Rom. 1:7 and 1 Cor. 1:2 and elsewhere, called to be saints, implies
sin, Rom. 9:22, and exposes persons to be like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, verse 29. Rom. 11:4-7, "But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work." 2 Tim. 2:9; Eph. 2:9; Tit. 3:5, "What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." Rom. 11:1718, "If some of the branches are broken off, and thou, being a wild olive-tree, wert grafted in amongst them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive-tree; boast not against the branches." Rom. 11:25-27, "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." Together with verses 35, 36, "Who hath first given unto him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever and ever." 55. That expression, Rom. 1:7 and 1 Cor. 1:2 and elsewhere, called to be saints, implies that God makes the distinction. Compare this with what Christ says, John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice." Verse 16, "Other sheep have I, which are not of this fold; them also must I bring; and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." 1 Cor. 1:2628, to the end: "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of, etc. That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus," etc. Rom. 11 latter end. Heb. 13:20-21; 1 Cor. 3:5-9, "Who then is Paul, or who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, and Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. — We are labourers together with God, ye are God's husbandry; ye are God's building." According to the Arminian scheme, it ought to have been: I have planted and watered more especially. For we have done it only as his servants. But you yourselves have given the increase: the fruit has been left to your free will. This is agreeable to what the Arminians from time to time insist on, in what they say upon the parable of the vineyard which God planted in a fruitful hill, etc. and looked that it should bring forth grapes, and says, "What could I have done more unto my vineyard?" 2 Cor. 3:3, "Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshy tables of the heart." They were the epistle of Christ, as the effect of the Spirit of God in their hearts held forth the light of truth, of gospel truth with its evidence to the world, as the church is compared to a candlestick and called the pillar and ground of the truth. This is agreeable to those scriptures in the Old Testament, that speak of writing God's law in their hearts, etc. Add to this, 2 Cor. 4:6, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. 5:14-18, "If one died for all, then were all dead; that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new; and all things are of God." 2 Cor. 8:16-17, "Thanks be to God who put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. For indeed he accepted the exhortation. But being more forward, of his own accord he went unto you." So the next chapter speaks of the Corinthians' forwardness and readiness in their bounty to the poor saints, not as of necessity, but with freedom and cheerfulness, according to the purpose of their own hearts or wills. But it yet speaks of their charity as just cause of much thanksgiving to God, and speaks expressly of thanksgiving to him for such a subjection of them to the gospel, and liberal distribution to them. Gal. 1:15-16, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles," compared with 2 Cor. 4:6-7 and the account which he gives himself of his conversion, Acts 26:16-18. Gal. 2:19-20, "I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Gal. 5:22-23, etc. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." 56. The apostle, in Eph. 1:18-20 speaks of some exceeding great work of power, by which they that believe are distinguished. But a bodily resurrection is no such distinguishing work of power. See the words: "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ Jesus, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his right hand in heavenly places." The apostle repeats the same thing in substance again in Eph. 3:14 and following verses, and tells us what sort of knowledge he desired, and so earnestly prayed that they might receive, and what is the power that he speaks of: "That they may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length, and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." And tells us by what means God would dwell in their hearts by faith, etc. Eph. 3:16-17. And he tells us in verse 20 what is the power of God he speaks of. See Rom. 15:13; 1 Pet. 1:3-5, and 2 Thes. 1:11-12. See also what the apostle speaks of as an effect of God's glorious power, Col. 1:11. Eph. 1:18-20 is to be taken in connection with the words which follow in the beginning of the next chapter, which is a continuation of the same discourse, where the apostle abundantly explains himself. In those words, there is an explanation of what had before been more figuratively represented. He here observes that those that believe are the subjects of a like exceeding greatness of power that Christ was, when he was raised from the dead, and set at God's own right hand in heavenly places. And then in the prosecution of this discourse he shows how, viz. in our being raised from the dead, being dead ourselves in trespasses and sins, and raised as Christ was, and made to sit together with him in heavenly places (and this he speaks of, not only as the fruit of the exceeding greatness of his power, but of the riches of his mercy, and exceeding riches of his grace: by grace in opposition to works), that it is by faith, which is the gift of God. The apostle repeats it over and over, that it is by grace, and then explains how: not of works; and that our faith itself, by which it is, is not of ourselves, but is God's gift; and that we are wholly God's workmanship; and that all is owing to God's foreordaining that we should walk in good works. I know not what the apostle could have