it is all known,-Oh! how shall every dealing of his wisdom, providence, and love display "THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS

GRACE, IN HIS KINDNESS TOWARDS YOU THROUGH CHRIST JESUS.' When " we know even as we are known." 1st Cor. xiii. 12. When we see the precipices on which we have been standingthe pit-falls from which he has rescued us-the ruin into which we would have rushed, if God had left us to ourselves—if He had not taken us, and dragged us back-and held us in His mighty hand-and not allowed Satan to pluck us out of it!-Oh, dear brethren in Christ, if there can be a contest in eternity, it must be, which of us should sing in the loudest strain, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Rev. i. 5, 6. Well then, may we understand in some degree, yea, I know you feel something when I speak to you of the blessed hopes and prospects of His servants, and of that love which has opened them to your ears-something of the meaning of these words, "THAT IN THE AGES TO COME, HE MIGHT SHOW THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE, IN HIS KINDNESS TOWARDS US THROUGH CHRIST JESUS." To Him be praise and glory forever

and ever.

Amen.

FOURTEENTH LECTURE.

EPHESIANS II.-8, 9.

"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."

WE have seen, that one of the effects of the salvation of the Lord's Church, is the manifestation of the glorious attributes of Jehovah Himself, in the exceeding riches of His grace,-as we had in verse 7, "that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus." The Apostle seems to introduce the 8th and 9th verses, as an emphatic repetition, a fuller explanation of the momentous truth which he had inserted parenthetically in the 5th verse, "by grace are ye saved." He had said "But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved,”) and here again he evidently introduces it, for the purpose of reminding them again of the important lesson, which is necessary to be so continually impressed on the heart of the sinner,

ཚོན,

viz., that the whole of man's salvation from first to last is to redound, not to his own glory, but to the glory of his God, as you observe by the word "for."" That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus,-FOR,

BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED

THROUGH FAITH," he shows the exceeding riches of his grace, FOR-by grace alone are ye saved.

It is indeed necessary to have this truth perpetually reiterated to man; for it is a truth of which, though the heart, in its constant sense of its own want and sin, has continually need, yet the believer is as continually prone to turn from it. Therefore, you may perceive, how frequently it has been introduced, even in this short portion of the epistle we have read,—as for instance, in verse 2 chapter i. The Apostle uses the term as he always does in his benedictory salutation, "GRACE be to you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ," and he repeats the word in verse 6, "to the praise of the glory of his GRACE,” wherein "he hath made us accepted in the beloved," and in the 7th verse, “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his GRACE," and then in verse 5th of this chapter, as I have already remarked, "by GRACE are ye saved," and in verse 7, "that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his GRACE," and in the verse now before us, "BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH FAITH."

Now, when we meet a truth repeated again and again in God's word, we are not to pass over it lightly, and say, "This is the same truth we met in the other verse, we have spoken of this before.”—No-God repeats truths in his holy word that we may continually reconsider them, that we may again, and again, and again, and again pray for His Spirit to apply them to our hearts. When we preach-at least for my own part, I can say, that when I come to preach or lecture on these great truths to any of my fellow-sinners, I feel I have need when I have set them forth to others, to preach and lecture upon them again, as it were to myself, that the same truths may be impressed upon my own heart, that I have endeavored to impress on others, which, however we may know them as abstract truths, we are continually ready to forget, if God whose grace teaches them to us, and keeps us, would allow it. So the Apostle exhorts in the 2nd chap. of Hebrews, verse 1, "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip."

If one of the members of our body is fractured, or dislocated, or distorted, it can be set and bandaged up and bound to some support, to keep it in its natural and right position. But Oh! what human force-what power-what skill-what instruments can we find to bind up and heal those dislocated, disjointed, and distorted thoughts and hearts of ours! If we are attracted for a mo

ment to the holy word of God, and if our attention seems fixed for

a time to the standard of truth and sober wisdom, alas! the next moment we fly off again, like a wandering bird. "The wicked," saith the Prophet, "are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Isa. Ivii. 20,-and we often feel our hearts fluctuating, like the waves of the troubled sea, which, though, as you heard this day, at the moment when the voice of Jesus spake, they were hushed and stilled into a calm, yet were again lashed and convulsed by the very next storm that swept over them, or ruffled and disturbed by the next breeze that passed across their surface. So it is with the heart of sinful man. So do we require the continual impress, the continual acting of the word of God, the grace, the power of the Spirit to move over the face of the waters, so must we have "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little." Isa. xxviii. 10,-. that we be not "carried about with every wind of doctrine," Eph. iv. 14—and turned from the truth of God to fables. Therefore, may the great God bless us and teach us by His Spirit, and by His holy word, while we consider it this day and at all times. The Lord tells us in these words, expressly by the Apostle, HOW WE ARE SAVED,

“BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED, THROUGH FAITH, AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES, IT IS THE Gift of God,”

AND HOW WE ARE NOT SAVED,

"NOT OF WORKS, LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST.”

We are saved by grace through faith; and we are not saved by works.

It

Grace is taken in various senses in the word of God,-sometimes in a very limited, and sometimes in an enlarged sense. appears to me in this passage to be taken in its most comprehensive sense, embracing within its meaning all that is implied in its application to the salvation of man in the Scripture. Grace is sometimes put to signify the everlasting love of God to His people. As for instance, 2d Timothy, i. 9, "who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began," and you have nearly the same sense of it in this Epistle, i. 5, 6, “having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

Sometimes, it signifies the effectual calling of the sinner, by the operation of the Spirit of God, quickening his soul, as we have it in this chapter, verse 5, "even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved").

Sometimes, grace signifies abounding mercy, as in Rom. v. 20, 21, "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." So you have the same idea expressed, though the same word is not used, in Isa. xl. 1, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my

people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." Superabounding grace for abounding sin.

Sometimes, it is taken for the free and full pardon of sin, as in Romans iii. 24, "being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," and that was the view taken of it in our last Lecture, in setting forth the riches of God's grace, as proclaiming pardon to ungodly sinners, and the continual exercise of love and mercy to His redeemed people.

Sometimes, it means the being in a state of pardon and acceptance with God, as for instance, in Romans v. 2,-" by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God," and you have the same idea in Romans vi. 14, "you are not under the law, but under grace," -under a covenant of grace,--in a state of gracious acceptance through the goodness of God.

Sometimes, it signifies the final salvation of the Lord's people, as in 1st Pet. i. 13, "be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Now here I conceive it comprehends all these things, all the blessings of the grace which brings salvation to the sinner's soul. “BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH FAITH, AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD," from first to last-from beginning to end-from the grace that called you to the grace that shall open the folding doors of eternal glory to your view.

"BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH FAITH." It is important to attend to this, it is necessary to put faith into its right place, it is indispensable to have the judgment, the understanding clear upon this subject, for I know of no subject on which the minds of believers are more frequently in error, perplexed and harassed than on this.

They are not saved by works, they say, but they are saved by faith. But, when they find their faith weak, when they find doubts and darkness arise in their minds, then their hope of salvation is gone, they are all agitated, "Oh we are saved by faith, but I do not believe I feel I have no faith." Now, it is of the greatest importance rightly to understand this, "By GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH FAITH." Faith no more saves you than works, considered in itself. It is no more the act of your mind in believing, or it is no more your strongest confidence that saves you, than it is your works. Faith is the channel through which salvation is given to you. Your salvation is Christ,—the glorious grace of God in giving Christ; Christ's righteousness, the gift of grace,-Christ's blood, the gift of grace,-Christ's glorious sacrifice, His finished salvation, the gift of grace,-all, is the grace of God, all, the manifestation of the riches, "the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Faith is merely, as it were, the vessel by which this salvation is given to you. If man rejects it and casts

it off, of course he must perish,-if a man receives it and embraces it, all the blessings of it are his, but, remember, the blessings are all in Christ, and not in his faith. Faith receives and embraces the blessing, but is not the blessing itself,-because, salvation is in Christ, and not in faith. It is the medicine that heals the body, and not the cup in which that medicine is conveyed. If a medicine is administered to you in a vessel of gold, silver, china, delph, or glass,—yea, though the vessel be not only fragile, but cracked, or partly broken,-it matters not, it is the medicine and not the vessel, that conveys healing to your body. And it is the balm of Christ's blood, it is the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which your soul is saved, though the faith may be very weak by which you receive Him-"BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED THROUGH FAITH.” An illustration, perhaps, will convey more clearly to your minds, that the important difference lies not between a weak and a strong faith, but between a true and a false one. Let me suppose two shipwrecked mariners, swimming from the waves to a bank of sand, one very confident, the other, trembling with fear. They reach the bank of sand, but it is a quicksand, and both are engulphed. Why? All the spirit, the courage, and confidence of the one could not save him, because the ground on which he trod sunk under his feet,-the other perishes, not by his fears or apprehensions, but because the ground on which he stood sunk beneath him too. So it is with sinners. It is not the strength or weakness of their faith, but it is the truth of their faith, that is, the truth of the object in which they believe. It is not the strength or confidence with which one believes, or the weakness with which another believes, but it is this,-that the thing which we believe is God's eternal truth. So if two men believe a lie as the hope of their soul,—one going on with the utmost possible confidence, and the other, trembling and fearing, they shall both perish in the lie they have believed; for they have not "fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them," Heb. vi. 18, but they have fled to a refuge of lies.

Let me speak affectionately, and entreat their attention, if I address any of my Roman Catholic friends and neighbors to-day. No doubt there are very different degrees of confidence with which you may believe, that the sacrifice of your Mass is a propitiatory offering that satisfies God for your sins, or that your priest can forgive you. So there are different degrees of confidence, with which many ignorant Protestants may believe, that the Sacrament will be an atonement for their sins, and make their peace on their deathbed, or that their minister can do something for their souls. But it is no matter, whether men believe in such things with confidence or whether they believe in them with trembling doubt and apprehension, they shall perish in their iniquity, if they rest upon such refuges of lies, for there is no offering in either the Mass or the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper nor in anything in earth or heaven for the sinner to save his soul, but the blood of our crucified Redeemer.