Robert Traill (Sermons from 1 Peter 1:1-4), Works 4:108-109:
Election-grace passes over and passes though many great impediments. If I may so say, election never regards what state the elected are in, but will overcome all difficulties. Who would have thought that the once poor wretch Saul was an elect vessel? That mad persecutor of Jesus Christ, when he was keeping the clothes of them who stoned Stephen, as one that would make himself an officer, and encourage them in their wicked work of murdering a servant of Jesus Christ; when he was breathing forth slaughter against the disciples of Christ, and thought it not enough to persecute them in Judea, but would even have persecuted them through the whole world. Being exceedingly mad against them, saith he himself, I persecuted them even unto strange cities, Acts 26:11. He hated Jesus Christ so much, that he would have gone from one end of the world to another, to have persecuted him and his followers: but yet he was an elect man; the grace of election ran through all this and over all this. It pleased God, that separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, Gal. 1:15. The power of election overcame all.
Election-grace passes over and passes though many great impediments. If I may so say, election never regards what state the elected are in, but will overcome all difficulties. Who would have thought that the once poor wretch Saul was an elect vessel? That mad persecutor of Jesus Christ, when he was keeping the clothes of them who stoned Stephen, as one that would make himself an officer, and encourage them in their wicked work of murdering a servant of Jesus Christ; when he was breathing forth slaughter against the disciples of Christ, and thought it not enough to persecute them in Judea, but would even have persecuted them through the whole world. Being exceedingly mad against them, saith he himself, I persecuted them even unto strange cities, Acts 26:11. He hated Jesus Christ so much, that he would have gone from one end of the world to another, to have persecuted him and his followers: but yet he was an elect man; the grace of election ran through all this and over all this. It pleased God, that separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, Gal. 1:15. The power of election overcame all.
