II.A DISPLAY OF UNMERITED GRACE.

III.CONSISTS WITH INFINITE JUSTICE.

IV.IS DISPENSED WITH CONSUMMATE WISDOM.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

(T. Watson.)

(J. Hamilton, D.D.)

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. THE TEXT DOES NOT MEAN that God is not merciful to all —

1. Favours some to the disadvantage of others.

2. Is not disposed to save all.

3. Distributes His favours capriciously.

4. Saves any without the co-operation of their own will.

II. IT MEANS that God's purpose in redemption is independent of man.

1. That its conditions are fixed without the will of man.

2. That the will or efforts of man cannot supersede these conditions.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

(J. Morison, D.D.)

(S. Charnock, B.D.)

(W. Arnot, D.D.)

1. God makes no such difference or distinction of men in His preventing grace as the words before us manifestly imply (Hebrews 2:9; 1 Timothy 2:6; Acts 17:30; Matthew 20:16, etc.).

2. The whole discourse of the apostle in the context is not concerning preventing grace or mercy, but subsequent, as, viz., concerning justification, adoption, etc.

3. And evident it is that the apostle's intent is to declare the Jews to be excluded from that grace and mercy, as in telling them that the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise (ver. 8), that "the elder should serve the younger," and that the "purpose of God stands not of works," etc. Certain it is that these Jews were not excluded from preventing grace, for they were called of God by the apostles, yea, and by Christ Himself, and this by means so efficacious that our Saviour affirmeth that even the men of Tyre and Sidon might or would have been converted by them (Matthew 11:21). Therefore the grace or mercy spoken of in the words in hand must needs be subsequent. And if so it cannot be understood of any such mercy in God towards men by which men, yet unregenerate, are enabled, much less necessitated, to repent or believe, but of that mercy which is vouchsafed unto them who do now repent and believe. So that the meaning of the words, "I will have mercy on whom," etc., is as if God should have said, I will justify, adopt, and glorify persons under what qualifications soever I Myself please, and will not be ordered or taught by men what I have to do, or what becometh Me to do, in this kind. As regards what God actually said to Moses (Exodus 33:16), it appears that Moses (Exodus 33:13, 16)had desired of God that He would consider that the Jews were His people, and that He would please lead them that so it might be known in the world that both he and his people had found grace in His sight. This God grants. Upon this Moses makes a further request, viz., that God would show him His glory (Exodus 33:18). To this God answers, "I will make all My goodness pass before thee," etc., giving the reason hereof in the words cited by the apostle, "Let no man take offence that I should do that in a way of favour for thee, which I neither shall do to any of the people besides, nor ever did to any of thy fathers, nor to any man after thee; nor do thou imagine that I am anyways a debtor unto thee of that grace which I deny unto others, for I am debtor unto no man, and will dispense My favours, and so My mercies, only unto such persons as I please." Now many of those whom God decreed upon their believing from eternity to justify, and adopt, apostatise from, and make shipwreck of their faith (as the Scripture in many places testifieth), from whom He hath peremptorily threatened to take away the grace of justification which before He had conferred upon them. Therefore the emphatical import of the apostle's expression, "I will have mercy on whom I have" (now or at present) "mercy," respects the same species, not the same persons of men; being as if He had said, To that sort or kind of men to whom at this day I show mercy (viz., in pardoning their sin and justifying their persons, meaning believers), I will show the like mercy at all times hereafter to the world's end. Or rather thus, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy," i.e., I will not be taken off by men or by angels from showing the grace or mercy of justification and adoption unto those (i.e., that kind of men) to whom I at this day show this grace or mercy, and these are such who believe.

(John Goodwin.)

(John Collinges.)

1. That the Great Father does not show mercy to all mankind. This would be contrary to facts. Reason, consciousness, and the Bible unite in declaring that it is "of the Lord's mercy that we have not been consumed." Man's existence is to be traced to the fact that he lives every moment by mercy, and mercy bears him up from hell.

2. That God gives to some men favours that He withholds from others, which is a truth too obvious for debate. You see this unequal distribution of the Divine favour —

(1)In natural endowments. No two men are alike in natural endowment.

(2)In our secular condition.

(3)In the means of spiritual improvement.Some are" born heathens, etc., So that however humbling to our pride it may be, yet God does bestow favours on some which He withholds from others. But here Paul would not argue a point so palpable to his opponents.

3. That the Infinite Father is not disposed to save all. This is opposed to His own most positive and frequent declarations. "I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner." "Let the wicked forsake his way," etc. This is also contrary to the universality of His remedial provisions. "God so loved the world," etc. "He is a propitiation... for the sins of the whole world."

4. That the Infinite Father distributes His favours capriciously. We are unable to discover them, but that He has the highest reasons for His conduct we are bound to believe. The Infinite intellect never acts without reason, and Infinite love never acts unkindly. His mighty operations are under the sway of intellect; His intellect is under the sway of love.

5. That willing and running, or human efforts, are not essential to salvation.(1) There are blessings bestowed upon us independent of our willing and running. This is the case, e.g., with natural endowments. If we have inferior powers the blame is not with us; if we are above the average the credit is not ours. It is sometimes the case too with our temporal condition. Sometimes riches come to a man without any effort or will of his own, and with poverty the same, but not always.(2) It is ever true, however, of mental and moral excellence. We do not say that God cannot make a man intelligent and virtuous irrespective of his own conduct, but we have never heard of such cases. God's regular method to enlighten the ignorant, to reform the depraved, etc., is by the earnest use of their own faculties. The Bible gives us to understand —(a) That without my willing and running I cannot be saved. The work of a man in obtaining his salvation is compared to husbandry, building, battle, racing; all laborious occupations. In one word, so far from willing and running not being required, we must agonise to enter in.(b) That when there are the right running and willing, salvation is sure to be obtained. Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened." "He that cometh to Him He will on no account cast out." Running and willing therefore cannot be dispensed with. What then does it mean? Simply this — that the original reason of salvation is in God and not in man. A truth this which is no sooner propounded than adopted by universal intelligence as an axiom. If there be a God He must be the primordial cause not only of all existence, but of all good throughout His vast and ever-extending universe. Then "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth" —

I. THAT GOD'S DETERMINATION TO SAVE MANKIND CAME. Human effort had nothing to do in starting the eternal idea. "Who being His counsellor hath taught Him?" God's ideas are as old as Himself. There is no succession of thought in the Eternal Mind. One all-seeing, all-embracing, infinite thought is His. "Known unto God are all His works, redemption included, from the beginning of the world." We are saved, then, "not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace," etc. Had He not determined to save humanity we never could have been saved, and His determination is entirely independent of all "willing and running."

II. THAT GOD'S CONDITION OF SALVATION WAS FORMED.

1. It is God's plan to work by means. The principle of mediation fills and rules the universe.(1) It is so in the material world. God acts upon one thing through the instrumentality of another. One body is moved, one life is produced, one creature is supported by another.(2) It is so in the mental world. One mind guides, educates, moulds another.(3) In the moral world God's method here is to save the world by Christ. He is in Christ "reconciling the world unto Himself." "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son,"etc. "What the law could not, do," etc. This is a settled condition. "There is no other name," etc.

2. Now what has human "willing or running" to do with this plan of salvation? Nothing.(1) The plan is eternal, and therefore no creature could have had an influence in its formation. "The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world."(2) The plan transcends all finite thought. It could not have "entered into the heart of man to conceive" of such a thing.

III. TO SUPERSEDE GOD'S ESTABLISHED METHOD OF SALVATION. Perhaps this passage especially refers to the Jew, who had an idea that he should be saved on the ground of patriarchal descent. And Paul wishes to impress him with the fact that no amount of effort on that condition would save him. He might will and run intensely and for ever, but it would be of no service. There is a Divine way to reach Divine results. There is a Divine way to cultivate the soil, to navigate the ocean, to build houses, to get a well-informed and well-disciplined intellect, and if these are not observed labour will be lost. It is so in man's salvation. There is a Divine way, which, if not observed, all the willing and the running will go for nothing. The heathen, the Mahometan, the Jew, the Deist, may will and run, but their labour must prove futile, since they observe not the way.

(D. Thomas, D.D.)

(B. Field.)

1. The great controversy which has divided the Church upon the question of "the will" has been fraught with incalculable usefulness, for it has thrust forward the two great doctrines of human responsibility and Divine sovereignty.

2. In this controversy, however, mistakes have arisen from two reasons. Some have altogether forgotten one order of truths. Like Nelson they have put the telescope to the blind eye, and then protested that they could not see. On the other hand, others have pushed a truth too far. You know how often things are injured by over-praise; how a good medicine comes to be despised because a quack has advertised it as an universal cure. So puffery in doctrine leads to its dishonour. You have seen those crystal globes, in which, as you walk up to them, your head is ten times as large as your body, and in another position your feet are monstrous and the rest of your body small. Many go to work with God's truth upon the model of this toy; they magnify one capital truth till it becomes monstrous; they minify another till it becomes forgotten. Let us note that —

I. SALVATION HINGES UPON THE WILL OF GOD, AND NOT UPON THE WILL OF MAN. " It is not of him that willeth," etc.

1. This may be argued from analogy. There is a certain likeness between all God's works. If a painter shall paint three pictures, or an author write three books, there will be certain qualities running through the whole which will lead you to see that they are the same man's "work." Now turn your thoughts —(1) To the works of creation. There was a time when these works had no existence. With whom did God then take counsel? Did it not rest with His own will whether He would make or not? And when He willed to create, did He not still use His own discretion as to what and how He would make? You see running through creation, from the tiny animalculae up to the tall archangel, this working of God's own will. Well, then, does He reign in creation and not in grace?(2) The works of Providence (Daniel 4:35). From the first moment of human history to the last God's will shall be done. And as surely as God's will is the axle of the universe and the great heart of Providence, so in grace, despite man's hardness of heart, His own purposes will be fulfilled.

2. The difficulties which surround the opposite theory are tremendous. The theory that salvation depends upon our own will —(1) Makes the purpose of God contingent. Christ may die, but it is not certain that He will redeem any, since the efficacy of the redemption rests not in its own intrinsic power, but in the will of man accepting it.(2) Makes man, practically, the supreme being. The Lord intends good, but He must wait on His own creature to know what his intention is.

3. Ponder the known condition of man. On the theory that man comes to Christ of his own will, what do you with texts which say that he is dead?

4. It is consistent with the universal experience of all God's people that salvation is of God's will. I have never yet met with a man even professing to be a Christian who ever said that his coming to God was the result of his unassisted nature. Universally the people of God will say it was the Holy Spirit that made them what they are.

5. To the law and to the testimony. Each part of the whole process of salvation is attributed to God's will.

(1)The preparation (Ephesians 1:3, 9, 11).

(2)Regeneration (John 1:13; James 1:18).

(3)Sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

(4)Preservation, perseverance, resurrection, and eternal glory (John 6:39).

II. MAN'S WILL HAS ITS PROPER PLACE IN THE MATTER OF SALVATION (Revelation 22:17).

1. According to this and many other texts it is clear that men are not saved by compulsion. When a man receives the grace of Christ he does not receive it against his will.

2. Nor is the will taken away, for God does not come and convert the intelligent free-agent into a machine. We are as free under grace as ever we were under sin; nay, we were slaves when we were under sin, and when the Son makes us free we are free indeed.

3. But though the will of man is not ignored, the work of the Spirit, which is the effect of the will of God, is to change the human will, and so make men willing in the day of God's power, working in them to will and to do of His own good pleasure. The work of the Spirit is consistent with the original laws and constitution of human nature. Now, how is the heart changed in any matter? Generally by persuasion. A friend sets before us a certain truth in a new light, pleads with us, and our hearts are changed towards it. So the Spirit makes a revelation of truth to the soul, whereby it seeth things in a different light, and then the will cheerfully bows that neck which once was stiff as iron.

4. This gives the renewed soul a most blessed sign of grace. If thou art willing, depend upon it that God is willing.

5. Then, when a man has any willingness given to him, he has a special promise. Before he had that willingness he had an invitation. My text is a special call to some of you. Are you willing to be saved? Then the Lord says to you, "Whosoever will, let him come." You cannot say this does not mean you. You are willing, then come and take the water of life freely. "Had not I better pray?" It does not say so; it says, take the water of life. "But had not I better go home and get better?" No, take the water of life, and take it now. God says, "Here is a special invitation for you; you are willing; come and drink." Don't say, "I must go home and wash my pitcher." No preparation is wanted. When the crusaders heard Peter the hermit, they cried out at once, "Dens vult! and every man plucked his sword from its scabbard, and set out to reach the holy sepulchre. So come and drink, sinner; God wills it.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

2. Pharaoh was not without means of shrewdly suspecting something of the true character and mission of Israel. His bearing before Moses implies this, and it may be gathered from independent considerations. The earliest religion of Egypt had belief in one supreme power, and this had only become degraded into idolatry in the course of long ages. The secret of the ancient truth was still preserved by the priestly colleges attached to the temples, and each monarch could, if he wished, be initiated into it. This was the wisdom of the Egyptians in which Moses was learned. Then in the dynasty which immediately preceded, the king had actually endeavoured to restore the worship of one God under the crude form of devotion to the sun's disc. When Moses stood before Pharaoh, he therefore touched a chord, if not of sympathy, at least of apprehension, in the conscience of his royal hearer, and the conduct of Pharaoh was of a man who wishes not only to awe an opponent, but to crush his personal misgiving. Thus it was that he was by turns obdurate and yielding, until at last he engaged in the enterprise which led to the triumph of Israel. The event, indeed, is not mentioned in the inscriptions on the monuments — no national disasters ever are, but its effects are written on the face of history, and Pharaoh's name is remembered as that of one whose destiny it was to show forth the power of Him whose will he resisted. Note: —

I. THE PATHETIC AND AWFUL SPECTACLE OF THE GROWTH OF A HUMAN BEING INTO AN ATTITUDE OF FIXED OPPOSITION TO THE ALL-HOLY AND ALMIGHTY GOD.

1. No man becomes utterly evil all at once; he is only, perhaps, half conscious of the change which is slowly but surely going on within him. There was a time, no doubt, when Pharaoh was a bright, thoughtless boy, with a kind mother, and, as he grew up, he was probably, at first, and generally, well-meaning according to his lights, and his actions might have been at any rate first shaped in part by the traditions of his family, or the necessities of his position. But these were not irresistible, and at last the work of hardening was complete, and by a well-known licence of language God is said to have done that which He permitted — to have hardened Pharaoh's heart.

2. Throughout the ages of Jewish history no name more represents emphatic hostility to the honour of God, or the discomfiture which, sooner or later, awaits that hostility, than that of Pharaoh. As the Jew passed in review the names of the enemies of his people, none seemed to loom so large. And as the Christian looks back, he, too, sees in the enemies of God's people that which the Jews saw. But with his clearer faith he knows that they are dark shadows on earth of that invisible spirit who can mould man into being his instrument. Isaiah's description of the descent of the King of Babylon into the world of the dead melts insensibly into the more awful picture of the fall of Satan. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" And in the same way the words which Moses addressed to Pharaoh are less true of mortal man than the fallen archangel. Satan had his time of trial, he was not forced to be the Prince of Evil, he became it in the abuse of his free will. But having chosen to be the first-born of rebellion, he was not simply a disturbing force: the evil which God could not have created He might control; in the vast universe there was a function assigned to the apostle of universal revolt. "For that cause have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee," etc., a power exhibited when our Lord by His Cross spoiled principalities and powers, and destroyed him that had the power of death.

3. And Satan is only an instance of that which takes place in human experience. And the gradual growth of the spirit of resistance culminates at last, not in the triumph of the rebel, but in his being assigned an awful place in the plans of the Divine providence, in which he is to illustrate the justice of the Omnipotent.

II. SOME GOOD NATURAL QUALITIES MAY EXIST IN A MAN WHO, NEVERTHELESS, PERHAPS, DIES AS AN OPPONENT TO THE WILL OF GOD.

1. There is a bust of Pharaoh in the museum at Cairo, and as we stand before the grave, but by no means unkindly Coptic face, it is difficult to think that it represents a human being to whom these stern words were addressed in the name of the All-Merciful. And yet that this is possible is a matter of experience. A man may be respectable, and even interesting, and yet throughout his life opposed to God through some warp in the will or lack of sensitiveness in the conscience. And this is much more dreadful than when a thoroughly bad man is opposed to God. That Nero should burn the Christians in order to amuse the Roman populace and divert public attention from his own wrong-doing, seems to be quite natural, considering who Nero was. But contrast Nero with Julian. Julian was a man whom to know was to respect. It is true that he had advantages which were unknown to Nero; he knew what the Christian life was, and what it could be, and yet he devoted his great powers to uprooting Christianity and restoring Paganism. But he died, owning that the Galilean had been too strong for him. If he had been an idle, profligate sensualist, his case would have been less pathetic. Julian seems like Pharaoh to have been raised up, that the crucified and risen Redeemer might show in him His power, and His name might be declared in all the earth.

2. These examples apply on a smaller scale. Good natural qualities — industry, justice, temperance, kindliness, etc. — are consistent with a general drift of life which is opposed to God's will; they are no guarantee that a man has that tenderness and sensitiveness of conscience which will enable him to see the line of duty in difficult circumstances, which will save him from the misery of finding himself at the last among those who have fought against God. Have we not, perhaps, reason to fear lest we ourselves should be of the number of petty Pharaohs who will illustrate God's power rather than His mercy on the Day of Judgment?

III. HOW EASILY THOSE WHO ARE IN SUPERIOR AND ENGROSSING POSITIONS MAY BE FATALLY BLINDED TO THE HIGHEST AND BEST INTERESTS OF OTHERS WHO ARE DEPENDENT UPON THEM. Pharaoh, no doubt, had his head and hands full of great affairs of state — too full, he may have thought, to give much time to the complaints of a troublesome tribe of Asiatic bondsmen. He closed his eyes, ears, and heart when he ought to have kept them wide open to all the indications of God's will and human needs round him, and so he drifted on to his ruin. May not something of the same kind occur to any who are entrusted by Providence with the care of others — not only the rulers of nations and churches, but the great employers of labour, and the heads of educational institutions, and the fathers and mothers of families? An Israel may be close round them, to whose real wants they are insensible, but of which they have had ample warning, and meanwhile time is passing, and they are approaching some catastrophe: the ruin of families, societies, institutions may be due to some fatal insensibility on the part of those who direct them, some inability to enter into their moral and spiritual requirements.

IV. THERE IS HERE GREAT COMFORT FOR THOSE WHO DESIRE TO SERVE GOD IN THE CONVICTION THAT IN THE END HE WILL TRIUMPH OVER ALL HIS OPPONENTS, HOWEVER LONG THE TRIUMPH BE DELAYED. Pharaoh was sitting on his throne in all the pride of the Egyptian monarchy's brightest days when Moses dared to tell him that he was raised up to set forth the power of God. God allows much evil to exist. This is a distress and perplexity to His servants. Wait, and you will see. If God is patient, it is because He is eternal. Pharaoh for a while was borne with, remonstrated with, before the Red Sea closed upon him and his army. Still more sure of this should we Christians be who can gaze into the empty sepulchre, and who know that He who has left it holds the keys of hell and of death. Sin may still be strong, death may still be terrible, Satan still a standing menace, but these enemies will only illustrate our Redeemer's power.

(Canon Liddon.)

(Prof. Godet.)

(J. Morison, D.D.)

I. SOME OF THE MOST PROMINENT AND INSTRUCTIVE POINTS CONNECTED WITH PHARAOH'S CHARACTER. AND HISTORY.

1. His bold and impious defiance of Divine authority. "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice, to let Israel go?" This spirit is too often evinced still in those who meet the appeals of God with, "What is the Almighty that we should serve Him?" "Our lips are our own: who is Lord over us?"

2. The severe and repeated discipline to which he was subjected in order to humble and subdue this feeling. It is needless to repeat the ten plagues. These were not only most afflictive in themselves, but marked in the mode of their occurrence, a line of separation being so strikingly drawn between the Israelites and the Egyptians. How frequent are the instances in which God, to humble the sinner's pride, subjects him to providential visitation!

3. The powerful but still defective impressions of which he was the subject. Of this the narrative supplies repeated evidence in the various compromises into which he seeks to enter, which were revoked as soon as the visitation was withdrawn. And so sinners, while Divine judgments press upon them, what sorrow will they express, and what salutary purposes they will form; and though, like Herod, they would do many things, yet, like him, they refuse compliance on some, and fail to give up the heart to God.

4. The persevering hostility he continued to discover. If his heart somewhat relented under suffering, it seemed in every quiet interval to become increasingly determined (Exodus 10:10-28). All this does but illustrate what is still going on in many a sinner, who having been for a time alarmed, discovers, as the sense of danger gradually subsides, a mind rendered only the more callous.

5. The striking but awful visitation by which Pharaoh was at last overthrown. None hath hardened himself against God and prospered.

II. THE VINDICATION OF THE DIVINE CONDUCT TOWARD PHARAOH.

1. God placed him in a situation adapted to develop the peculiar tendency of his sinful disposition, which appears to have been proud superiority. God afforded scope for the special display of this feeling by placing him on a despotic throne. God may still act toward some on the same principle, but it should be remembered that the very circumstances which expose to greater danger will only render superiority to them the more striking and honourable: and that where, as in the case of Pharaoh, an individual fails, he does so by his own act.

2. God afforded to him the most ample evidence of the folly and danger of his continued resistance.(1) He had the plainest proof that Moses and Aaron were the accredited messengers of God.(2) The displays of the Divine power were such as must have forced on his mind the consciousness of his own impotence.(3) He was made to perceive how plainly all these exercises of Divine wrath were entirely and only in consequence of his own determined obduracy.

3. God designed in this case to exhibit an impressible example of the fearful danger of a proud and impious defiance of Divine authority.Conclusion:

1. How proper and important the prayer which Christ has taught us — "Lead us not into temptation."

2. How fatally defective and delusive those religious impressions and purposes which are founded on present alarming apprehensions of danger, while the heart remains unhumbled and in love with sin.

3. How vain and hopeless ultimate resistance to Divine authority.

4. How earnestly should we deprecate the thought of being abandoned to a hardened state of mind.

5. Let no humble and penitent sinner be discouraged by this illustration of God's righteous justice.

(H. Bromley.)

II. GOD'S DECREES ARE IRRESPECTIVE OF THE ACTIONS OF MEN (vers.10-13). The strong Hebraistic expression means, Jacob have I chosen, and Esau have I rejected, which was contrary to the usual law of primogeniture. There is no injustice in this. Our Lord has told us that "Offences must needs come, but woe to the man by whom they come." The crucifixion of Christ was "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," brought about: yet it was "by wicked hands" that Christ was "crucified and slain." Happy are we if we do God's will; but the work will be done whether we do it or not. God is independent of human agency, though He employs it to accomplish His purposes.

III. GOD'S DOINGS MUST ALWAYS BE CHARACTERISED BY JUSTICE, TRUTH, MERCY, AND LOVE. If Pharaoh was created only to be damned, and if God all along intended he should not let the people go, such conduct would be —

1. Unjust and cruel on the part of God. To turn the heart of any one to hate is a dreadful act, even in a man, where the influence may be resisted. How much more so where an Omnipotent Being is operating! Upon this principle all the plagues of Egypt were shocking cruelties. The doctrine that some men are predestinated to eternal life and others to damnation, regardless of the actions of either, is monstrously unjust.

2. Not in harmony with His truth. For upon this principle God deliberately deceived the Egyptians. The message was, "Let My people go," etc. On the Calvinistic theory, Moses was either aware of God's purpose or he was not. If he knew that Pharaoh was secretly influenced by God, so that he could not let the Israelites go, then the whole thing is a solemn mockery, the leading characteristic of which is deception. But if he did not know, then he was himself deceived by God, an idea which is too shocking to be thought of. A God of truth could not thus act.

3. Opposed to God's mercy and love. "The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all His works." Here, however, we should have a terrible exception.

IV. IN ELECTION AND THE HARDENING OF MEN'S HEARTS GOD DOES NOT DESTROY THEIR FREEDOM. This hardening is of different kinds, and has reference to various subjects.

1. Great national events. The whole of this chapter refers to the state of the Jews. Paul expresses great sorrow for his people, that they were in danger of being cut off from their long enjoyed blessings. He then goes on to show that their privileges no longer specially appertained to them. God had now determined to elect a Church for Himself out of all nations. The Jews prided themselves greatly on being the seed of Abraham. Paul shows them from their own history that only a portion of that seed had enjoyed the boasted privileges (vers. 6, 7, 10, etc.). And even in the case of these all had not equally shared the blessing. "For they are not all Israel which are of Israel." A great part of the ten tribes who had been carried into captivity had never returned. There are therefore three exclusions, and the argument is that there might be yet another. The whole affair is one of peoples, not individuals. The election of Isaac and Jacob and the rejection of Ishmael and Esau had nothing to do personally with any one of them. A reference, in the case of the elder serving the younger, is made to Genesis 25:23, but Esau never did serve Jacob personally. The other quotation is from Malachi 1:2, 3, and certainly refers to the Edomites. Was there then unrighteousness, i.e., unfaithfulness, with God? By no means, because it was a general principle laid down in the Mosaic law, and one which consequently they were bound to acknowledge, "I will have mercy," etc. These words are from Exodus 33:19, a reference to which will show that they have no relation whatever to the pardon of sin, but applying to the granting of special privileges. And how true they are! In our time we see one nation or people favoured with blessings which are denied to another. "So then it is not of him that willeth," etc.

2. The position of individuals in society. God gives to us all different places and work. One man rolls in wealth, another has to struggle with poverty. This man is endowed with a genius which shalt cause his name to ride down the ages; and that, just the necessary brain power to play his lowly part on life's stage. In this there is no injustice. God dispenses His favours as He will. Our business is to play the part allotted to us, consistently, conscientiously, and energetically.

3. Life and death. These also are in the hands of the Lord. The infant dies almost before it has begun to live. The youth full of promise passes away in "life's green spring." Men die in the prime of life, and in the decrepitude of age. Is this unjust? No. Death is no respecter of persons or of ages. And He who was dead and liveth for evermore, holds the keys of Hades and of death. We shall each live our appointed time, and then no power on earth can save us.

4. Salvation. In some places it is said that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and in others that God hardened it. Both are strictly correct. The rejection of truth and the abuse of our privileges ever tend to harden the heart. This is a spiritual law as certain in its operation as the law of gravitation. As soon as Pharaoh saw a respite from his afflictions, his heart was hardened. And how often do men make all kinds of promises, but no sooner does relief come than we fall back again into a state worse than the first. "The sun," says , "by the force of its heat, moistens the wax and dries the clay, softening the one and hardening the other; and as this produces opposite effects by the same power, so through the long-suffering of God, which reaches to all, some receive good and others evil; some are softened and others hardened."

V. MAN IS THEREFORE RESPONSIBLE, AND IS LEFT WITHOUT EXCUSE. The freedom of the will is a fact testified to by the consciousness of every man. When, in accordance with this freedom, we depart from God, the fact is a terrible one. And the difficulty of returning becomes greater day by day. The remorse that we experience testifies to the fact that we feel our responsibility. Necessitarians at every moment of their lives give the lie to their faith. As we are free, then, our business is to use our freedom aright. Our duty is to love God and keep His commandments. "Father Eternal! Thine is to decree; mine, both in heaven and earth, to do Thy will."

(G. Sexton, LL.D.)

II. PHARAOH, BY THE MEANS VOUCHSAFED, DID SEVERAL TIMES TRULY REPENT of his obstinancy, and gave order for the dismission of the people (Exodus 10:16 17; 12:31, 32, etc.). Therefore he was — questionless — in a sufficient capacity to have repented and dismissed the people. That afterwards he repented of this repentance, and returned to his former obdurateness, is no argument that his former repentance was not true. Yea, if this repentance had been hollow or counterfeit, his repenting of it had been no sin. And besides, if the tree — as our Saviour saith — be known by the fruit, that repentance of Pharaoh, which produced —

1. Confession of sin committed both against God and men (Exodus 10:16).

2. Application by way of entreaty unto the saints to pray unto God for him (Exodus 10:16).

3. An express order with encouragement unto Moses and Aaron, to expedite the departure of their people according to the commandment of God, and this in as ample manner as themselves desired it (Exodus 12:31, 32); that repentance must needs be conceived to have been a true repentance. And, doubtless, had Pharaoh persisted in that repentance, and not relapsed into his former provocation — which he was no ways necessitated unto — he had escaped that dreadful stroke from Heaven, which he met with in the Red Sea.

(John Goodwin.)

1. He assures them of the deep interest he felt in them, and of the high estimation which he had formed of their privileges.

2. He affirms that God did not dispense His mercy on the principle of patriarchal descent.

3. That God's mercy is ever bestowed on the principle of sovereignty alone. This he illustrates —(1) By God's declaration to Moses (ver. 15). This language does not mean —

(a)That He does not show mercy to all men; this would be contrary to fact.

(b)Nor that He gives to some favours which He does not bestow on others. This is true, but this is not the truth here.

(c)Nor that He bestows all His mercies irrespective of conduct. This is always true of existence, with all its native attributes and talents, sometimes true of temporal circumstances, but never true of mental and spiritual excellence.

(d)Nor that He is not disposed to save all. This would be contrary both to His positive assurances and remedial measures.

(e)But it means simply that the reason of mercy is ever in Himself, and not in the creature (ver. 16).(2) By God's declaration to Pharaoh. The passage leads us to consider an impenitent sinner: —

I. AS RAISED UP FROM AFFLICTION BY THE MERCY OF GOD. Pharaoh and his people had just been visited with the distressing plague of "the boils." Jehovah condescends to restore the monarch to health. It is in relation to this recovery that these words were spoken. It was mercy that was dealing with this man. Why else was his probationary day lengthened out after the first warning had been delivered? Why else were there so many and varied influences employed to subdue his rebellious will? With one volition of the Almighty mind he would have ceased to be. What hindered that volition? Nothing but mercy. This is but a striking example of God's ordinary dealing with all sinners here. Mercy afflicts and restores. This fact is testified —

(1)By the Scriptures.

(2)By every sinner's consciousness.

II. AS MORALLY IMPRESSED BY THE MERCY OF GOD. There are two kinds of power — physical and moral. These differ not in source; each has its source in mind. But their objects differ: the one acts on matter, and the other on intelligent natures. Which did Jehovah purpose showing forth in Pharaoh? Undoubtedly the moral. His physical power could be seen far more gloriously in earthquakes and storms, etc., than in alternately afflicting and restoring the body of Pharaoh, or in any of the plagues. Besides, a man does not require a higher manifestation of physical power than he has everywhere around him. It was moral power — power over the monarch's mind and heart — that the Almighty sought now to exercise. "In thee." It was everywhere out of him, But why show this power in him? It must have been either to promote holiness in him, or sin, and who will dare say it was the latter? It was to turn Pharaoh from the error of his ways that this power was employed; and this is ever God's aim with the impenitent sinner. There were two things connected with this power in Pharaoh which always characterise its operations —(1) It was sin-convicting. Several times, when this power was working in him, did he exclaim, "I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked." Cain, Belshazzar, Felix, Judas, and others, have felt the same. The great aim of God in thus making His power bear on the sinful world is to "convince it of sin, of righteousness," etc.(2) It was resistible. Pharaoh resisted it: it would not be moral, and man would not be responsible were it otherwise. We cannot resist the physical power of God, but we can His moral. The Jews did always resist the Holy Ghost.

III. AS STRIKINGLY MANIFESTING THE MERCY OF GOD. "That My name might be declared," etc. The name of God is frequently employed as expressive of His goodness. God's dealing with Pharaoh declares throughout all times that it is —

1. Longsuffering. How long the Almighty condescended to strive with this man!

2. Earnest. See how numerous and varied the means employed.

3. Terminable. Mercy at last took her wing, delivered him up to justice, and you know his fate. I know no more impressive commentary than God's dealing with Pharaoh on "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner," etc.

IV. AS INCIDENTALLY HARDENED BY THE MERCY OF GOD. Ver. 18 is Paul's conclusion from God's declaration. It is nothing more than a strong method of reasserting the principle that the reason of mercy is not in the creature, but in the Creator. How did God harden Pharaoh's heart?

1. Not by intention. This is contrary to the purpose stated, which was to "show " His sin-convicting and soul-saving power in him; and this, too, is repugnant to all our highest and most truthful notions of God's purity and benevolence.

2. Not by fitness of instrumentality. Examine the means employed, and you will discover a wonderful adaptation to an opposite end.

3. Not by any positive agency for the purpose. This is unnecessary. The sinner is hardened, and harder he will become, if he be ]eft alone. Divine agency is required not to harden, but refine — not to destroy, but to save.

4. How, then? In the same way as He hardens the heart of that man who year after year listens to the most powerful sermons, and still remains in his sin. Pharaoh's hardening is a typal fact. The ministry of the prophets had its Pharaohs; so had that of Christ, and of the apostles. The gospel proves the savour of death unto death, as well as of life unto life.Conclusion: This solemn fact is suggestive of two things:

1. The native energy of soul. It can get good out of evil, and evil out of good; transmute food into poison, and poison into food. It is made to be not the servant, but the sovereign of circumstances.

2. The moral perverseness of soul. Instead of using this power to subordinate evil to good, it does so to subordinate good to evil — makes mercy a destroyer.

(D. Thomas, D.D.)

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. Mercy.

2. Justice.

II. ITS HARMONY WITH THE DOCTRINE OF FREE GRACE.

III. ITS USE.

1. For conviction and conversion.

2. He might have hardened you — may yet do it if you repent not.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

1. But there is a critical reason why we give the preference to insensibility to danger. There are three words in Hebrew employed in this case. One is employed twice (Exodus 7:3; Exodus 13:15), another seven times (Exodus 8:15, 32 (28), 9:7, 34, 10:1; 1 Samuel 11:6; see also Exodus 7:14). The third occurs twelve times (Exodus 4:21; Exodus 7:13, 22; Exodus 8:19; Exodus 9:12, 35; Exodus 10:20, 27; Exodus 11:10; Exodus 14:4, 8, 17). Now the latter is a term that naturally suggests insensibility to danger, for in its intransitive form it properly means to be strong, and is translated (Joshua 23. 6; 2 Samuel 10:12; 2 Samuel 13:28; 1 Chronicles 19:13; Ezra 10:4; Psalm 27:14; Psalm 31:24 (25); Isaiah 41:6) to be of good courage, to be courageous; while in its transitive form, it properly means to make strong, and is actually translated (Deuteronomy 1:38; Deuteronomy 3:28; 2 Samuel 11:25; 2 Chronicles 35:2; Psalm 64:5 (6); Isaiah 41:7) to encourage. When such a term is used to denote penal induration, it is natural to suppose that the hardness will be somewhat allied to a spirit of courage, and consequently that it will consist of a kind of dreadnaught spirit. There will be something of hardiness in it; indeed some strong accentuation of foolhardiness.

2. Exegesis warrants the same conclusion. The passages which deal with the monarch's obduracy are more easily explicable on the hypothesis that his hardness was infatuated hardness and insensibility to danger. Look, e.g., at Exodus 14:2-9, 16, 17. Pharaoh was intoxicated with his own high sufficiency. A penal blight had fallen on his reason. Rushing onward in daring recklessness, he and his chivalry were penally swept into destruction. And thus the Lord, by inflicting on them, first the most insensitive obduracy, and secondly the most tragical termination of their career, got Him honour upon Pharaoh and upon all his host. "Pharaoh," says Fry, "had not, in immediate consequence of his hardiness, any more sinfulness in his heart than he had previously; but he dared to do more." In selecting the word "hardens" the apostle suggests a parallel between Pharaoh and the Israelites. There was something ominously Pharaonic in the spirit of the unbelieving Jews.

(J. Morison, D.D.)

1. The former of these two passages read by itself, without anything to qualify it, sounds like a naked assertion of the sovereignty of God; and as based on mere power. It seems as if St. Paul were saving that the might of God is the measure of His right; that, having made us, He is perfectly at liberty to do what He pleases with us. I say, "It seems so"; because we know that St. Paul cannot mean to assert this, for otherwise he must have forgotten what he had written in our second text.

2. In a passage like this a great deal depends upon the tone which one reads into it, and the feeling with which one reads it. Now this ninth chapter must not be separated from the tenth and the eleventh, which together form one indivisible section, and ought to be, and must be read together, if we are to understand them at all. The tone of the whole is then easily discoverable from its commencement in Romans 9:1-5, and from its conclusion in Romans 11:30-33.

3. The commentators seem generally to take it for granted that, in my first text, St. Paul is arguing with captious objectors and presumptuous cavillers, whom he is putting down with a high hand. But it is, to say the least, worth our while to consider whether St. Paul is not stating frankly his own difficulties and solving them as best he can, and really working his own way, painfully and laboriously, through the darkness into the light. Viewed in this aspect the passage becomes infinitely more interesting, instructive, and pathetic. We should be sorry to think that St. Paul had set an example of that high-handed dealing with doubts and difficulties which has always proved so disastrous. But if he knew, as he seems to have known, what it was not to stifle, but to face and fight, his doubts; then his example may be of the greatest possible service to us, even though his difficulties were not ours.

4. Yet are they not ours? If God's will acts in this sovereign, arbitrary way — hardening this heart, softening that, as chance or caprice may direct — what then? Is not the ground of human responsibility cut from beneath us? What room is there, then, for moral disapproval, and for retributive justice? Nor do we evade the difficulty by throwing the difficulty back one step, and saying, "It is by the operation of a law of man's nature as God created it, that he who will not turn at last cannot. And God, who established that law of man's nature, is said in Scripture to do that which occurs under it, or results from it. He has framed at His pleasure the moral constitution of man, according to which the rebellious sinner is at last obdurate. "This is the old, old puzzle, which has haunted men's minds from the very first — now by one name, now by another: liberty and necessity. The moment we begin to reason upon this problem, we are lost in perplexity. The interplay of the Divine will and the human can never have its path determined by any calculus yet discovered. As soon as it is attempted, one or other of the two forces is sure to be omitted from the calculation, and to disappear altogether. We are left either with a naked sovereignty on the Divine side, accompanied by an absolute bondage on the human side; or else we are left with a Divine will which is no will at all.

5. At this point we feel what a difference it makes in our text, whether we regard it as an endeavour to put down objectors, or whether we regard it as a debate in Paul's mind with doubts and difficulties. In the first case we can all see that it only removes the difficulty to a point at which it ceases to press against the reason only to press more vehemently against the conscience and the moral sense. For it may well be asked, "Is, then, man, with all his capacity of suffering, and his sense of right and wrong, merely as the passionless clay in the potter's hand. If so, what are we to think of the Creator? Does the fact of creation invest the Creator with unlimited rights, unaccompanied by any corresponding responsibilities? Or does it answer most nearly to that earthly relation of parent and child which, whilst establishing the parents' claim to the obedience of the child, establishes also the child's claim to the love and care of the parents?" St. Paul's reply is very different, if we regard it as a caution, addressed to himself, as he goes sounding on his dim and perilous way, through problems which human reason is all incompetent to solve. It is, then, tantamount to saying, "What am I, that I should dare to exercise my speculation upon such a theme as this — I, who am but a finite being in the hands of Infinite power?"

6. Now, this attitude of mind is the true philosophic attitude, for "The foundation of all true philosophy is humility." And this is the attitude which St. Paul is most careful to inculcate elsewhere, e.g., "Now we see through a mirror"; the reflection only, not the object itself — "darkly"; more exactly, "in a riddle" — "but then, face to face." And this is the attitude which our Lord inculcates, bidding us "humble ourselves, and become as little children." And this, indeed, is the attitude which, the more earnestly and seriously we inquire into questions of all kinds, the more do we find ourselves compelled to adopt. The more the circle of our knowledge enlarges, the larger becomes the circumference, at every point of which we feel our ignorance, and have the sense of vastness and mystery forced upon us.

7. St. Paul, however, does not leave the matter so. We can leave many problems unsolved — this of the relation of the human will to the Divine amongst others — when we have settled it clearly in our own minds, how we shall think of God — of His character, of His purpose and feeling towards his human creation: not till then. As we read chaps. 9-11., carefully and as a whole, we feel that St. Paul makes little or no progress towards a solution of his doubts, until we reach Romans 11:32, 33. He rises above his own efforts to reason the thing out, in the strength of a fresh perception of that unsearchable glory of God, which may be safely trusted to do nothing but what is wise, just, and loving. This perception does not come through any process of reasoning, but breaks upon his soul like light. He escapes at one bound from the trammels of his own logic, in the sense of that grace and love of God in Christ, of which he writes in our second text.

8. Very few of us will be able to follow the course of St. Paul's argument in these three chapters. But all of us can seize that point of view of his, which enables him to trust the future of his beloved Israel — to the unsearchable grace and wisdom of God. Where had he learned that trust? Not at the feet of Gamaliel; not through all his vast stores of Greek and Rabbinical learning; not through any exercise of his own quick intelligence and acute reasoning powers; but at the foot of the Cross. It was there and thence that he had learned the boundless charity of God; had learned to trust himself to that charity; had learned (harder lesson!) to trust his loved ones to that charity.

(Dean Vaughan.)

I. AS A MAN. Considering the appeal in this light, it impresses a lesson of great practical importance, namely, to beware of arraigning, with irreverent rashness and self-sufficiency, the procedure of the Divine Being, as represented to us by Himself. Nothing, surely, can be more unbecoming in any creature. Nothing can mere strikingly display the sad predominance in the human heart of that aspiring pride which was originally infused by the tempting assurance, "Ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil." The folly, indeed, of refusing to admit whatever does not come within the limit of our comprehension, can be equalled only by its impiety. There must be parts of the Divine procedure whose principles and reasons are beyond the depth of even archangelic intellects. It is a maxim of essential importance, on all such subjects, that we should not allow that which we do know to be displaced from our confidence by that which we do not know. We have the fullest assurance of the righteousness of the Supreme Ruler. Surely, then, we ought not to allow ourselves to be startled into scepticism because, in His revealed procedure, we may find particulars, the secret of which we are unable fully to penetrate. Shall we, then, on the one hand, question the prescience of God, because we may be at a loss fully to discern its consistency with the freedom and accountableness of man? — or, on the other hand, shall we loose men from their moral responsibility, and convert them into mere irresponsible pieces of machinery, because we may not perfectly discern the link of harmony between man's accountableness and God's foreknowledge? And especially when we recollect that the mystery of mysteries is not a doctrine, but a fact — not a discovery of revelation, but an event independent of revelation altogether — which revelation does not originate, but which it finds, and on which it proceeds — the existence of moral evil itself under the government of the infinitely Holy and Good! There is no denying the fact; but the mystery of the fact has baffled the wits of the wisest from the beginning till now. Shall we, then, refuse the remedy, because we cannot fully explain why the evil itself was permitted to exist?

II. AS A SINNER. "Who art thou?" — not only a creature, short-sighted, and ignorant, but a guilty, condemned creature. How unspeakably unreasonable and presumptuous is the language of the objector when regarded in this light? And here we might introduce anew, with augmented force, the proper terms for such a creature in presenting himself before "the God with whom he has to do." Of whom ought he, then, to think? Should it not be of himself? Of what ought he to think? Should it not be of his own transgressions and his own deserts? He has an account of his own — what to him are the accounts of others? Is he to stand out against the justice of God in his own sentence, till he sees whether God deals with others exactly as He does with him? What has he to do with others? As a sinner, he stands at the bar of heaven, charged with his own guilt, and has to answer for himself. If there be any ground on which he can impeach the righteousness of the Judge in his own sentence, let him advance his plea. But if he himself, as a sinner, is justly condemned, is not the posture that becomes him that of a suppliant for mercy? Oh, if instead of "replying against God," by presuming to pick faults in His general administration, each sinner would but "look to himself" — ponder his own guilt — and in the name of the one Divine Mediator, cast himself at the feet of his Judge with the brief petition of the publican, all then would be well. He should find mercy, as sure as God "delighteth in it"; and, because He delighteth in it, has provided for its honourable exercise.

(R. Wardlaw, D.D.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

I. THE TEMERITY OF MAN. He arraigns —

1. God's perfections.

2. Procedure.

3. Government.

II. ITS MERITED REPROOF. Such conduct is —

1. Impertinent.

2. Wicked.

3. Foolish.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. Mean.

2. Powerless.

3. Plastic.

II. THE SOVEREIGN RIGHT OF GOD TO MOULD IT TO HIS WILL. A vessel to —

1. Honour.

2. Dishonour.

III. THE CONSISTENCY OF THIS DOCTRINE WITH HUMAN FREE AGENCY.

1. God determines our physical and temporal conditions.

2. Not our eternal doom.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

I. THAT PAUL DOES NOT REFER TO PHYSICAL FORCE, i.e., that God, in virtue of His almightiness, is able out of the same lump to make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour. The word is not, δύναμας ability to do, but ἐξουσία — authority, prerogative right. God is not under any obligation to confer equal honour or dishonour upon all. He will be doing no wrong, although He make a difference.

II. WE ARE NOT TO LOOK UPON GOD'S PREROGATIVE AS UNCONDITIONAL.

1. True, the prerogative of the literal potter is absolute. He may do with his clay what he pleases, although it may be ridiculous, and ultimately ruinous to him. He may add inappropriate ingredients and spoil his clay: stupidly attempt to make fine vessels out of coarse clay; he may misshape his vessels, mar them, or when the whole batch is fashioned take an iron rod and dash them into shivers. If the clay, wheel, time, rod, be his own, he may set as absurdly as he pleases.

2. But then this absolute right will not shield him from the criticism of his fellows. They may not say "No, this won't be permitted; you are ill-using your clay." But they will be at perfect liberty to say what Jonathan Edwards said of the devil, "that he is one of the greatest fools and blockheads in the world."

3. Again, men are not like clay in all respects, e.g., they are possessed of rights. Man has a right to be treated with justice; to be furnished with ability to do his duty, if he is to be held responsible for not doing it to have the gate of heaven opened to him if he is to be blamed for not entering in. Man must have some power of formative self-control "unto honour," if he is to be blamed for being fashioned into a vessel "unto dishonour."

4. All this being the case, God's power over the human clay is not utterly unconditional. His right to do with it as He pleases is, by His own benevolent arrangement, modified by rights which He has conferred on His creatures. He has not reserved the right to do wrong. It cannot be the case, then, that God has reserved the right to deal tyrannically with His poor human creatures. If they are held responsible to Him for the shape their character assumes, then something is due to them as the basis of their accountability.

III. THE STATEMENT CANNOT BE QUOTED IN FAVOUR OF UNCONDITIONAL REPROBATION. There are, indeed, beings who deserve universal reprobation, and, therefore, Divine; and there is future reprobation; but is it right to so magnify the Divine sovereignty as to exclude from the circle of Divinity, justice, righteousness, goodness, wisdom, mercy, and love? Such inversion of theology would be akin in monstrosity to the wild political aphorism that monarchs reign by Divine right and can do no wrong.

IV. WHAT, THEN, WAS THE APOSTLE'S AIM IN PROPOUNDING HIS QUERY? Why should he be solicitous to show that God has a right to turn some of the race into a condition of dishonour, and others into a state of glory? The reason is that in chaps, 9-11, he is discussing the relation of his countrymen to the gospel. Alas! the great mass were unbelieving. What then? Would they, notwithstanding, be all turned on the Divine wheel into vessels of honour? The Jews contended that they would. It was the Gentiles only who were to be fashioned into vessels unto dishonour. "No," says the apostle, "you are wrong, my countrymen. It is with intensest sorrow that I say it. It is the penitent and believing only who shall be saved. And the Almighty Potter, who has us all on His wheel, has right, out of the same lump of Jews and Gentiles, to turn one man, even though he be a Gentile, provided he be penitent and believing, into a vessel of glory, and vice versa." The apostle had evidently the representation of Jeremiah 28, in his eye. If a vessel becomes marred in the hands of the potter, then, instead of proceeding with it, he crushes the clay together and fashions it into another kind of vessel. God desired to fashion the Jews into a glorious vessel, when, lo! it became marred in His hand, and He had to make it into another — unto dishonour. The vessel was marred, not because of any imperfection in the Potter's manipulation, for He is not liable to mistakes. Some bad and coarse ingredient had been by some enemy flung in, so that only a coarser vessel than what was desired could be made of it. Application: God is not willing that any should perish, i.e., He does not wish to have any vessels fashioned unto dishonour. He would have all to be beautiful and honourably serviceable, i.e., all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Jesus, speaking to the impenitent, says, "I would, but ye would not," and just because men will not they spoil the clay that is in the Almighty Potter's hand.

(J. Morison, D.D.)

1. A seemingly needless one.

2. Proposed as an argument for conviction.

II. THE ANSWER IMPLIED. That God is —

1. The Creator of all things.

2. The arbitrator of the destiny of everything.

3. That He has, as such, a right to create and plan out as He thinks fit.Application:

1. Do not question God's authority.

2. Submit to all His decrees with humility.

(J. H. Tasson.)

(James Forfar.)

I. THAT ALL MEN ARE MADE OF ONE COMMON NATURE. "We," as the old prophet has it, "are the clay, and Thou our Potter, and we are all the work of Thy hand." Notwithstanding the vast variety in colour, conformation, habit, etc., there is such a correspondence, both in the physical and spiritual structure of all the races as to corroborate the declaration that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men." Let us not be satisfied in admitting the truth of this doctrine, but —

1. Reverence the rights of all. Nothing can justify us in offering the slightest indignity to that right which belongs to man as man.

2. Sympathise with the woes of all. If we love not our brother "whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen?"

3. Diffuse that gospel which is the great want of all. Man, the world over, is a brother; out from the deeps of his heart there rises a cry for the help the gospel offers.

II. THAT OF MEN MADE OF THE SAME NATURE, PART IS BEING "FITTED FOR DESTRUCTION," AND PART FOR GLORY. The word destruction does not refer to existence, but to happiness. It is here put it antithesis to glory, i.e., all that is blissful in being. Now, it is here implied that there are certain men being framed for the destruction of all happiness, and others for all that is glorious. There are three things which show the truth of this.

1. The inevitable tendency of the two great principles that rule mankind — selfishness and love, or sin and holiness The one tends to the decrease of happiness, and the other to its increase; the one fits for destruction, and the other prepares for glory. A man under the influence of selfishness is one whoso nature is undergoing a rapid process of deterioration. There is a blight in his atmosphere that shall leave his spiritual territory barren. There is a disease in his system that shall, bring on death.

2. The actual experience of mankind. Take two men as types.(1) One shall be Saul. He had, undoubtedly, a good mental, as well as a "goodly" corporeal constitution, and on him the "Spirit of the Lord" once moved. But the man was selfish; and this selfishness continued to fit him for "destruction," until, in the cave of Endor, he exclaims, "God is departed from me."(2) The other shall be David. He was but a shepherd bey, having nothing peculiarly great either in bodily or mental make, but his soul developed itself under the reign of Divine love, which led him to "serve his generation." And you see this youth, in almost every step of his life, getting into new power and rising into new glory. Now, all this is abundantly confirmed by Scripture, which represents all men as pursuing two paths, the one to destruction, and the other to glory — some sowing to the flesh, and reaping corruption, and some to the Spirit, and reaping everlasting life.

III. THAT WHILST GOD COULD HAVE. "FITTED" MEN FOR DESTRUCTION, HIS WORK IS TO "PREPARE" THEM FOR GLORY. We are not ignorant of the objection that God is represented as blinding men's eyes, making their hearts fat, and their ears heavy, and as hardening the heart of Pharaoh. True. But when such works are referred to God they must be referred to Him in an occasional, not in a causal — an incidental, not an intentional-a permissive, not a predestinating sense. Otherwise, indeed, moral evil is a Divine institution. Observe —

1. That the apostle does not affirm that God has ever fitted any being for destruction; and there are reasons to believe that He has never done so.(1) There is analogy. Ask the astronomer or the microscopist if they have found one living thing formed for dishonour, or made for torture?(2) There is the human constitution. Whether you look at it —(a) Physically, with its varied members and organs, so exquisitely formed and put together, walking erectly, fronting the world with eyes on heaven, and lord of all that lives beneath the stars, or —(b) Psychologically, with an intellect to reduce the universe to truth, and bear it along triumphantly in its path of thought, and a soul to mingle in the worship of seraphs, and delight in God," — can you affirm that man was made for dishonour?(3) There is the conscience. Does the conscience ever testify to the ruined sinner that he was made for destruction? No. Were this the case there could be no remorse — no moral hell. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked."

2. The apostle does affirm that God prepares men for glory; and there are abundant reasons to believe the fact.(1) There is the spiritual influence of nature. This influence you may call beauty in the flowery fields, sublimity in the surging main, glory in the "terrible crystal," or divinity in all; but whatever you call it, there is nothing in it to fit "for destruction," but everything to prepare for glory. I often wonder how men can sin abroad, in the bright fields of holy nature.(2) There is the special system of mediation, including the communications of God to humanity during the first four thousand years, the mission of Christ, the ministry of the gospel, and the agency of the Spirit. In view of all this, who can maintain, for a moment, the notion that God fits men for destruction?

IV. THAT THE HISTORY OF ALL MEN, WHATEVER THEIR DESTINY, ILLUSTRATES THE CHARACTER OF GOD. In relation to the destroyed, there is the manifestation of "long-suffering," "power," " wrath"; and in relation to the saved, there is the manifestation of the "riches of His glory." Conclusion: Learn —

1. That the most solemn attribute of thy nature is the power to misappropriate the blessings of God. Yonder are two plants side by side, rooted in the same soil, visited by the same showers, and shone on by the same sun; the one transmutes all into what will poison life, and the other into that which will sustain it. So the very elements that are preparing the men by thy side for glory — by the perverse use of thy moral freedom — may be fitting thee for destruction.

2. That the most momentous work in the world is the formation of character. It is either a soul-saving or a soul-destroying process. What wouldst thou think of a man who stood casting portions of his property into the bosom of the rolling river? But if thou art forming an ungodly character, thou art doing worse folly than this, thou art wasting thy spiritual self. That vessel which the architect, either from recklessness or ignorance, is constructing on a principle which necessarily unfits her to stand the swelling surges and the hostile gale, you would say, is "fitted for destruction," so, in very truth, is thy character if built on the principle of selfishness.

(D. Thomas, D.D.)

(T. T. Shore, M.A.)

I. THE PARTIES SPOKEN OF.

1. "The vessels of wrath," i.e., the "vessels to dishonour" of ver. 21.(1) The wrath of God is invariably pointed against sin (chap. Romans 1:18; Ephesians 2:1-3). It is judicial, not personal; righteousness demanding the punishment of iniquity — "angry with the wicked," and insisting on the execution of the law. Sovereign wrath is a contradiction. Sovereign mercy is not. It expresses the unalienable right of the Supreme Ruler to show favour freely to the undeserving. The very word "mercy" implies "desert of evil" in its objects. But from the idea of the right of God to inflict suffering on the undeserving, we shrink with horror, for it would ascribe to God the right to do wrong. All punitive infliction presupposes desert. The bestowment of good does not. The latter, then, belongs to sovereignty; the former, to equity.(2) The sins of men are freely committed. They are done with the choice of their wills. Otherwise there could be no such thing as sin. If a man were used as a mere machine, he could not be a sinner. Every sinner is sensible that neither, on the one hand, is he constrained to evil, nor, on the other, restrained from good. To say that man cannot will what is good is to employ terms most inconsiderate and misleading. What hinders him from willing? Only the absence of right dispositions. But the indisposition is just the want of will; and, there being no other inability in man than this, to say he cannot will resolves itself ultimately into the will not to will; inasmuch as he is kept from willing good by nothing but his aversion to good.(3) These are truths sufficiently plain, and they serve to show the meaning of the expression "fitted to destruction."(a) More is meant than mere destination or appointment. "Fitted" includes particularly the idea of congruity between the character and the destruction. The question, then, comes to be — how are they thus "fitted" and by whom? In finding an answer to this question, observe the marked difference between the expressions on both sides of the alternative. God fits the "vessels of mercy," but the vessels of wrath are only "fitted for destruction" i.e., self-fitted, fitted by their impenitent and obdurate sinfulness. The blessed God cannot be regarded as directly "fitting men for destruction" by any influence from Him (James 1:13-16; Ezekiel 15:6-8).(b) And, as God cannot make men wicked, neither should He be considered as appointing men to sin — unless it be in the simple sense of leaving them, in punitive abandonment, to the hardening influence of its wilful perpetration (Jude 1:4).

2. The vessels of mercy."(1) The very idea of mercy excludes all desert on their part, and all obligation on the part of God. "Vessels of mercy" implies that whatever there may be of good in them, that good is something which they do not deserve, and which God is, in no respect, bound to bestow.(2) This being the case, their previous "preparation to glory" is an act of pure sovereignty. "Making them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Ephesians 2:1-10).

II. THE CONDUCT OF GOD TOWARDS THEM.

1. It is the same to both. The expression "Enduring them with much long-suffering" is used, it is true, only in reference to the former; but it is necessary, to complete the sense, that it be, as it were, carried forward, and considered as if repeated, in regard to the latter.

2. The long-suffering of God is one of the most wonderful facts in the history of our apostate race. It was manifested in His dealings with the antediluvian world, and in the whole course of His procedure toward the Jewish people. It has been manifested all along, and continues to be, in the experience of the race at large, and in the life of every individual. Who is there, of all the children of men, that is not the subject of it?

3. The idea implies the existence of a tendency in a contrary direction. The holiness of God is infinitely opposed to all sin, and while His holiness abhors it, His justice calls for its punishment. In proportion, then, to the strength of these principles of the Divine character, is the difficulty of forbearance with the workers of iniquity.

4. By this long-suffering, the great majority of men, alas! are only encouraged in evil (Ecclesiastes 8:11). They thus criminally, because wilfully, abuse the Divine goodness; and thus "fit themselves for destruction" (Romans 2:4, 5). But others dealt with in the same "long-suffering," alter very protracted and obstinate resistance of the means of grace, relent, believe, and are saved. Toward both there has been shown "much long-suffering." To many a believer — especially to such as have been converted later in life than others — might I make an appeal for the truth of this.

III. THE DESIGN OR OBJECT OF THIS CONDUCT here supposed by the apostle. Suppose God does as the potter does: "what if" this were the case? It is evident that the question is intended to involve another question: Would there be any ground of complaint? Who, with any just cause, could say a single word against the procedure? Remember that men are not here spoken of as creatures, but as sinners — guilty subjects of God's moral government, breakers of His law-all alike obnoxious to the visitation of His punitive justice. The general principle, then, is this — that God, the Supreme Ruler, so orders His rectoral procedure towards sinful men, as that He may most effectually secure the glory of His own character and government. Let us look at both sides of the alternative.

1. In God's longsuffering towards those who ultimately perish, what is His course? He lengthens out their period of trial. He applies every mode of treatment, in itself, as a moral means, fitted to bring them to repentance. In doing this, He provides for a satisfactory display of righteousness in their final condemnation; so that none can say that they perished unwarned, untried, uninvited. In the forbearance of God, they have found opportunity for repentance, and they have guiltily misimproved it; converting it into an opportunity of further and further showing the evil principles and dispositions by which they are actuated, and which are the grounds of their sentence of death in the judgment. As an exemplification of our meaning, take the case of the flood (cf. 1 Peter 3:19, 20; 2 Peter 3:9). And as it was with the antediluvian sinners, so was it with the Jews. God's judgments on them were not only deserved, but by His whole procedure toward them shown to be deserved ere they were inflicted. Their "mouths were stopped." And thus it will be at last. God the Judge has determined that He will not only be just in His sentences of condemnation, but show Himself just. Who will venture to find fault with this?

2. Of the other side of the alternative the import is sufficiently obvious. The "riches of His glory" evidently signifies here "His glorious riches" — and that means, as evidently, the riches of His mercy. The glorious riches of God's mercy are made known by salvation in general having been provided; by the means of its provision; and by every individual instance of salvation bestowed. But "the riches of His mercy" are more signally displayed in some cases of salvation than in others. In particular cases, by His "forbearance and long-suffering," He prepares wonderful exemplifications of the exuberant abundance and untrammelled freeness of this grace. Let this apostle himself tell us of his own ease, as an instance in point (1 Timothy 1:12-16).Conclusion:

1. There is a tendency at present to dwell too exclusively on the Divine love, and to make too little of the other attributes of the Divine character. Because the atonement is universal, and the gift of Christ is the highest expression of love, therefore Divine love must be love without distinctions. As if, because the atonement has been made for all, in order to there being a consistent ground on which all might be invited to pardon, therefore there can be and must be no distinctions in the saving application of the atonement. God says, "A new heart also will I give you," etc. Does He do this alike to all?

2. While it is right for us to look at both sides of the alternative, it is especially delightful for us to contemplate Him "preparing for glory the vessels of mercy." His time of preparing them is very various. He can fit them in a moment: while sometimes the preparation extends through many a year. He spares them sometimes as instruments for His use in preparing other "vessels of mercy" for the same glory with themselves. And then, when He takes them to the inheritance of the glory for which He has prepared them, and which He has prepared for them — how delightful our emotions in looking after them. Be has taken these vessels where He may put them to uses more glorifying to Him, and more honourable to themselves, than any use He could make of them in their imperfect state below!

(R. Wardlaw, D.D.)

1. Whom does this phrase describe? Not persons pre-ordained to wrath, but deserving of wrath.

2. How are they fitted for destrucion? Not by Divine operation, but by their own wilful impertinence.

3. How does God use them? For the display of His justice and power.

4. How is the righteousness of the Divine procedure vindicated?

(1)By His patient forbearance.

(2)By the opportunity afforded for repentance.

(3)By the offers of His grace.

II. VESSELS OF MERCY.

1. Their determination.

(1)Not by unconditional election.

(2)But by the reception of mercy and belief of the truth.

2. Their preparation —

(1)In life.

(2)By grace.

(3)Through the sanctification of the Spirit.

3. Their use. To display the riches of God's glory — His wisdom, love and power in their salvation.

4. Their destiny — glory.

(1)In the perfection of their nature and happiness.

(2)In the presence of God.

(3)For ever.

5. The foundation of all their happiness. The sovereign grace of God in Christ.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

(Biblical Museum.)

I. THE CHARACTERS HERE DESCRIBED.

1. Wrath means far more than anger — and it becomes a stronger word as the capacity for wrath increases. "The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion."(1) Now measuring upwards in this way, what must God's wrath be, whose every attribute is illimitable? and the very infinitude of His mercy proves what must be the extent of His wrath.(2) And are there any creatures exposed to this? Yes, it must be so where sin is. It is far more anomalous to suppose moral guilt existing and God not angry, than it is to imagine rebels and a king unmoved, or children fiends in human shape and the father indifferent. The wrath of God must come, in the very nature of things, upon the children of disobedience. He that committeth sin must be a vessel of wrath by nature, and if that nature be not changed, a double portion of wrath abideth on him.

2. Mark the term which expresses the reception of this anger — "vessels"; not leaves, which hold the storm-drop for an instant and then allow it to trickle off, but vessels retaining it. You may say, "Such a load as God's wrath must crush me"; and in one sense it will; but in another it will not; you will have powers of endurance as great as the saint's power of enjoyment. Hard and impenitent hearts are "treasuring up wrath against the day of the wrath." Wrath shall come upon them, as Paul says, "to the uttermost."

3. And moreover the sinner is a vessel "fitted for destruction." What by? Sin. He who wills not the death of the sinner is not likely to fit him for dying. We prepare ourselves for destruction; "Oh, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself."

II. GOD'S CONDUCT TOWARDS THEM. He endures them with much long-suffering. How much let your unnumbered sins declare. Why! any forbearance in your case were much long-suffering. All the day long has God been stretching forth His hand to "a disobedient and gainsaying people." He gives you mercies, and you take them as your right: He gives you privileges, and you abuse them; He gives you a Saviour, and you "crucify Him afresh"; He offers you His Spirit, and you "do despite to that Spirit of grace." Now is not a moment's forbearance, in such a case, long-suffering?

III. THE REASONS FOR SUCH CONDUCT.

1. "To show His wrath." Yet how could He show His wrath by long-suffering towards sinners? It appears that such a course would hide and not show it. Now the word translated "show," means to point out as with the finger; and in this way God throws into the strongest relief His wrath.(1) He develops His own character of love; He opens out His plans of mercy for years. Well! some may say, "This tolerance of guilt speaks an indifference to it." You are wrong; the Lord's long-suffering is but a blue sky on which you see in fearful and distinct outline the massive storm-cloud as it rolls over the sinner's head and then bursts; it is but the sweet and natural beamings of the Lord's countenance which gives His frown a doubly appalling blackness; it does not lessen His anger; it does not qualify His abhorrence of sin; it does not subtract from, but it adds to, the final display of His just indignation.(2) And in another sense it shows it, for it clearly explains its real character. It is not the wrath of man, or he had struck at once. But the Lord is "slow to anger"; He wills not the death of the sinner; and when at last His wrath is seen, it is that of a Judge who punishes, not "con amore" but "ex officio." The Lord delights in mercy, not in punishment. Wrath must come at last, but it comes with a slow foot. Mercy flies; anger creeps. Patience lingers and lingers at the threshold, keeping punishment knocking at the door. God's endurance is indeed the interpreter of His wrath; it shows that His final destruction of "the vessels of wrath" is not that of an enemy gloating over the fall and death of his foe, but it is that of a father slowly, solemnly, and necessarily banishing a base and incorrigible son for ever from His presence.

2. "To make known His power." But how can power be made known by a refusal to exert that power? Forbearance is often a more splendid achievement than all the labours of Hercules put together. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." The Lord's endurance is one of the most signal displays of His omnipotence. When I gaze upon the scene around Calvary, I look upon a more stupendous proof of power than when I behold the hundred and eighty-five thousand corpses of Assyrian warriors, all smitten by the angel of the Lord in one night. And when I look around upon this congregation, and necessarily think of many among you as vessels of wrath endured, enemies of God treated with much long-suffering, I see in each one of you a monument of the Lord's power as notable as in the case of that weeping, wailing, and lost soul. But, lastly, God's long-suffering makes known His power, by giving greater prominence at last to His power of punishing. It is like the stillness before a storm: you may hear a whisper; the rustle of a leaf is noticed; and when the first roll of thunder comes pealing throughout the hushed air, making the ground shake and the rocks resound, its fearful voice is the better articulated owing to the previous stillness; the thunder, like God's power, is made known by the calm which preceded. And what is the conclusion of the whole matter? First of all, by the light of God's Word, and by the aid of prayer, inquire whether you are vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy? Are you united to Christ by a living faith, or alienated from God by wicked works? And if the result of this inquiry be a conviction that you are still a vessel of wrath, oh! tremble over the fact. That vessel becomes more capacious every day; every mercy and long-suffering despised is an enlargement. What will it hold at last if you go on and on increasing its size, and making it fitter and fitter to hold more of that wrath which shall fill but never burst it. Step and pray for grace to arrest this self-fitting for destruction. Pray that the Lord's Spirit may transform you from a vessel of wrath into a vessel of mercy. Pray that His much long-suffering may melt your hard heart, and make you long to have His love instead of His wrath shed abroad in your soul. Pray that the blood of Christ may, as it were, rinse out the polluted vessel, wash away all the wrath, and fill to the brim with mercy — fill it now; and for ever and ever fill it, as throughout eternity that vessel grows larger.

(D. F. Jarman, B.A.)

1. They are made of the same lump as the vessels of wrath. Thou who hast hope of heaven look back to the miry clay whence thou wast drawn! There was nothing in thee by nature better than that which is found in any other man. Had He left thee to thyself, thou hadst been as base and vile as others. If there be a difference in thee, the difference is of grace and not of nature.

2. They are as much as any other portion of the clay, entirely in the potter's hand. Had the potter willed to leave that mass of clay alone, we should have been vessels of wrath most surely. Hell's thistles grow self-sown, but God's wheat needs a husbandman. Vessels of mercy fit themselves for destruction, but grace alone can prepare a soul for glory. If the Lord had permitted the whole human race to perish He would have been infinitely just. If He had chosen to spare a few, that would have been an act of surprising mercy. Inasmuch, however, as He hath taken so much of the clayey mass, as to make vessels of mercy innumerable as the stars of heaven, unto His name be all the glory.

3. God's chosen ones: are —(1) "Vessels." A vessel is not a fountain, not a creator of the water, but a container. So the redeemed are not fountains by nature, out of whom there springeth up anything that is good. At one time they are full of themselves, but grace empties them, and then as empty vessels they are set in the way of God's goodness, God fills them to the brim with His loving-kindness, and so are they proved to be the vessels of His mercy. Remember all that God asks of thee in order to thy salvation is, not to do anything, but to holdout thine empty hand and take all thou wantest. The elect of God are vessels only. They may afterwards give out to others, but they can only give out what God has put in them. They may run over with gratitude, but it is only because God has filled them with grace; they may stream forth with holiness, but it is only because the Lord keeps the supply overflowing.(2) "Vessels of mercy." In order that they may be such it is necessary that they should be sinful and miserable. Pity may be given to the miserable, but mercy must be bestowed upon the sinful. For a judge to talk of mercy to the innocent would be to insult them; and for the philanthropist to offer pity to the happy would be but to mock them. The redeemed are not vessels of merit but vessels of mercy.

II. THE POTTER AT HIS WORK. When a potter is about to make a vessel he does not take up the clay and put it on the wheel and then leave it to chance. No —

1. He has his plan. So it is with our Divine Potter. He takes the poor sinner; He puts him on the wheel, and as that wheel revolves the potter looks and sees in that clay a future something which does not appear to the vessel. "It does not yet appear what we shall be"; but the Potter knows, "He will present us without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing."

2. He makes the outlines in the clay. You may have seen the man at work. Perhaps at the very first moment you may form a rough guess of what the whole thing is to be, though the elaboration you cannot yet discover. Certain it is, that the moment a man begins to be separated for heaven by the grace of God in his soul, you may see the outlines of what he is to be. There is —

(1)Faith in Christ.

(2)Love to Christ.

(3)A hope that maketh not ashamed, and a joy which makes glad his countenance.It is but the bare outline, for the glory which excelleth is not there. The vase is only in its embryo, but yet sufficiently developed to give a prophecy of its finished form.

3. The gradual completion of the article. There will not always be in you the bare outline, but as time goes on there will be some of the beautiful lines and filling-up. The Christian will be getting more and more like his Master. And if we can see here on earth vessels getting ready for perfection, and if those vessels have so much beauty in them, what must they be when at last they shall be finished. If this world be fair, how much fairer shall the new world be.

III. THE POTTER'S MARK UPON HIS VESSELS. In all manufactories there is always some trade-mark which is not to be imitated, and without which no vessel is the genuine production of the professed maker. You may know to-day whether you are a vessel of mercy by the Master's mark upon you.

1. That mark is — calling. Has Divine grace called you out of darkness into marvellous light? for if so, it is not a matter of question as to whether you are ordained to eternal life.

2. That is a mark which no man can put upon you. The earnest minister may cry aloud and spare not, but it is in vain calling to deaf ears. The Lord alone can so speak, that the deaf, nay, the dead, must hear. Hast thou ever, then, felt a calling which is not of man, neither by man? Has the voice of mercy so said, "Come to Jesus," that thy heart has said "Thy face, Lord, will I seek"? Has He said to thee, "Mary," and hast thou said. "Raboni"? Has He cried to thee, "Zaccheus make haste and come down," and hast thou come down and received Him in thine house. Hast thou had that call, for if so, thou hast the mark of the Potter upon thee.

3. As this is a mark which no man can put upon you, so it is one which no man can take away from you.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. Capacity. Capable of being filled. Their value is in their emptiness (2 Kings 4:3-6). Sense of need.

2. Reception. The first thing needed, when emptied, is to receive. Mercy (Romans 9:23; 1 Timothy 1:16). Pardon (Acts 26:18). The engrafted word (James 1:21). Christ (Colossians 2:6). Power (Acts 1:8).

3. Possession. To hold what is put into them. The Word of God (Colossians 3:16; John 15:7). Not leaky (Hebrews 2:1).

II. THE HONOUR CONFERRED ON THESE VESSELS.

1. They bear God's Name (Acts 9:15). Character (Deuteronomy 28:10). Service (Deuteronomy 10:8).

2. They contain God's treasure {2 Corinthians 4:7). The vessel — frail and worthless. The treasure — all powerful and priceless.

3. They are used in God's service (2 Timothy 2:21). Their meetness consists in being set apart — cleansed — filled.

(E. H. Hopkins.)

I. FORMATION.

II. POSITION.

III. CONDITION. Mercy —

1. Pervades their thoughts.

2. Is uttered in their words.

3. Is expressed in their actions.

4. Beams in their looks.

5. Glows in their prayers.

IV. PROGRESSION.

V. PRESERVATION.

VI. GLORIFICATION. Application:

1. If thou be a vessel of mercy, let love and gratitude prompt thee to commend that mercy to others which thou hast received.

2. If a vessel of wrath, let nothing divert you from earnestly seeking mercy at the Cross of Christ.

(Evangelical Preacher.)

1. Glory.

2. Power.

3. Mercy.

4. Wrath.

II. HIS PROCEDURE.

1. He endures patiently with sinners.

2. Allows them to work out their own ruin.

3. Confers the riches of His grace on them that believe.

4. Prepares them for glory.

III. HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

1. He calls all men to repentance.

2. Offers them His mercy in Christ.

3. Both Jews and Gentiles.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

1. Not the righteous.

2. But sinners — both of the Jews and the Gentiles.

II. HOW ARE THEY CALLED.

1. By the gospel.

2. By the ministration of the Word.

3. By the Spirit of God.

III. UNTO WHAT ARE THEY CALLED? To the enjoyment of —

1. Pardon.

2. Holiness.

3. Heaven,

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

1. Not My people.

2. Not beloved.

II. THEIR GRACIOUS CALL — an act of —

1. Sovereign will.

2. Unmerited.

3. Effected by the gospel.

III. THEIR LOFTY PRIVILEGE — called to be the sons of the living God —

1. Through faith.

2. In Jesus Christ.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

1. We accept the supreme authority of Holy Scripture: every word of it is truth to us.

2. Yet we attach special weight to words which are the personal utterances of the Lord, as here.

3. Still more are we impressed when a Divine message is repeated, as here.

4. "God saith" still what He said long ago. Come, then, anxious souls, and hear the story of God's grace to His chosen, in the hope that He may do the like for you. Observe concerning the Lord's people —

I. THEIR ORIGINAL STATE.

1. They not only were not "beloved," but they were expressly disowned. Their claim, if they made any, was negatived. This is the worst case that can be; worse than to be left alone. This conscience, providence, and God's Word all appear to say to men who persist in sin.

2. They had no approval of God. They were not numbered with His people, and were not "beloved " in the sense of complacency.

3. They had not in the highest sense obtained mercy. For —

(1)They were under providential judgment.

(2)That judgment had not become a blessing to them.

(3)They had not even sought for mercy.

4. They were types of a people who as yet have —

(1)Felt no application of the blood of Jesus.

(2)Known no renewing work of the Spirit.

(3)Obtained no relief by prayer; perhaps have not prayed.

(4)Enjoyed no comfort of the promises.

(5)Known no communion with God.

(6)No hope of heaven or preparation for it.It is a terrible description, including all the unsaved. It is concerning such that the promise is made — "I will call them My people." Who these are shall be seen in due time by their repentance and faith, which shall be wrought in them by the Spirit of God. There are such people, and this fact is our encouragement in preaching the gospel, for we perceive that our labour will not be in vain.

II. THEIR NEW CONDITION.

1. Mercy is promised.

2. A Divine revelation is pronounced. "I will say, Thou art My people." This is —

(1)Done by the Spirit of God in the heart.

(2)Supported by gracious dealings in the life.

3. A hearty response shall be given. "They shall say, Thou art my God." The Spirit will lead them to this free acceptance.

(1)As a whole, they will say this with one voice.

(2)Each individual will say it for himself in the singular. "Thou."

4. A declaration of love shall be made. "I will call her beloved," etc. Love shall be enjoyed.

5. This shall be perceived by others. "They shall be called," etc. Their likeness to God shall make them to be called the children of God, even as the peacemakers in Matthew 5:9. Thus every blessing shall be theirs, surely, personally, everlastingly.Reflections:

1. We must give up none as hopeless; even though they be marked out by terrible evidence to be not the people of God.

2. None may give up themselves in despair.

3. Sovereign grace is the ultimate hope of the fallen. Let them trust in a God so freely gracious, so mighty to save, so determined to bring in those whom it seemed that even He Himself had disowned, whom everybody had abandoned as not the people of God.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. THE HIGHLY FAVOURED MAY ABUSE THEIR ADVANTAGES AND LOSE THEM. Consider the case of the Hebrews.

1. Their special prerogatives in religious knowledge and means of spiritual improvement.

2. Their rebellion and apostasy in yielding to idolatry.

3. Their frequent chastisements, especially in the captivity, and their subsequent humiliations.

4. The repetition of their insensibility and disobedience in the rejection of the Christ.

5. The final catastrophe which overtook the nation in the destruction of Jerusalem and the final dispersion.

II. THE LESS FAVOURED MAY BE, IN GOD'S PROVIDENCE, EXALTED TO PRIVILEGE. Consider the case of the Gentiles.

1. The publication of the gospel to them by Paul upon its rejection by the Jews.

2. The acceptance by many of the glad tidings intended for the enlightenment and salvation of men.

3. The position taken by Gentile converts in the diffusion of Christianity.

4. The subsequent conversion of the Roman empire.

5. The course of Christian history which may all be traced to the operation of this wonderful principle.Application:

1. They act foolishly who rely on their privileges.

2. They are wise who, grateful for their privileges, are concerned so to use them that they may become the vehicles of the highest blessing to themselves, and to those over whom their influence may extend.

3. They who are cast down because their circumstances seem unfavourable should not forget that those who were "not God's people" became "His people," "His beloved," "the children of God."

(Prof. Thomson.)

1. "Not My people." Who's then? Men do not occupy neutral territory, nor are they an independent republic. God's people own and serve Him as their Sovereign and Master — dread alternative then, those who throw off this allegiance become the slaves and subjects of the prince of this world, doing homage to him in their sentiments, and serving Him in their lives. And such were some of you.

2. "Not beloved."(1) Because unlovely and unloving. "Alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked works." How could God love in the sense here mentioned those who defied His authority, broke His commandments, and made bad that which He pronounced "very good."(2) Therefore —(a) The wrath of God abideth on them — rests as long as the provoking cause remains.(b) The coming wrath menaces them.

II. WHAT THEY ARE.

1. "My people."(1) They belong to God. He has bought them; He has taken them to be His peculiar possession; they gladly acquiesce in the Divine proprietorship. How safe and happy this makes them! "If God be for us, who can be against us?"(2) They are God's people.(a) A homogeneous people. They are not His as so many scattered units, but His as a body, a Church. United to Him they are bound to one another for mutual protection, edification, comfort and general usefulness.(b) A royal people. A kingdom. The Church is not a mere school of thought, but a kingdom of priests unto God. God's people are royal in their birth, bearing, privileges, duties, and hopes.(c) A people with a destiny. While some peoples have fulfilled their destiny, and others have theirs trembling in the balance, and others yet again all uncertain of theirs that of the people of God is sure. They and only they are to inherit the earth. That destiny is being fulfilled every day, and will be perfectly fulfilled when "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun," etc.

2. "Beloved."

(1)God's anger is passed away from them. What then? What happens when the clouds rollaway at noon-day? So when the clouds of our rebellion and sinfulness pass away from before His countenance we bask in His smile. So —

(2)They are the objects of His complacency. He sees in them that which fills Him with delight — His beloved Son's purchase and image. Hence —

(3)They are the subjects of His special care (Romans 8:39). And —

(4)They await the highest manifestations of His favour.

3. "Children of God."

(1)They are born from above, and become partakers of the Divine nature.

(2)They are adopted into the Divine family.

(3)They are heirs of Divine possessions.

III. HOW THEY BECOME WHAT THEY ARE

1. By sovereign grace. There was no merit in them, but every demerit. Had not God chosen them they had never chosen God.

2. By compliance with the conditions laid down by sovereign grace. Repentance and faith.

(J. W Burn.)

1. Without God.

2. Without knowledge of the truth.

3. Without hope.

II. THEIR HAPPY CHANGE.

1. Adopted.

2. Transformed.

3. Admitted to fellowship with God — the true source of life and happiness.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

II. THE BLESSED CONDITION OF "THIS PEOPLE" AT THE LAST. There is a remark-able contrast. They are the same people. But their condition is changed. They are to become not only God's people, but God's children, not only His servants, but His heirs. The change is a remarkable one, for it —

1. Involves a change of nature, disposition, heart, character, and it manifests the power of Divine grace which can so transform "stones" into children.

2. Alters the condition and future of those who are its subjects. They look forward to a period of blessedness in a Father's house.

(J. J. S. Bird, M.A.)