The sermon explores the concept of God's sovereignty in the salvation of men, emphasizing that God has the absolute right to choose whom to have mercy on and whom to harden. The speaker discusses various examples from the Bible to illustrate God's exercise of sovereignty, including his choice of Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau. The sermon highlights that God's exercise of sovereignty in salvation does not contradict his other attributes, such as justice and mercy. The speaker also addresses the issue of salvation for sinners, emphasizing that God can save anyone, regardless of their past sins or circumstances, without compromising the honor of his attributes.

The following sermon by Jonathan Edwards is called God's Sovereignty in the Salvation of Men. It is taken from Romans 9 verse 18, Therefore, has a mercy on whom ye will have mercy, in whom ye will he harden. The Apostle in the beginning of this chapter expresses his great concern and sorrow of heart for the nation of the Jews, who are rejected of God. This leads him to observe the difference which God made by election between some of the Jews and others, and between the bulk of that people and the Christian Gentiles. In speaking of this, he enters into a more minute discussion of the sovereignty of God in electing some to eternal life, and rejecting others than is found in any other part of the Bible, in the course of which he quotes several passages from the Old Testament confirming and illustrating this doctrine.

In the ninth verse, he refers us to what God said to Abraham, showing his election of Isaac before Ishmael, for this is the word of promise. It is time, will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. And to what God had said to Rebekah, show in his election of Jacob before Esau. The elder shall serve the younger. In the thirteenth verse to a passage from Alakai, Jacob, have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

In the fifteenth verse to what God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And the verse preceding the text to what God says to Pharaoh in Romans 9 verse 17, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, even for the same purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. In what the apostle says in the text he seems to have respect especially to the two last cited passages, to what God said to Moses in the fifteenth verse, and what he said to Pharaoh in the verse immediately preceding. God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." To this the Apostle refers in the former part of the text, and we know how often it is said of Pharaoh that God hardened his heart, and to this the Apostle seems to have respect in the latter part of the text, in whom he will. He hardens.

We may observe in the text, one, God's different dealing with men. He has mercy on some, and hardens others. When God is here spoken of as hardening some of the children of men, It is not to be understood that God, by any positive efficiency, hardens any man's heart. There is no positive act in God. It is so he put forth any power to harden the heart.

To suppose any such thing would be to make God the immediate author of sin. God has said to hardened men in two ways. By withholding the powerful influences of his spirit, without which their hearts will remain hardened, and grow harder and harder. In a sense he hardens them, as he leaves them to hardness, and again by ordering those things in his providence, which through the abuse of their corruption become the occasion of their hardening. Thus, God sends his word and ordinances to man which, by their abuse, prove an occasion of their hardening.

So the Apostle said that he was unto some a saver of death unto death. So God has represented his sin in Isaiah on this errand, to make the hearts of the people fat, and make their ears heavy, and to shut their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." Isaiah 6 verse 10. Isaiah's preaching was, in itself, of a contrary tendency to make them better, but their abuse of it rendered it an occasion of their hardening. As God is here said to harden men, so he is said to put a lying spirit in the mouth of the false prophets." 2 Chronicles 18 verse 22. That is, he suffered a lying spirit to enter into them, and thus he has said, Abid Shimei cursed David.

2 Samuel 16 verse 10. Not that he properly commanded him, for it is contrary to God's commands. God expressly forbids cursing the ruler of the people, Exodus 22 verse 28, but he suffered corruption at that time so to work in Shimei, and ordered that occasion of stirring it up, as a manifestation of his displeasure against David. 2. The foundation of his different dealing with mankind, namely his sovereign will and pleasure, he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens.

This does not imply merely that God never shows mercy, or denies it against his will, or that he is always willing to do it when he does it. A willing subject or servant would he obeys his Lord's commands may never do anything against its will. Nothing, but what he can do cheerfully and with delight. And yet, he cannot be said to do what he wills in the sense of the text. But the expression implies that it is God's mere will and sovereign pleasure which supremely orders this affair.

It is the divine will without restraint, or constraint, or obligation. Doctrine God exercises his sovereignty in the eternal salvation of men. He not only is sovereign, and he has a sovereign right to dispose and order in that affair. And he not only might proceed in a sovereign way, if he would, and nobody could charge him with exceeding his right. But he actually does so.

He exercises the right which he has. In the following discourse, I propose to show 1. What is God's sovereignty? 2. What God's sovereignty in the salvation of men implies.

3. That God actually does exercise his sovereignty in this manner. 4. The reason for this exercise. First of all, I would show what is God's sovereignty.

The sovereignty of God is his absolute independent right of disposing of all creatures, according to his own pleasure. I will consider this definition by the parts of it. The will of God is called his mere pleasure. In opposition to any constraint, number one, man may do things voluntarily. And yet, there may be a degree of constraint.

A man may be said to do a thing voluntarily. That is, he himself does it. In all things considered, he may choose to do it. Yet, he may do it out of fear. In the thing in itself considered, he'll be irksome to him, and sorely against his inclination, when men do things thus, they cannot be said to do them according to their mere pleasure.

Number Two. In opposition to its being under the will of another, a servant may fulfill his master's commands. It may do it willingly, and cheerfully, and may delight to do its master's will. Yet, when he does so, he does not do it of his own mere pleasure. The saints do the will of God freely.

They choose to do it. It is their meat and drink. Yet, they do not do it of their own mere pleasure, an arbitrary will, because their will is under the direction of a superior will. Number Three. In opposition to any proper obligation, a man may do a thing which he is obliged to do, very freely, but he cannot be said to act from his own mere will and pleasure.

He who acts from his own mere pleasure is at full liberty, but he who is under any proper obligation, is not at liberty, but is bound. Now, the sovereignty of God supposes that he has a right to dispose of all of his creatures according to his mere pleasure, in the sense explained, and his right is absolute and independent. Men may have a right to dispose of some things according to their pleasure, but their right is not absolute and unlimited. Men may be said to have a right to dispose of their own goods as they please, but their right is not absolute. It has limits and bounds.

They have a right to dispose of their own goods as they please, provided they do not do it contrary to the law of the state to which they are subject, or contrary to the law of God. Man's right to dispose of their things as they will, is not absolute, because it is not independent. They have not an independent right to what they have, but in some things depend on the community to which they belong, for the right they have, and in everything depend on God to receive all the right they have to anything from God, but the sovereignty of God imports that he has an absolute, an unlimited, an independent right to dispose of his creatures as he will. So I propose to inquire secondly what God's sovereignty in the salvation of men implies, in answer to this inquiry I observe, it implies that God can either bestow salvation on any of the children of men, or refuse it, without any prejudice to the glory of any of its attributes, except where he has been pleased to declare that he will or will not bestow it. And it can be said absolutely, as the case now stands, that God can, without any prejudice to the honor of any of its attributes, bestow salvation on any of the children of men, or refuse it.

Because Concerning some, God has been pleased to declare either that he will or that he will not bestow salvation on them, and thus to bind himself by his own promise. And concerning some, he has been pleased to declare that he never will bestow salvation upon them, namely, those who have committed a sin against the Holy Ghost. Hence, as the case now stands, he is obliged. He cannot bestow salvation on one case or refuse it in the other, without prejudice to the honor of his truth. But God exercises his sovereignty in making these declarations.

God was not obliged to promise that he would save all who believe in Christ, Nor was he obliged to declare that he who committed a sin against the Holy Ghost should never be forgiven. But, it pleased him so to declare. And had it not been so, did God have been pleased to oblige himself in these cases. He might still have either bestowed salvation or refused it, with all prejudice to any of its attributes. If it would in itself be prejudicial to any of its attributes to bestow or refuse salvation, then God would not in this manner act as absolutely sovereign, because it then ceases to be a merely arbitrary thing.

It ceases to be a manner of absolute liberty, and it has become a manner of necessity or obligation, for God cannot do anything to the prejudice of any of his attributes, or contrary to what is in itself excellent and glorious. Therefore, God can, with all prejudice to that glory of any of his attributes, bestow salvation on any of the children of men, except on those cases, those who have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost. The case with us when men fail, and before God revealed his eternal purpose and plan for redeeming men by Jesus Christ, it was probably looked upon by the angels as a thing utterly inconsistent with God's attributes to save any of the children of men. It was utterly inconsistent with the honor of the divine attributes to save any one of the fallen children of men, as they were in themselves. It could not have been done, had not God contrived a way consistent with the honor of his holiness, majesty, justice, and truth.

But since God in the Gospel has revealed that nothing is too hard for him to do, Nothing beyond the reach of his power and wisdom and sufficiency. And since Christ has wrought out the work of redemption and fulfilled the law by obeying, there is none of mankind whom he may not save without any prejudice to any of his attributes, except he knows who have committed a sin against the Holy Ghost, and knows he might have saved without going contrary to any of his attributes had he not been pleased to declare that he would not. It was not because he could not who saved him consistently with his justice, consistently with his law, or because his attributes of mercy was not great enough, or the blood of Christ not sufficient to cleanse from that sin, but it has pleased him for wise reasons to declare that the sin shall never be forgiven in this world, or in the world to come. And so now it is contrary to God's truth to save such, but otherwise, there is no sinner. Let him be ever so great, but God can save him, without prejudice to any attribute.

If he has been a murderer, dalterer, or perjurer, or idolater, or blasphemer, God may save him as he pleases, and in no respect endure his glory, till persons have sinned long, have been obstinate, who committed heinous sins a thousand times, even till they have grown old in sin, and have sinned under great aggravations. Let the aggravations be what they may, if they have sinned under ever so great light, if they have been backsliders, and have sinned against ever so numerous and solemn mournings and strivings of the Spirit, and mercies of its common providence, though the danger of such is much greater than of other sinners. Yet, God can save them if he pleases, for the sake of Christ, without any prejudice to any of his attributes. He may have mercy on whom he will have mercy, He may have mercy on the greatest of sinners, if he pleases, and the glory of none of his attributes will be in the least sullied. Such is the sufficiency of the satisfaction and righteousness of Christ, did none of the divine attributes stand in the way of the salvation of any of them.

Thus, the glory of any attribute did not at all suffer by Christ saving some of his crucifiers. God may save any of them without prejudice to the honor of His Holiness, God is an infinitely holy being. The heavens are not pure in His sight. He is of pure eyes and of behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity and if God should in any way countenance sin, It should not give proper testimonies of its hatred of it, and its pleasure at it. It'd be a prejudice to the honor of its holiness.

But God can save the greatest sinner, without giving the least countenance to sin, if he saves one who for a long time has stood out under the calls of the Gospel, and has sinned under dreadful aggravations, if he saves one who, against light, has been a pirate or blasphemer, he may do it, without giving any countenance to their wickedness because his abhorrence of it, and his pleasure against it, have been already sufficiently manifested in the sufferings of Christ. It was a sufficient testimony of God's abhorrence against even the greatest wickedness to Christ. The eternal Son of God died for it. Nothing can show God's infinite abhorrence of any wickedness more than this. If the wicked man himself should be thrust into hell, it should endure the most extreme torments which are ever allowed there, it would not be a greater manifestation of God's abhorrence of it, and the sufferings of the Son of God for it.

Number Two. God may save any of the children of men, with how prejudiced to the honor of His majesty, if men have profunded God and hat ever so much, if they have cast ever so much contempt on his authority. Yet God can save them, if he pleases, and the honor of his majesty not suffer in the least. If God should save those who have befriended him, without satisfaction the honor of his majesty would suffer. For when contempt is cast upon infinite majesty, Its honor suffers, and the contempt leaves an obscurity upon the honor of the divine majesty, if the injury is not repaired.

But the sufferings of Christ do fully repair the injury, Let the contempt be ever so great. Yet, if so honorable a person as Christ undertakes to be a mediator for the offender, and in the mediation suffering is dead, it fully repairs the injury done to the majesty of heaven by the greatest sinner. Number Three. God may save any sinner whatsoever consistently with his justice. The justice of God requires a punishment of sin.

God is the supreme judge of the world, and he is to judge the world according to the rules of justice. It is not the part of a judge to show favor to the person judged, but he is to determine according to her rule of justice without departing to the right hand or left. God does not show mercy as a judge, but as a sovereign. And therefore when mercy sought the salvation of sinners, the inquiry was how to make the exercise of the mercy of God as a sovereign, and of historic justice. As a judge, agreed together, and this is done by the sufferings of Christ, in which sin is punished fully." And justice answered.

Christ suffered enough for the punishment of the sins of the greatest sinner that ever lived, so that God, when he judges, may act according to a rule of strict justice, he had equipped the sinner, if he be in Christ. Justice cannot require any more for any man's sins and those sufferings of one of the persons in the Trinity which Christ suffered." —Rom. 3, 25, 26 From God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, that he might be just, and to justify of him which believes in Christ. Number Four God can save any sinner whatsoever, without any prejudice and the honor of his truth. God passed his word that sin should be punished with death, which is to be understood not only of the first, but of the second death.

God can save the greatest sinner consistently with his truth and the threatening. For sin is punished in the sufferings of Christ, inasmuch as he is our surety, and so is legally the same person, and sustained our guilt, and in the sufferings bore our punishment, it may be objected to God's said, If you eat, you shall die. It's so the same person that sin must suffer, and therefore it is not God's truth oblige him to that. I answer that the word then was not intended to be restrained to him, that in its own person sinned. Adam probably understood that his posterity were included, whether they sinned in their own person or not.

If they sinned in Adam, their surety, those words, if you eat meant, if you eat in yourself, or in your surety, and therefore the latter words, you shall die, also fairly allow such a construction as, You shall die in yourself, or in your surety. Isaiah 42 21, The Lord is pleased for his righteousness' sake. It will magnify the law, and make it honorable. But secondly, God may refuse salvation to any sinner. Whatsoever, without prejudice, in the honor of any of its attributes, there is no person whatever, in a natural condition, on whom God may not refuse to bestow salvation without prejudice to any part of its glory, let a natural person be wise or unwise, of a good or ill natural temper, of mean or honorable parentage, whether born of wicked or godly parents, let him be a moral or immoral person, whatever good he may have done, however religious he has been, how many prayers soever he has made, in whatever pains he has taken that he may be saved, whatever concern and distress he may have for fear he shall be damned, and whatever circumstances he may be in, God can deny him salvation, without the least disparagement to any of his perfections.

His glory will not in any instance be the least obscured by it. God may deny salvation to any natural person without injury to the honor of his righteousness. If he does so, there is no injustice nor unfairness in it. There is no natural man living. Let his case be what it will, but God may deny him salvation, and cast him down to hell, and yet not be chargeable with the least unrighteous or unfair dealings in any respect whatsoever, just as evident, because they all have deserved hell, And it is no injustice for a proper judge to inflict on any man what he deserves, and as he has deserved condemnation, so he has never done anything to remove the liability or to atone for the sin.

He never has done anything, whereby he has laid any obligations on God not to punish him as he deserves. 2. God may deny salvation to any unconverted person whatever, without any prejudice to the honor of its goodness. Sinners are sometimes ready to flatter themselves. The door, it may not be contrary to the justice of God to condemn them, yet, it will not consist with the glory of his mercy.

They think it will be dishonorable to God's mercy to cast him into hell, and have no pity or compassion upon them. They think it will be very hard and severe, and not becoming a God of infinite grace and tender compassion, that God can deny salvation to any natural person without any disparagement to his mercy and goodness. That which is not contrary to God's justice, is not contrary to his mercy. If damnation be justice, then mercy may choose its own object. They mistake the nature of the mercy of God, who think that it is an attribute, which in some cases is contrary to justice, nay, God's mercy as illustrated by it, is in the 23rd verse of the context that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared to glory.

Number three, it is in no way prejudicial to the honour of God's faithfulness. For God has in no way obliged himself to any natural man by his word, to bestow salvation on him. Men, in a natural condition, are not the children of promise, but lie open to the curse of the law, which would not be the case if they had any promise to lay hold of. Number three. God does actually exercise his sovereignty in men's salvation.

We shall show how he exercises his right in several particulars. Number one, in calling one people or nation and giving them the means of grace and leaving others without them. According to the divine appointment, salvation is bestowed in connection with the means of grace. God may sometimes make use of very unlikely means, and bestow salvation on men who are under very great disadvantages. But he does not bestow grace wholly without any means.

But God exercises his sovereignty in bestowing those means. All mankind are by nature in like circumstances towards God. Yet God greatly distinguishes some from others by the means and advantages which he bestows upon them. The savages, who live in the remotest parts of this continent, are under the grossest, heathenish darkness, as well as the inhabitants of Africa, and are naturally in exactly the similar circumstances towards God with us in this land. They are no more alienated or estranged from God in their natures, and we, and God has no more to charge them with.

And yet, what a vast difference has God made between us and them. And as he has exercised his sovereignty, he did this of old when he chose but one people to make them his covenant people. And he gave them the means of grace, and left all others, and gave them over to heathenous darkness, and the tyranny of the devil, to perish, from generation to generation, for many hundreds of years. The earth in That time was people with many great and mighty nations. There were the Egyptians, a people famed for their wisdom.

There were also the Assyrians and Chaldeans who were great and wise and powerful nations. There were the Persians, who by their strength and policies subdued a great part of the world. There were the renowned nations of the Greeks and Romans, who were famed all over the whole world for their excellent civil government, for their wisdom and skill in the arts of peace and war, and who by their military prowess and their turns subdued and reigned over the world. Those were rejected. God did not choose them for his people, but left them for many ages under gross, heathenish darkness, to perish for lack of vision, and shows one people the posterity of Jacob to be his own people, and to give them the means of grace.

Psalm 147 19 and 20. He shows his word unto Jacob, his statutes, and his judgments unto Israel. He has not dealt so with any nation, and for his judgments they have not known them. This nation were a small, inconsiderable people in comparison with many other people. Deuteronomy 7 verse 7 The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more numbered than any people, for you were the fewest of all people.

So neither was it for their righteousness, for they had no more of that than other people. Deuteronomy 9 6. Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God gives him not this good land to possess it, for your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. God gives them to understand that it was from no other cause but his free, electing love that he chose them to be his people. That reason is given why God loved them.

It was because he loved them. Deuteronomy 7 verse 8. Which is as much as to say he was agreeable to his sovereign pleasure, to set his love upon you. God also showed his sovereignty and choosing of people when other nations were rejected, who came at the same progenitors. Thus the children of Isaac were chosen when the posterity of Ishmael and other sons of Abraham were rejected.

While the children of Jacob were chosen when the posterity of Esau was rejected. As the Apostle observes in the seventh verse, Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children. But, and Isaac, shall your seed be called. And again, in verses ten to thirteen, and not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, the children moreover being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the promise of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls. It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

The apostle has not respect merely to the election of the persons of Isaac and Jacob before Ishmael and Esau, but of their posterity. In a passage already quoted from Malachi, God, has respect to the nations which were the posterity of Esau and Jacob. Malachi 1, verses 2 and 3. I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet you say, wherein have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet?

I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage ways for the dragons of the wilderness. God showed his sovereignty when Christ came, and rejecting the Jews and calling the Gentiles. God rejected that nation who were the children of Abraham according to the flesh, and had been his peculiar people for so many ages, and who alone possessed the one true God, and chose idolatrous heathen before them. He called them to be his people. When the Messiah came, who was born of their nation, and whom they so much expected, He rejected them.

He came to His own, and His own received, and not John 1, verse 11. When the glorious dispensation of the gospel came, God passed by the Jews, and called those who had been heathened to enjoy the privileges of it. They were broken off that the Gentiles might be grafted in. Romans 11, verse 17, She is now called Beloved, that was not beloved, and more the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife. The natural children of Abraham are rejected, and God raises up children to Abraham, of stones.

That nation, which was so honored of God, have now been for many ages rejected, and remain dispersed all over the world, a remarkable monument of divine vengeance. And now God greatly distinguishes some Gentile nations from others, and all according to his sovereign pleasure. Number 2. God exercises his sovereignty in the advantages he bestows upon particular persons. All need salvation alike, and all are naturally alike, undeserving of it, but He gives some vastly greater advantages for salvation than others.

To some he assigns their place in pious and religious families, where they may be well instructed and educated, and have religious parents to dedicate them to God, and put up many prayers for them. God places some under a more powerful ministry than others, and in places where there are more of the outpourings of the Spirit of God, the zombie gives much more of the strivings and awakening influences of the spirit than to others, it is according to his mere sovereign pleasure. Number Three. God exercises his sovereignty and sometimes bestow on salvation upon the low and mean, and denying it to the wise and great. Christ and his sovereignty passes by the gates of princes and nobles, and enters some cottage and dwells there, and has communion with its obscure inhabitants.

God and his sovereignty withheld salvation from the rich man, who fared sumptuously every day, and bestowed it on poor Lazarus, who sat begging at his gate. God in this way pours contempt on princes, and on all their glittering splendor. So God sometimes passes by wise men, men of great understanding, learned, and great scholars, and bestow salvation on others of weak understanding, who only comprehend some of the plainer parts of Scripture and the fundamental principles of the Christian religion. Yea, there seem to be a fewer great men called than others. And God in ordering it thus manifests his sovereignty.

I Corinthians 1 26-28, For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and be things of the world, and things which are despised as God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to not things that are. 4. Bestowing salvation on some who have had few advantages, God sometimes will bless weak means for producing astonishing effects when more excellent means are not succeeded. God sometimes will withhold salvation from those who are the children of very pious parents and bestow it on others who have been brought up in wicked families.

Thus we read of good Abijah, and the family of Jeroboam, and of a godly Hezekiah, the son of wicked Ahaz, and of a godly Josiah, the son of wicked Ammon. But on the contrary of a wicked Amnon, an Absalom, the sons of holy David, an advile Manasseh, the son of good Hezekiah. Sometimes some who have had imminent means of grace are rejected and left to perish, and others, under far less advantages, are saved. The scribes and Pharisees who had so much light and knowledge of the Scriptures were mostly rejected, and the poor ignorant public unsaved. The greater part of those among whom Christ was much conversant and who heard him preach and saw him work miracles from day to day were left and a woman of Samaria was taken, and many other Samaritans at the same time, who only heard Christ preach, as he occasionally passed through their city.

So the woman of Canaan was taken, who was not of the country of the Jews, and but once saw Jesus Christ. So the Jews, who had seen and heard Christ, and saw his miracles, and with whom the apostles labored so much, were not saved. But the Gentiles, who as it were but transiently heard the glad tidings of salvation, embraced them, and were converted. Number Five God exercises his sovereignty in calling some to salvation who have been very heinously wicked and leaving others who have been moral and religious persons. The Pharisees were a very strict sect among the Jews.

Their religion was extraordinary. Look. 18, verse 11. They were not as other men extortioners, unjust, or adulterers. There was their morality.

They fasted twice a week, and gave tithes of all they possessed. There was their religion. But yet they were mostly rejected. The publicans and harlots, an openly vicious sort of people entered into the kingdom of God before them. Matthew 21, verse 31.

The Apostle describes his righteousness while a Pharisee in Philippians 3, 6, Touching the righteousness which is of the law blameless. The rich young man who came kneeling to Christ saying, Good Master, what shall I do that I may have eternal life, was a moral person. When Christ beat him keep to commandments, he said, and in his own view with sincerity, all these have I kept from a youth up. He had obviously been brought up in a good family, and was a youth of such amiable manners and correct department that it is said Jesus beholding him, loved him. Still, he was left, while the thief that was crucified with Christ was chosen and called even on the cross.

God sometimes shows his sovereignty by showing mercy to the chief of sinners, and those who have been murderers and profaners and blasphemers, and even when they are old some are called at the eleventh hour. God sometimes shows the sovereignty of his grace by showing mercy to some who have spent most of their lives in the service of Satan, and have little left to spend in the service of God. And number six, in saving some of those who seek salvation, and not others. Some who seek salvation as we know both from scripture and observation are soon converted, while others seek a long time, and do not obtain at last. God helps some over the mountains and difficulties which are in the way.

He seduces Satan and delivers him from his temptations, but others are ruined by the temptations with which they meet. Some are never thoroughly awakened, while to others God is pleased to give thorough convictions. Some are left to backsliding hearts, others guide causes to hold out to the end. Some are brought off from a confidence in their own righteousness. Others never get over that obstruction in their way, as long as they live.

And some are converted and saved, who never had so great strivings as some who, notwithstanding, perish. Number Four. I come now to give the reasons why God doth thus exercise his sovereignty in the eternal salvation of the children of men. One, it is agreeable to God's design in the creation of the universe to exercise every attribute, and thus to manifest the glory of each of them. God's design in the creation was to glorify himself, or to make a discovery of the essential glory of his nature.

It was fit that infinite glory should shine forth, and it was God's original design to make a manifestation of its glory as it is. Not that it was his design to manifest all his glory to the apprehension of creatures, for it is impossible that the minds of creatures should comprehend it, but it was his design to make a true manifestation of its glory, such as should represent every attribute. If God glorified one attribute and not another, such manifestation of its glory would be defective, and a representation would not be complete. If all God's attributes are not manifested, the glory of none of them is manifested as it is, for the divine attributes reflect glory on one another. Thus, If God's wisdom be manifested and not his holiness, the glory of his wisdom would not be manifested as it is.

One part of the glory of the attribute of divine wisdom is? That it is a holy wisdom. So if his holiness were manifested and not his wisdom, the glory of his holiness would not be manifested as it is. For one thing which belongs to the glory of God's holiness is that it is a wise holiness. So it is with respect to the attributes of mercy and justice.

The glory of God's mercy does not appear as it is, unless it is manifested as a just mercy, or as a mercy consistent with justice. And so, with respect to God's sovereignty, It reflects glory on all his other attributes. It is part of the glory of God s mercy that it is sovereign mercy. So all the attributes of God reflect glory on one another. The glory of one attribute cannot be manifested as it is without the manifestation of another.

One attribute is defective without another, and therefore the manifestation will be defective. Hence it was the will of God to manifest all his attributes. The declarative glory of God in Scripture is also called God's name, because it declares his nature. But if his name does not signify his nature as it is, or does not declare any attribute, It is not a true name. The sovereignty of God is one of its attributes and a part of its glory.

The glory of God imminently appears in its absolute sovereignty over all creatures, great and small. If the glory of a prince be his power and dominion, then the glory of God is his absolute sovereignty. Herein appear God's infinite greatness and highness above all creatures. Therefore, it is the will of God to manifest his sovereignty, And his sovereignty, like his other attributes, is manifested in the exercise of it. He glorifies his power in the exercise of power.

He glorifies his mercy in the exercise of mercy. So he glorifies his sovereignty in the exercise of sovereignty. Application Hence we learn how absolutely we are dependent on God in this great manner of the eternal salvation of our souls. We are dependent not only on His wisdom, to contrive a way to accomplish it, and on His power, to bring it to pass, But we are dependent on his mere will and pleasure in the affair. We depend upon the sovereign will of God for everything belonging to it, from the foundation to the top stone.

It was of the sovereign pleasure of God that he contrived a way to save any of mankind, and gave us Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, to be our Redeemer. Why did he look on us and send us a savior, and not to fallen angels. It was from the sovereign pleasure of God. It was of his sovereign pleasure what means to appoint. It's given us the Bible, and the ordinances of religion.

It's of his sovereign grace. It's given those means to us rather than to others, is giving the awakening influences of His Spirit, and His bestowing saving grace or all of His sovereign pleasure, when He says, Let there be light in the soul of such an one. It is a word of infinite power and sovereign grace. Number two. Let us with the greatest humility adore the awful and absolute sovereignty of God, as we have just shown that it's an imminent attribute of the divine being.

That he is sovereign over such excellent beings as the souls of men, and that in every respect even in that of their eternal salvation, the infinite greatness of God and his exaltation above us appears on nothing more than in his sovereignty. It is spoken of in scripture as a great part of his glory. Deuteronomy 32 verse 39 See now that I, even I, am he, And there is no God with me, I kill, and I make alive, I wound and I heal. Neither is there anything that can deliver out of my hand. Our God is in the heavens.

He is done whatsoever is pleased. Daniel 4, 34 and 35, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and its kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, for saying to him, What are you doing? Our Lord Jesus Christ prays and glorified the Father for the exercise of his sovereignty in the salvation of men. Matthew 11 25 and 26 I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hid thee things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes.

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. Let us therefore give God the glory of his sovereignty, as adoring him, whose sovereign will orders all things, beholding ourselves as nothing in comparison with him. Dominion and sovereignty require humble reverence and honor in the subject. The absolute, universal and unlimited sovereignty of God requires that we should adore him. With all possible humility and reverence, it is impossible that we should go to excess and lowliness and reverence of that being who may dispose of us to all eternity, if he pleases.

And lastly, we may make use of this doctrine to guard those who seek salvation from two opposite extremes, presumption and discouragement. Do not presume upon the mercy of God, and so encourage yourself in sin. Many hear that God's mercy is infinite, and therefore think that if they delay seeking salvation for the present and seek it hereafter, that God will bestow his grace upon them. But consider that though God's grace is sufficient, yet he is sovereign and will use his own pleasure whether he will save you or not. If you put off salvation till hereafter, Salvation will not be in your power.

It will be as a sovereign God pleases, whether you shall obtain it or not. Stand, therefore, that in this affair you are so absolutely dependent on God. It is best to follow his direction in seeking it, which is to hear his voice today, today, if you will hear his voice. Harden not your heart. Beware also of discouragement.

Take heed of despairing thoughts, because you are a great sinner, because you have persevered so long in sin, have backslid and resisted the Holy Ghost. Remember that, let your case be what it may, And you ever so great a sinner, if you have not committed to sin against the Holy Ghost, God can bestow mercy upon you, without the least prejudice to the honor of His holiness, which you have offended, or to the honor of His majesty, which you have insulted, or of his justice, which you have made your enemy, or of his truth, or of any of his attributes, let you be what sinner you may. God can, if he pleases, greatly glorify himself in your salvation." Jonathan Edwards