The Doctrine of Election, and Its Connection with the General Tenor of Christianity

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 edition. Excerpt: ...word. In the commencement of the Bible, Adam is set before us as seeking and finding enjoyment without having passed through death; but as we follow him in his course onwards, we find that his path terminates in ruin and corruption. Then Jesus is set before us, doing not his own will, but dying to himself, and consenting to pass through death; and as we follow him we find that his termination is immortal glory. And, lest any should put away these plain lessons by saying that Adam's history was a solitary example, and not of general application, and that it might be possible to arrive at the blessed conclusion of the second Adam by the easy way of the first, the veil of futurity is rent for their instruction, and it is declared to them by the fatal catastrophe of an innumerable multitude, placed exactly in the circumstances which they are wishing for themselves, that there is salvation in no other way--that there is no secure standing for man except in the willing death of Jesus Christ. I believe that the original condition of man, the fall, and the redemption, are only so many consecutive distinct steps in that mighty plan which is now in progress, and which may continue to be so for ever, by which God would train up a creature for real participation in his own holy and blessed nature. I cannot conceive that a creature such as man will be when that purpose is accomplished, could have been made at once--in other words, that such a production is within the province of creative power. I believe that holiness is an acquirement which can only be made by the co-operation of the creature's own personal will; it is a habit and not a mere capacity, and thus belongs not to the first creation, but to the second, which requires the consent of the...