10.]
[Footnote 98: Rom, 9. 31. 32.]
In the third place, it may be observed, that the Apostle Paul considers
the churches under his care as called or chosen; as consisting of people
who came out of the great body of the Heathen world to become a select
community under the Christian name. He endeavours to inculcate in them a
belief, that they were the Lord's people; that they were under his
immediate or particular care; that God knew and loved them, before they
knew and loved him; and yet this election, it appears, did not secure
them from falling off; for many of them became apostates in the time of
the Apostle, so "that he was grieved, fearing he had bestowed upon them
his labour in vain." Neither did this election secure even to those who
then remained in the church, any certainty of salvation; otherwise the
Apostle would not have exhorted them so earnestly "to continue in
goodness, lest they should be cut off."
The Quakers believe again, that the Apostle Paul never included
salvation in the words "called or chosen," for another reason. For if
these words had implied salvation, then non-election might have implied
the destruction annexed to it by the favourers of the doctrine of
reprobation. But no person, who knows whom the Apostle meant, when he
mentions those who had received and those who had lost the preference,
entertains any such notion or idea.
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