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probably promote some of the benevolent ends of God's moral government, and be forever of use to other intelligent beings.

We are not to imagine, that God will injure one for the greater good of another, or of a number. To inflict undeserved punishment, would be injustice to the involuntary sufferers, whatever benefit might result to others. And there is no unrighteousness with God. But we may suppose, that his wisdom and goodness will make the just punishment of particular offenders, redound to the greater and more extensive happiness of his virtuous subjects. We know not but the most rigorous acts of his justice may, in some view or other, be acts of mercy and goodness.

How should we be filled with admiration of that Being, whose particular favors are general kindnesses; whose righteous judgments are acts of goodness; and who in the exercises of his justice makes mercy triumphant?

What abundant cause of gratitude have we, for the discoveries of divine grace, made to us in the gospel? What else could save the sinner, roused to an apprehension of his own guilt and of God's justice, from running into distraction and despair? Nature gives him no more reason to conclude, that God will pardon him on future repentance, than that he will punish him for past disobedience. And be sure, when he finds his repentance imperfect, his resolutions unstable, his offences again repeated, and his strength unequal to the conquest of his vicious habits, what positive hope can nature give him, that God will assist him by his grace or pardon him by his mercy? To the awakened sinner the gospel comes as tidings of great joy.

Let believers adore the riches of God's grace. Some in the high road to destruction have been mercifully arrested and reclaimed. These should love much. And even they who have earlier found mercy in the diligent use of means, must acknowledge, that by the grace of God they are what they are.

Every unreclaimed sinner must be utterly inexcuseable; for he has received the grace of God in vain.

Let the awakened be encouraged to seek salvation. Draw hope from the examples of God's mercy to others; improve every good beginning in yourselves; let every conviction excite you to seek more grace; wait upon God, and hope in his mercy, that the work begun in you will be performed to the day of Christ.

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SERMON XII,

Salvation, not by Works, but by Grace through Faith.

EPHESIANS ii. 8, 9, 10.

For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: Not of works lest any man should boast; for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk

in them.

THE Apostle here asserts, in general terms, that our salvation is of grace. This is an obvious conclusi on from the doctrine already proposed and proved. If, when we were dead in sins, God hath quick. ened us and raised us up with Christ, our salvation can be only in a way of grace; for they who are dead, surely can do nothing which should deserve so mighty an interposition for their recovery,

In what sense our salvation is of grace the Apostle next explains. It is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. That which is a gift from God, without any right of demand on our part, is of grace. As the gospel finds us involved in guilt, slaves to the world, and. children of wrath, we can pretend no claim to salvation: If we obtain it, we must be wholly indebted to divine mercy.

This truth the Apostle farther illustrates by stating the manner in which we are saved. We are saved by faith, not of works, lest any man should boast.-The great condition of our salvation is faith; and this in its nature includes a reliance on the promise of God. And if salvation comes to us in consequence of our trusting in the promise which God has freely made, it comes only by grace. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Works, indeed, are necessary to salvation, for God hath ordained that we shall walk in them: But works give us no cause of boasting; for we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

We will here consider, How we are saved by faithillustrate the influence that works have in our salvation and shew that our salvation, though connected with works, is not the less of grace.

I. We will consider, How we are saved by, or through faith.

The salvation here intended the Apostle describes in the former chapter, and in the preceding verses of this. It is a deliverance from that ruined state into which the apostacy has plunged us, and a restoration to the divine favor with all its happy effects. It is begun here in the pardon of sin; it is completed in the enjoyment of the glorious riches of the heavenly inheritance, and in our sitting with Christ Jesus, who is now on the right hand of the throne of God.

The faith, through which we are saved, is expressed by" our trusting, and believing in Christ, after we have heard the word of truth and the gospel of our salvation." This faith is accompanied with a divine power which quickens and raises the soul, once dead in sin, to a spiritual life in conformity to the pattern of Christ. The fruit of faith is our being sealed and sanctified by the spirit of promise, and having in our souls an earnest of the future inheritance.

To form an idea of the nature of saving faith, we need only to consider, what we ourselves are, and what

the gospel of Christ is. We are fallen, guilty creatures, children of disobedience, worthy of death. The gospel is a discovery of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. Faith, therefore, is the consent and submission of the soul to this way of salvation. It is such a persuasion, that Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of men, and such a desire and expectation of sal= vation through him, as engages us to commit our souls to his care, and devote our lives to his service. The operation of faith, is to cast down our vain imagina tions, to humble within us every high thing which exalts itself against the knowledge of God; and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

When we are said to be saved by faith, these two things are implied, That without faith we cannot be saved; and that all who have faith will be saved!

1. The expression implies, that without faith we cannot be saved.

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This is the express doctrine of our divine Saviour "If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. He that believeth not is condemned already. He shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."

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Faith is necessary in the appointment of God. As salvation is his gift, so he has stated the terms on! which he will bestow it; and it is absurd to expect it on any other: Obstinate unbelief is a refusal of that plan of salvation, which his wisdom has fixed; and therefore a rejection of salvation itself.

Faith is necessary in the nature of the case; for when salvation is offered in a particular way, our rec fusing to accept it in this way, discovers such pride and" perverseness of heart as render us incapable of enjoy. ing it in any way.

Whatever knowledge we have of the doctrines of the gospel, if this knowledge is not accompanied with such a belief of those doctrines as gives them a humblings

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