ht punishment,
but could never have procured for us blessings so great and
undeserved. The real cause was _the purpose of God_ and _his grace_
given in Christ before the world began.

Here, _our works_ are put in distinct opposition to the purpose and
grace of God.

They could not, therefore, be our Christian works, done in a state
of salvation and subsequent to our obeying the holy calling. _These_
are the practical results, the _moral effects_, of our holy calling
according to the gracious purpose of God. These could never have
been done but for that holy calling. They could not therefore in any
sense be the _antecedent cause_ of that holy calling. In the order
both of nature and of time, both the gracious purpose and the holy
calling must have preceded these works. To tell any man of common
sense, that they were not the procuring cause of the grace from
whence they were themselves derived, was needless.

To one so intelligent as Timothy, such instruction was worse than
superfluous. Works could not hold the twofold relation of cause and
effect to God's grace. Nor can it be supposed that St. Paul was the
author of a solecism so obvious, as that of formally setting in
opposition to the _purpose_ and the _grace_ of God those evangelic
works, which were the moral effects of the influence of that grace
and of the execution of that purpose. The works alluded to were
those which might be done before men were partakers of the Christian
salvation, or independently of the dispensation of grace, and
according to _such_ works no man could be entitled to the blessings
of eternal redemption.

This important text lends no support to the Calvinist. It cannot be
cited in proof, that the election of God is arbitrary and
uninfluenced by his foreknowledge of the faith and obedience of his
chosen people, for the works here intended are _not Christian good
works_ done in faith. Edwards did wisely in not analyzing this text.

The same principle of interpretation is applicable to Titus iii. 5.
"_Not by works of righteousness_ which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost." These _works_ are not those of the
truly regenerate, which being the _effects_ of the grace of Christ,
cannot be mistaken for the meritorious cause of the communication of
that grace. It is rather to be taken as a broad assertion, that the
blessings of the Christian covenant, are not the res