his sermons, there was never any barrenness of good and profitable matter. His sermons were regularly divided, so that his hearers might know where he was, and what he was about to do; but they were not like trees in winter, exhibiting only an assemblage of trunks and branches, without leaves and fruit; nor were they ever characterised by a circuitous, tiresome, or unmeaning verbosity, "stale, flat, and unprofitable,' which falls uselessly to the ground, like an arrow which misses its mark. Sometimes, when he had said all he could in the way of argument, when he could add no more, as a dernier resort he would weep. Well did he answer the description of the poet; he was

"Simple, grave, sincere ;

In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain,
And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste,
And natural in gesture; much impress'd
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
May feel it too; affectionate in look,
And tender in address, as well becomes
A messenger of grace to guilty men."

In his pulpit ministrations, he never seemed concerned that the ambassador should appear greater than the prince; or that the majesty of the latter should be eclipsed in the official pomp and circumstance of the former. On every occasion he desired to stoop, that his audience might look over the servant's head to see the Master's face.

He was not an idler in the vineyard of the Lord. For many years he preached thrice every Sabbath, and once on the week night; and in addition to this, he itinerated in the neighbouring villages, namely, Hazle Grove, Woodley, Heaton, Mersey, &c.; and there is reason to believe, that in these places his labours were not in vain.

He was punctual in the time of his attendance on the services of the sanctuary, as well as to the duties connected with the management of his household. He was very careful to keep a proper register of all the children he baptised, and of all the dead he buried; and inculcated upon parents the duty of teaching their children the principles of the Christian religion, as laid down in the Assembly's Catechism, which at stated times he heard the children repeat. He made weekly visits in a friendly way, at the houses of his members and hearers; his stay was short, his conversation was familiar, and his object to do good; being ever ready to caution, to advise, or

to comfort, as the case might require. He had a good knowledge of the medical art, and (at the desire of those who were labouring under affliction) he would gratuitously prescribe the treatment which he conceived should be adopted; generally to the benefit and often to the cure of the patients; so that, according to his ability, it might be said of him, as it was said of the Master whom he served, "he went about doing good," and "healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." He was a staunch Dissenter, from principle, and a firm believer in the scriptural constitution of churches of the Congregational order.

His sickness was short and severe, for there were not many days between his being in great pain in this world, and in great happiness in another. Having walked in the way of uprightness, his latter end was peace. He bore his affliction with exemplary patience, fortitude, and resignation. Having finished his work, his mind was at rest. A few days before his death, one of his members (in the course of some conversation with him) said, "Well, Mr. Ashton, I trust that those truths which you have so often preached to others are now the support of your own mind." To which he replied, "Yes, all is well." On the morning of the first Sabbath in September, 1836, he preached his last sermon, from Psalm cxix. 32, when he declared himself to be in much pain, and that few persons, feeling as he did, would attempt to preach at all. His son preached in the afternoon, and at the close of the service this venerable and faithful minister of Christ administered the ordinance of the Lord's Supper to the church, which was the last public service he performed. On the following day he went out of doors for the last time, after which he was for the most part confined to his bed, labouring under great weakness and pain, and sinking rapidly under the disease with which he was afflicted. At last, lifting up his eyes, and clasping his hands together, as if in the act of devotion, he died without a struggle or a sigh, about half-past one in the afternoon of Wednesday, September the 14th, 1836. Thus realising the words of the poet

"Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,
The Christian's native air,

His watch-word at the gates of death,
He enters heaven with prayer."

He has left a widow and three sons to lament his loss.

During the course of his ministry at Stockport, though his character was unimpeachable, his remuneration small, and his official services were highly creditable, yet he had not unfrequently to suffer from the wounds he received from the shafts of malice and misrepresentation, forged and shot by those who professed the name of Christ, and from whom better things might have been reasonably expected. But now his warfare is past, and his troubles are over, and he is where "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

It is not for mortal man to sit in judgment on the dispensations of the Eternal, or to ask him, why he removes distinguished ministers from the Church, when their labours are most needed. His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways. It is so. May we consider it well, and receive instruction, and through grace enabling us, may we follow his footsteps, so far as he followed Christ, that ultimately we

also may share in his heavenly reward, and be as well spoken of by those who come after us. Amen. T. S. A.

Stockport, March 14, 1837.

Note. His funeral was attended by a great concourse of people, principally composed of the members of his own church, and the Independent ministers of the town and neighbourhood. The Rev. Charles Lowndes, of Gatley, (brother of the missionary,) read suitable portions of Scripture; and the Rev.

Ivy, of Duckenfield, prayed; after which the Rev. John Adamson, of Charlesworth, (a fellow-student of the deceased,) gave an excellent address. On the 9th of October, 1836, the Rev. S. Bradley, of Manchester, preached his funeral sermon. The Committee of the Stockport Sunday-school kindly granted the use of their large room for the service, and at least four thousand persons were present, and many hundreds were obliged to go away who could not obtain admittance. The discourse was founded on the words, "How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"

Is a former essay we endeavoured, with as much simplicity as possible, to state and enforce the doctrine of Scripture, on the subject of an "election of grace." If man be fallen from original integrity, and is "dead in trespasses and sins," it cannot surely be doubted, that salvation is not of himself, but of God. To suppose that an apostate creature can, in any sense, become his own Saviour, is to pronounce the whole scheme of Divine interposition, through a Redeemer, a useless expenditure of Divine wisdom, power, and benevolence. But if it be once admitted that the sinner cannot save himself, it will follow as a consequence, that unless God himself shall undertake the work, no child of

Rom. ix. 20.

Adam can be restored to the friendship and likeness of his Maker.

Every justified and renewed sinner, then, is a monument of God's pardoning and quickening grace. He has neither justified nor renewed himself; but if God has performed these gracious acts on his behalf, it is demonstratively certain, that they have been performed as the result of a purpose or decree on the part of the Most High, to show mercy to a guilty and outcast rebel. The very circumstances which rendered a Divine interposition necessary in order to the salvation of sinners, forbid the supposition, that the "election of grace" fixed on men considered as partakers of faith and holiness; for, as these qualities are

the sole results of a Divine and gracious operation, there must have been a purpose in the mind of God to effect them in the sinner's heart. And thus it is, that election is the parent of faith, and not faith the parent of election.

And does not this view of our subject correspond, in the strictest manner, with the experience of every child of God? Theories aside, does he not acknowledge, with humility and adoring gratitude, that it is God who worketh in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure? Nay, is he not conscious, from a review of the enmity of his own heart against God, that he must have remained the subject of that enmity, if God had not taken away "the hard and stony heart, and given him a heart of flesh ?"

The doctrine of election, then, is composed of these two grand elements: first, the utter inability of man to become his own saviour; and, secondly, the purpose of God, from all eternity, to raise a portion of an apostate race from the ruins of the fall, and infallibly to conduct them to the possession of eternal life. In this purpose the means and the end are alike embraced; and the grand result of the whole scheme will be an eternal demonstration of the sovereignty of God in the salvation of a redeemed and glorified Church.

It may be edifying to examine some of the objections which have been urged against the doctrine of election, and to present a just and scriptural view of its moral tendency.

I. We shall examine some of the objections which have been urged against the doctrine of election.

If we have succeeded in proving that it is the doctrine of God's holy word, this ought to be sufficient to silence all objection, and to create a feeling of humble and adoring submission. Still it may be proper, for the purpose of aiding weak faith, and rescuing the truth of God from unwarrantable suspicions, to glance at some of the pleas ordinarily advanced against the doctrine under discussion. And,

1. It has been objected to this doctrine, That it is too profoundly mysterious to admit of belief.

To affirm that it is not mysterious would be the height of extravagance. It is, indeed, awfully mysterious. But in what does the mystery consist? Not in the fact that God has revealed a purpose

of election, nor in the fact that if such a purpose had not been formed none of Adam's race could have been saved; but in the single point, that God has seen fit to conceal from mortals the reasons

of his elective purpose. "He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy ;' but the ground on which he thus acts is, and must remain, among the secret things which belong to his own inscrutable mind. The mystery, then, of this doctrine can be no reason for its rejection, inasmuch as God is under no obligation to disclose to feeble and erring creatures the ultimate reasons which dictate his all-wise and holy procedure. But because the secret reason of God's election is a profound mystery-a thing utterly hid from the eye of man-does it follow, that it is a reason unworthy of himself, that it stands opposed to his eternal attributes, or that it is inconsistent with any of the essential principles of his moral government? Assuredly not. The mere circumstance of concealment argues nothing against the wisdom, holiness, and goodness of the motives which influenced God in his eternal purpose of grace. To his own mind there is no mystery in his elective purpose; and, for aught we know to the contrary, the light of eternity may unravel the whole scheme of mercy, and unfold to a redeemed church the reasons of the election of grace. But whether such shall be the case or not, let us rest contented in what God has seen fit to reveal, leaving the secrets of his counsel to be then disclosed or concealed, as may seem good in his sight.

2. It has been objected to the doctrine of election, That it presents the Almighty in an arbitrary and forbidding light to the contemplation of mortals.

This objection is equally feeble as the preceding one. It proceeds upon the assumption, that we are capable of pronouncing, in every given instance, what would or would not be arbitrary or capricious on the part of God; an assumption as unsound in principle as it would be injurious in its effects. That God is neither arbitrary nor capricious, may be asserted with unhesitating confidence. His holiness, his goodness, his justice, forbid us to think of him as ever acting in a way unsuitable to his own perfect character. But till we are capable, by searching, of finding out God, till we

can find out the Almighty to perfection, there must be much in his procedure upon which we dare not attempt to pronounce. If it could have been any real benefit for us to know the principle of God's government which led him to choose some men to life and not others, we may assure ourselves that God would not have left us in ignorance on this part of his conduct; but our simple ignorance can surely be no reason for our imputing any thing like caprice to the Divine Being in this matter, any more than in thousands of other instances in which we are equally at a loss to determine the grounds of the Divine conduct. "Let us, learn," observes an enlightened divine, to exercise that confidence in God's wisdom and goodness, in this high exercise of his sovereignty, to which all those parts of his conduct which he has been pleased to explain have already entitled him; and sit down contented with the assurance, that the Judge of all the earth will do that which is right."*

3. It has been objected to the doctrine of election, That it necessarily involves a decree of reprobation.

That some who have professed to hold the doctrine of election, have encumbered it with this fearful appendage, must be admitted; but that it necessarily involves any such consequence cannot be too earnestly denied. To purpose the unconditional salvation of some, is one thing; to purpose the unconditional ruin of others, is quite another. The sovereignty of God, indeed, is the only adequate source to which we can trace the salvation of any lost and ruined creature; but it is not sovereignty, but equity, and terminates on the punishment of transgressors. The decree of election is the source of good only, and not of evil. "The sovereignty of God should never be confounded with his supremacy. The former is the right he possesses to bestow good of any kind, in any degree, and in whatever manner he pleases, not only where there is no claim, but where there is the greatest demerit. It is absurd, then, to speak of sovereign justice as of equitable mercy. The sum of the whole is, that when men suffer, they do so because they have sinned, and therefore deserve punishment; and when they are saved and blessed, they are so of free and sove

• Dr. Payne's Lectures on Divine Sovereignty, &c.

reign favour."* A decree to punishment, irrespective of human guilt and transgression, is such an anomaly as can never exist under the government of an infinitely holy and righteous Being. The decree of God to save some, of mere sovereignty, implies only the absence of a decree to save the rest; in other words, God has a decree to save some, but he has no decree not to save others. The ruin, therefore, of those whom he has not decreed to save, is not the result of sovereign determination, but of equitable procedure. Though there doubtless was a decree to save some, there was no actual decree not to save others. Such a decree is quite unnecessary; for the whole human family were contemplated by God in a state of guilty rebellion against his government. There might be a purpose in the Divine mind to show mercy to men, irrespective of human desert; yea, notwithstanding the greatest unworthiness; but there could be no purpose in the Holy One of Irsael to inflict punishment upon any of the human race, irrespective of the guilt and pollution of sin, which were its just and equitable occasion. A decree of salvation was indispensably necessary if any were to be saved, since all were considered as lost; but a decree of reprobation could only be founded on foreseen transgression, and could be nothing more or less than God's determination to inflict deserved punishment upon men considered as guilty. In one word, the salvation of sinners is the result of sovereign choice; while the condemnation of sinners is the result of God's decree of righteous retribution. The reprobation of men, except as the just consequence for sin, is a doctrine so revolting to every notion of equitable procedure, that the very mention of it is an affront to reason and common sense, and a daring libel on the character of the eternal God.

4. It has been objected to the doctrine of election, That it is inconsistent with man's free agency and accountableness.

Such an objection as this to the doctrine is utterly groundless. What is free agency in man, but a liberty to act as he pleases, without being coerced by physical force to do that which he does not choose, and without being restrained by physical force from doing that which he does choose? Every man is a free agent,

* Dr. Russell's Letters, &c., p. 275.

who is at liberty do what he chooses, whatever he may choose to do.

But how, then, can man's free agency in any way be interfered with by God's decree of election ? Does it compel wicked men to act wickedly, without any choice of their own? Or does it compel good men to perform holy actions, without, or contrary to, their own volitions? Assuredly not. Election is God's purpose to save sinners, or, at least, his purpose to exert an influence by which they will be saved in his own appointed time and way. But are the elect, therefore, compelled to be saved? Are they driven to the cross of Christ, without any choice or volition of their own? By no means. All that the doctrine supposes is, that a Divine influence is exerted upon the minds of the elect, by which their corrupt dispositions are effectually changed, and they are sweetly and voluntarily drawn to the feet of Him who gave himself a ransom for the guilty. With regard to the finally lost, the decree of election can exert no influence whatever hostile to their freedom, as it has no actual bearing whatever on their case.

In a similar way it might easily be shown, that election leaves man in full possession of his accountableness, whether he belong to the elect or non-elect. If we refer to the elect, the decree of God does not annihilate the moral worth of their several actions; inasmuch as it does not constrain them to the involuntary performance of what is good, but secures, by a Divine energy, a right principle of action. In the accomplishinent of his gracious purpose, God operates upon the dispositions of his children, as the true sources of moral conduct; so that their conduct is morally excellent as flowing from a right principle, though it be the offspring of God's predestinating love. If we refer to the finally lost, they are not lost by reason of God's decree of election, which is a purpose of good, and not of evil; but simply by reason of their own sinfulness, voluntarily indulged, under the influence of a depraved and rebellious disposition. As God exerts no evil influence upon any of the children of men, it must follow that the worst of men are accountable to him for their actions, as much as if no decree of election had ever existed.

5. It is objected to the doctrine of election, That it is contrary to the spi

rit of those exhortations of Scripture which urge Christians to diligence, watchfulness, and perseverance; and which guard them against the sin of apostacy, and the danger of drawing back even to perdition.

There are many ways of answering this objection to the doctrine of election. It proceeds upon an obvious fallacy, viz., that God decrees the end without reference to the means. Whereas the very reverse of this is the case. The Christian graces and duties which compose the character of a real child of God, are as surely embraced in God's decree of election, as is that eternal felicity to which they conduct. When the inspired writers, then, urge men "to give diligence to make their calling and election sure;" when they exhort them to "hold the beginning of their confidence stedfast unto the end;" when they declare that he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved," they proceed simply upon the principle, that the elect people of God can only be saved in the use of means; yea, that the decree of God does not more certainly embrace eternal life as the end, than it does faith and progressive holiness as the means.

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The exhortations to Christians to the diligent cultivation of every holy duty, are as little contrary to the decree of God's eternal love, as the intimation of Paul to the mariners, when shipwrecked on their way to Rome, that they could not be saved except they abode in the ship, was contrary to the Divine decree that none of them were to perish. They were to be saved, indeed, but it was in the use of means; and the obvious conclusion must be, that the decree to save, as announced by the angel, embraced not only the preservation of the mariners' lives, but also the appointed means of that preservation, viz., their abiding in the ship. Now, could we be as sure of the eternal life of any individual or individuals of the human race, as Paul was of the fact that none of the mariners should perish-a thing utterly impossible -it would, nevertheless, be our imperative duty to proclaim, with unflinching fidelity, the solemn truth, that he only who endureth to the end can be saved; just upon this simple principle, that the end can never be obtained without the means. The Scripture doctrine of election, instead of presenting a bare abstraction to the mind, and encouraging men