it to a favourable change of external circumstances merely; "the apostle," say they, "is "writing to Gentiles, who, before the light of the

gospel shone upon them, were buried in hea"thenish superstition and idolatry: and to this ignorant, stupid, condition of theirs, he opposes "their present agreeable circumstances in the

enjoyment of the gospel revelation, whereby the "means of salvation were afforded them, which

upon their belief and obedience to the terms "of it, would undoubtedly be conferred upon "them." According to this view, the description in the beginning of the chapter of those Ephesians as being dead in trespasses and sins, alludes to their situation as heathen idolaters, their being subjected to "the prince of the power "of the air," to that worship they paid to demons and false divinities. And the salvation here celebrated in such high terms, will, of course, amount to no more than a bare possibility of discovering and forsaking their former errors, and a sufficiency of means to instruct them in the doctrines and practice of christianity. All I shall say in answer to this is--that whatever sense of a word or phrase is most correspondent to the author's main scope and design, is undoubtedly the true and proper one; if we attend therefore to our apostle's evident aim through the

whole of this epistle, namely, to magnify the riches of free grace in the redemption of mankind, it will appear in the clearest light, that this salvation must be taken in a much more august and sublime sense. It was doubtless an instance of the most amazing goodness in God to afford any of the guilty race of Adam the means of knowing their natural wickedness, and to point out the way whereby they might be delivered from it. But as this, alas, could have availed us but little, considering our utter inability to embrace even the terms of the gospel, considering our weakness, blindness, guiltiness, how gloriously is the goodness of God magnified, in not only pointing out the way that leadeth on to life, but supporting us in it; administering repeated supplies of courage and strength; conducting us as it were by the hand through all the dangers and difficulties that oppose our progress to endless glory and bliss, and at last putting us in the actual possession of them. By being saved then, is here meant not only those spiritual blessings which the people of God enjoy in this world, such as deliverance from the guilt and reigning power of sin, " peace of conscience,

joy in the Holy Ghost," support and comfort under all the troubles and afflictions this mortal state is subject to; but likewise, that per

fect, that exalted, that enduring bliss, that "eter"nal weight of glory," which the redeemed of the Lord shall be made to possess beyond death and the grave. This consists of two parts, first, of a deliverance from all those miseries which are the consequence of our apostacy from God; and second, of the enjoyment of all that happiness which is the purchase of Christ's death. What, and how great are the torments inflicted upon the wicked in hell, it is impossible for us to conceive, far less to describe; and this misery we are all born heirs to, "being by nature the children "of wrath:" but a deliverance from it is not the whole of gospel salvation; it implies likewise the actual possession and enjoyment of all the positive blessings of the heavenly state. I proceed in the

Second place, to state the true and proper notion of saving faith. Faith, in the New Testament, stands generally for the complex of christianity, in opposition to the law, which as generally stands for the complex of the whole Mosaical dispensation. The reason why faith is put to signify the gospel, seems to be this: christianity being a federal religion, founded upon certain conditions, on the one hand, God himself revealing to man, a system of doctrines, which he is to

believe, of rules, which he is to follow, and backed with certain promises for our encouragement, and threatenings to alarm us, the whole confirmed by a course of miracles, as the last proof that this revelation does come from God; and on the other hand, man receiving this revelation, embracing these doctrines, binding himself to observe these rules, and trusting to these promises, and particularly his believing these grand articles of christianity, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he came into the world clothed in a human body to recover mankind from the ruins of the fall, and for this end died upon the cross, after he had by his life and doctrine fully instructed the world in the will of his heavenly father; the belief of all these, I say, which is properly faith in Jesus Christ, is frequently represented as the great and only condition of the covenant on our part; because in reality, whoever firmly believes these, must of course acquiesce in the whole of the gospel scheme, the preceptive as well as the promissory part of it, must submit to Christ as a prophet and king, to instruct and govern, as well as a priest to save, Further, there is a distinction most carefully to be observed here, between the condition upon · which salvation is offered to us, namely, our faith; and the consideration that moves God to offer his

grace and salvation to us; these two are essentially different, and by no means to be confounded together; the latter is a dispensation of his mercy, in which he has regard to his own attributes, to the honour of his laws, and his government of the world, so that he may appear at once a just ruler and a merciful creator; the former, is the method in which he applies this dispensation to us, so that it may answer such ends as may both be perfective of human nature, and at the same time suitable for a Being who is infinitely holy to pursue. We are never to imagine, then, that the condition upon which salvation is offered to us is the consideration that moves God, as if our faith were the efficient cause of our justification before him. This is purchased solely by the death of Christ, which God, of his infinite mercy and love, having deereed for us, salvation is on that account said to be by grace, there being nothing in any of the guilty posterity of Adam that either did or could have procured such an invaluable blessing. But still, "our faith," which must be a "faith that purifieth the heart, which worketh

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by love, which overcometh the world," and consequently includes our hope, love, repentance, and new obedience, is what qualifies us to receive the benefits of this redemption and free