to the praise of the glory of his goodness.

Hence the question narrows itself to very simple limits--does God foresee the final happiness of those that are redeemed by Jesus Christ? It is clear that he who knows the future as well as the present and the past, must foresee every event that in the lapse of ages is to be: indeed to him there is, properly speaking, no future

Nothing there is to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal Now does ever last.

The counsels of the divine mind pervade infinity, and those things which are separated by a thousand times, a thousand centuries, are concentered in a glance of his eye, ranged in their proper order, and distinctly pourtrayed in all their bearings. He has given us, as far as possible, proof of this, by repeatedly “declaring the end from the beginning.” Does, then, God take measures to bring about events? The whole scripture history is a reply, for it is little else than a record of God's actings for the accomplishment of purposed ends. And are the means he uses effectual for their end? We must, otherwise, suppose the Highest dependant on his creatures, and controlled by some higher power than his own. Indeed, then, he could have

no real foreknowledge; for he knows that things
will be, because he purposes that so they shall be,
and secures by his power the event. He is not, he
cannot be, as I have said, the author of defect or
evil, for all that he lays his hand to is good; but he
has a perfect mastery over even the deficiencies of
his creatures, and moulds their infirmities into sub-
servience to the counsel of his will. Thus, though
the Jews" by wicked hands crucified" Jesus Christ,

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yet it' was by the determinate counsel and fore

knowledge of God" that he was delivered into their
hands. (Acts ii. 23.)

Reasons have been invented for God's election,
and it has been made dependant upon men's fore-
seen good works. The scripture assigns no such
cause. It ascribes election sometimes to God's
power-" hath not the potter power over the clay?"
(Rom. ix. 21.) sometimes to his pleasure—“ having
predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure
of his will:" (Eph. i. 5,) sometimes to his authorita-
tive determination-" I will have mercy on whom I
will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion:" (Rom. ix. 15,) some-
times to his pity-" it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth
mercy:" (Rom. ix. 16,)-never to foreseen good-
works and with reason, for good-works are the
effect, (Rom. viii. 29,) not the cause, of God's deter-
mination. If we seek to track his counsels farther
than this, we are at fault. The great apostle of the
Gentiles, though led by inspiration, could only here
exclaim" O, the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable