Page:The rock of wisdom.djvu/113

 preference of the younger to the elder, the drift of the apostle is to show to these, that God, in his election, mercy and grace, is not tied to any particular nation, as the Jews imagined, nor to any prerogative of birth, or any foregoing merits, for as, antecedently to his grace, he sees no merits in any, but finds all involved in sin, in the common mass of condemnation, and all children of wrath : there is no one whom he might not justly leave in the mass, so that whomsoever he leaves in it, he leaves in his justice. As when two equally criminal, a king is pleased, out of pure mercy, to pardon one, while he suffers justice to. take place in the execution of the other, that is, by any power or strength of his own, abstracting from the grace of God, not that God made him on purpose that he should sin and so that he might be damned, but foreseeing his obstinacy in sin, and the abuse of his own free will, he raised him up to be a mighty man in this world, to make a more remarkable example, and that his power may be better known, and his justice m punishing him, published throughout the earth, not by being the cause or author of, but by withholding his grace on the account of his disobedience, and so leaving him in his sin, in punishment of his past crimes. This similitude is used only to show that we are not to dispute with our maker, nor to reason with him, and say why he does not give as great grace to one as to another, for since the whole mass of our clay is vetiated by sin, it is owing to his goodness and mercy, that he makes out of it so many vessels of honor, and it is no more than just, that others, in punishment of their unexpiated sins, should be given up to be vessels of dishonor, for God sayeth "my spirit shall not always strive with man."—This is the word of God, in order that we may build upon a sure foundation in this life, and while his spirit is yet striving the foundation is Christ and his doctrine, or the true faith in him working through charity, the building upon this foundation. Gold and silver and precious stones (see 1st Cor. 3: 12.) signifies the more perfect preaching and practice of the gospel The wood hay and stubble, such preaching as was that of the Corinthian teachers, who affected the pomp of words and human eloquence, and such practice as is mixed with much imperfection and many lesser sins. Now the day of the Lord and