nearly the same terms, to the Corinthians, when he beseeches them to "receive not the grace of God in vain 1," and to the Thessalonians, when he urges them to "quench not the Spirit 2." Now, these exhortations of our Saviour and His Apostles, together with numerous others of like import, which might be adduced from the New Testament, as well as those which were addressed to the Israelites under the Mosaic dispensation, would be utterly devoid of meaning, unless men had the power to obey them,— unless they were free and responsible agents, and, consequently, able to comply with the exhortation, contained in the first part of our text, "Work out your own salvation."

But you are commanded to "work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Here, then, let the same course be pursued as before; let it be seen whether experience and Scripture do not agree in this, as in the former instance, in establishing the truth of the fact which the Apostle has assumed. You have seen and felt, by the testimony of your own experience, that man is a free agent, and that, in accordance with that freedom, the Word of God addresses to him the language of encouragement, of rebuke, of warning. But do you not also, by the very same testimony, see

1 2 Cor vi. 1.

2 1 Thes. v. 19.

and feel that man is a fallen being, that his intellect is limited, his will perverted, his passions clamorous, his resolutions weak? What is the picture of any man's life, my brethren, but a picture of sin? See what a miserable wreck is there, of vows that have been broken, of hopes that have been blighted, of affections that have been withered, of mercies that have been abused, of chastisements that have been disregarded. You know "that God hath made man upright," because He made him in His own image; but how is this beautiful image now mutilated and disfigured! What a dismal ruin of fallen greatness! You may indeed hear the voice of conscience reasoning within you" of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come 2," telling you of guilty thoughts and guilty deeds, of talents that have been wasted in profligacy or buried in indolence, of prayer neglected, of God's Word forgotten. But what word of hope or guidance can that voice utter? It reproaches and condemns, but it cannot console. It wounds, but it cannot heal. It makes the heart throb with agony, and the tear of contrition flow, but it cannot say to the natural man, My wisdom has found the way to light, to life, to happiness; it cannot transform him in the spirit of his mind; it cannot encourage him with hope, or animate him with strength; it cannot lift up his heart

1 Eccles. vii. 29.

2 Acts xxiv. 25.

above the cares and pleasures of the world, and make him patient and stedfast in every good word and work.

Is it not, then, a faithful testimony which the Church puts forth in her Tenth Article, when she declares that the condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God. Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that will We may labour indeed to do this of ourselves, but our labour will be vain, unless the grace of God prepares and aids us. It will serve no other purpose than to show how weak is man's strength, and how foolish is man's wisdom. The watchman may put forth his utmost vigilance, but "except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." The hand may exert its might to build up the fabric which the wisdom of the head has contrived, but "except the Lord build the city, their labour is but lost that build it 2." Truly, therefore, and mercifully, does the Word of God respond to the aspirations of this our helpless state; yea, truly and mercifully hath our blessed Lord said, "Abide in me, and I in you. As

See Art. X.

2 Ps. cxxvii. 1,

2.

4

the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, and ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing 1." The Apostle also sets forth the same truth, and reveals the same hope, when he declares that we are not "sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God 2;" and, again, "by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." But, "do we then" (as he asks in another place) "make void the law through faith? God forbid yea, we establish the law "." We establish it upon a foundation the most firm, we support it by motives the most pure and permanent; for there is a power mightier than ourselves at work, a power which enables us to walk in obedience to the sanctions of the Divine law, and to lean upon the promises of the Divine love; a power which redeems us from the strength of sin, as well as from the guilt of sin ; which guides us, from earth to heaven, by a light which neither the glories of the world can outvie, nor the miseries of the world obscure. It is no longer temporal hope stimulating us on to good, or temporal fear keeping us back from evil, but "the love of Christ," constraining and teaching us thus

to "judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again '."

With this "prize," then, "of our high calling, of God in Christ Jesus2" set before us; with these means of grace extended to the weakest and lowliest among us, may we not with good reason be exhorted to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling 2 For, assuredly, it is a principle natural and common to us all, that, whatsoever we love to possess, we dread to lose. And, if the peace and pardon of God in Christ Jesus, be that possession which, by sanctifying things present and realizing things future, be a possession above all price, then what fear and trembling can be too great on our parts, lest any of us "should seem to come short of it 3?" It is an issue, the bare contemplation of which must brace the energies of the most feeble, and awaken the slumbers of the most careless. For, if we turn away from Him who hath the words of eternal life, to whom can we go for help? If we despise His prevailing intercession, who shall rise up to be our advocate? If we call "the blood of the covenant wherewith we are sanctified, an unholy thing," and do despite unto the Spirit of grace +," of what sore punishment shall we be thought worthy? "There

66

1 2 Cor. v. 14, 15.

3 Heb. iv. 1.

2 Phil. iii. 14.

4 Heb. x. 29.