which is to come down from above1? Let St. Paul give the answer: "Whom he did predestinate, them HE also called"; called by the Circumstances under which He providentially placed them, either by the appearance, in the first ages, of an Apostle or an Evangelist, or, as is the case with us, by the fact of our being born in a Christian Land; and "whom He called, them HE also justified"; receiving them for Christ's sake as His own Children in Holy Baptism, HE justified, or, for the same SAVIOUR's sake, counted as holy those who as yet were not actually so; and "those whom He justified, them HE also glorified"-HE glorified them by regenerating them and making them temples of the HOLY GHOST3; than which what greater glory can pertain to the Sons of Men?

The foregoing passage furnishes us with a description of Christians, of baptized Persons, and consequently to Christians we are to refer those other Passages which relate to GOD'S Predestination; them GOD hath predestinated to Glory. And as such, as GOD's elect People, predestined not merely to means of Grace, for this were clearly inadequate, but to glory in the Kingdom of Glory, the inspired writers were wont to address the multitude of the Baptized.

1 Rev. xxi. 2.

2 Rom. viii, 30.

3 1 Cor. vi. 11, 19.

Thus the Apostle addresses the Church of the Thessalonians, good and bad commingled, as knowing their Election of God'. Thus St. Peter speaks of "the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia," as "elect according to the foreknowledge of GoD the FATHER"; and he speaks of them afterwards in our text as "a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood, a holy Nation, a peculiar People"; and St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews addresses the Hebrews, meaning those who had made profession of the Christian faith, as "holy Brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling".

Such, then, is our blessing, our privilege, our high hope as Christians. What will become of others, of those who have never heard the name of CHRIST, we know not, though we may be quite certain that by a GOD of mercy they will be dealt with in mercy, for it is expressly declared that HE, the Blessed SAVIOUR, who is a Propitiation for our Sins, is a Propitiation "not for our's only, but for the Sins of the whole world". Although none can be saved except through an application to them of the Saving Merits of the Atonement 5 yet by some means to us unknown the Atonement

1 1 Thess. i. 4.

;

3 Heb. iii. 1.

2 1 Pet. i. 2.
5 John xiv. 16. 1 Cor. iii. 11.

* 1 John ii, 2.

Acts iv. 2.

may be applied to the Heathen who have never heard of CHRIST. I am not now considering the question of the Salvability of the Heathen, I only say that if they escape perdition, they will nevertheless not be in the same position as those who have been justified by faith; they, if they are to have any place in the world to come, are not predestined to that place which is preparing for such as having been saved by grace are justified by faith'. It is a fact, we see it with our eyes, that GOD does make a distinction: he makes a distinction between the Heathen who have never heard the name of CHRIST and the Christian. The latter has high privileges which the former has not. The Christian has God's Word to guide him, but not only this, he has also the HOLY GHOST dwelling in him; he can reach to higher degrees of excellence here; and Reason would surmise that he is intended for higher enjoyments hereafter. What Reason surmises, Revelation asserts. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared". For whom? for the Heathen? No, but "for them that love HIM", which the Heathen

1 1 John v. 11, 12, 13. 2 John 7, 9, 10, 11.

2 1 Cor. ii. 9, and the passage quoted by St. Paul, Isaiah lxiv. 4, is equally strong. The Heathen cannot be said to "wait for" God.

cannot do, for how can a man love a Being of whose very existence he is ignorant? and what knows the Heathen of GOD, the GOD, GOD the Blessed TRINITY?

This, then, is the first, the foundation blessing of Christianity, in which we may humbly rejoice, and according to which all spiritual blessings are dispensed: it is the first link in that golden chain of glory which is to raise man from Earth to Heaven; the first round of that Ladder up which Man is to ascend to GOD, as Angels descend to Man1.

But we may proceed yet farther. Our Blessed SAVIOUR tells us that there are many Mansions in his FATHER'S House2, comparing the House that is to be, to that which existed on earth while he yet tabernacled with men. In the Temple of the first Jerusalem there were a variety of chambers or mansions, employed for different purposes, though all relating directly or indirectly to the service of the Sanctuary. In the New Jerusalem, which will itself be the Temple of the Universe, there will in like manner be many mansions or chambers: but, if so, those mansions or chambers in the earthly Jerusalem, having been intended for a variety of different offices, we may con

clude that offices of different characters will exist in the New Jerusalem. It is very possible that we are not only each of us predestined to Heaven; but predestined also each to our particular place in Heaven, that our very mansion is fixed.

We know that GOD has predestinated particular persons to particular offices here on earth, long before their birth; as, for example, in the case of Jeremiah, God saith, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth of the womb I sanctified thee; and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the nation". And so with respect also to St. Paul we are told that it "pleased GOD to separate him from his mother's womb that he might preach CHRIST among the Heathen". Nay, we find that this is really to be the case with respect to the next world, in some cases at least; for example, when the SON of MAN shall sit on the Throne of His Glory, the Apostles shall sit on twelve Thrones, judging the twelve Tribes of Israel3; a particular office is allotted to them; to a particular office they are predestinated. When the mother of Zebedee's children prayed that her children might sit the

1 Jeremiah, i. 5.

2

Gal. i. 15, 16.

Matt. xix. 28.