grace; from which, we hope, it will appear evidently, how we are saved freely, or by grace, and at the same time through faith, as the condition indispensibly necessary on our part. I therefore proceed in the,

Third place, to prove that the salvation of every sinner is wholly and only owing to the grace of God, to the utter exclusion of all worth and merit in themselves. This will appear if we consider, first, the natural depravity, weakness, and corruption of mankind. Had man continued in his estate of primitive purity and perfection, in the full exercise of all his faculties and powers, and in a perfect obedience to the will of his Creator, which he was then capable of, no doubt he would have at last been rewarded with immortal glory and happiness; yet even in that case, he could by no means have merited such happiness; as his very being, and all its concomitant endowments, by which he would have been qualified for it, were originally the free gift of God, and as his remaining in that state must have depended entirely upon continued communications from the great fountain of all grace and strength. How much less then is man, in his present state of weakness and depravity, able to merit any thing at the hand of God, to merit

such a salvation as was formerly described; now that his glory is defaced, his strength wasted, his understanding darkened, his will corrupted, his affections perverted, when he not only has lost the power of procuring happiness, but, alas! has also reduced himself to a state of the most deplorable misery, out of which it is absolutely impossible for him to extricate himself! That person must know very little of human nature, and of himself, who is not sensible of an utter incapacity in him to perform all the commandments of God, a perfect obedience to which, is the sole condition that can have any pretence to merit—but the notion of merit in the sight of God has something in it so daring, so unsuitable to the condition of a creature, and a fallen creature, something so like buying and selling with our Maker, that it is impossible for any one who reflects ever so little on the nature and attributes of the Supreme Being, and on what he is himself, to admit it without horror. But further, in the second place, it will appear that salvation is owing entirely to grace, if we consider, that God could have inflicted upon guilty man the penalty of his broken law, without injuring any of his attributes, nay, on the contrary, to the more gloriously magnifying the most shining of them, his holiness and justice. To what, then, but a flow

of the most amazing, the most disinterested goodness, can we attribute a scheme, seemingly opposite to the eternal righteousness of the divine nature, and the sole aim of which evidently is to recover out of the most abject wretchedness, and to raise to the most exalted bliss, a race of rebellious, lost apostate creatures, who were unable to help themselves? The plan of redemption by Jesus Christ is so entirely suited to our condition, so perfective of the honour and majesty of the divine administration, and so wonderfully calculated to promote our everlasting welfare, that nothing but an excess of the most brutish stupidity, as well as of the basest ingratitude, could ever stand out against it, or endeavour to diminish its glory. I add in the third place, salvation will appear to be by grace, if we observe, that though God had determined to save some of the lost race of mankind, nothing but free unmerited love could have prompted him to make choice of one more than another. It was only that the election according to grace might stand, and because " he will "have mercy on whom he will have mercy, "and compassion on whom he will have com→

passion;" that he chose Jacob, and refused Esau, when the children were yet unborn, neither had done good or evil. Surely, indeed, there is nothing in the most perfect of the sons of men,

to merit the attention of a Being infinitely holy and perfect. How can a creature, who, in the emphatical language of the prophet, "from the "crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is full "of wounds, bruises, and putrifying sores," that is immersed in guilt and misery, be acceptable in the sight of that God, who cannot look upon sin nor sinners without abhorrence and detestation? Blessed, ever blessed, therefore, be his name, that we have so sure a word of prophecy as this to place our hopes in, that we are "predestinated "unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ "to himself, and that only according to the good pleasure of his will."That " he makes "known the riches of his grace on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory."

Thus have I endeavoured, as briefly and distinctly as I could, to illustrate this important subject: I shall, therefore, conclude with just mentioning a few short inferences which flow from it, and,

First, should not this delightful doctrine of salvation by grace be embraced by lost sinners with all humility and self-abasement? If our redemp

tion from the curse of the broken law of God, in all its steps, from the first original spring, to its final consummation, be entirely and only the work of God, as we have already shewn, what room is there left for human worth or merit? If we have received all," why should we boast, as if ແ we had not received?" Let us, therefore, divest ourselves of pride, the most hateful of qualities a creature can have in the sight of God, the most unsuitable to the condition of a fallen lost creature; this, however, of all the remains of the old man probably adheres to us the most closely it insinuates itself into the darkest and most retired corners of our hearts, and discovers itself on many occasions, when we least suspect it, and is only to be overcome by continued communications of grace and strength from the great fountain of all grace; let it therefore be the constant and fervent subject of our prayers, at a throne of grace, that we may be delivered from the fatal influence of this dangerous enemy of our souls, and that we may be clothed with humility, which is "in the sight of God of great "price."

Secondly, this doctrine should be attended to, and received with gratitude and thankfulness.