On the other hand, they
believe that he is no respecter of persons, only as far as obedience is
concerned: that election neither secures of itself good behaviour, nor
protects from punishment: that every man who standeth, must take heed
lest he fall: that no man can boast of his election, so as to look down
with contempt upon his meaner brethren: and that there is no other
foundation for an expectation of the continuance of divine favour than a
religions life.
In viewing the passages in question as of private import, which is the
next view the Quakers take of them, the same lesson, and no other, is
inculcated. The Apostle, in the ninth chapter of the Romans, addresses
himself to the Jews, who had been a chosen people, and rescues the
character of God from the imputation of injustice, in having passed over
them, and in having admitted the Gentiles to a participation of his
favours.
The Jews had depended so much upon their privileges as the children of
Abraham, and so much upon their ceremonial observances of the law, that
they conceived themselves to have a right to continue to be the peculiar
people of God. The Apostle, however, teaches them, in the ninth and the
eleventh chapters of the Romans, a different lesson, and may be said to
address them in the following manner:--
"I am truly sorry, my kinsmen in the flesh, that you, who have always
considered yourselves the elder and chosen branches of the family of the
world, should have been passed over; and that the Gentiles, whom you
have always looked upon as the younger, should be now preferred.
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