SERMON VIII.

SALVATION BY GRACE.

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."

WITH no reflections can our mind be so powerfully influenced, as when directed, steadily and earnestly, to contemplate on the being and attributes of the Almighty. We are then led on by thoughts, far higher and more sublime than any which the present scene of things can excite; and become conversant with majesty and knowledge, which emphatically lead us to feel, that "the wisdom of this world is" indeed "foolishness with God."

Yet widely different will be the sentiments which His various perfections will create. While some are calculated to cheer our minds, and elevate us with an humble hope of mercy; there are others which will weigh down our souls to the ground, and cause an horrible dread to overwhelm us.

In the silent and solemn hour of meditation, when the cares, and the joys, and the seductions of the world, are for a time banished; and the mind, abstracted from earthly subjects, is allowed to fix its powers on the nature of a self-existent and eternal Being, whose beginning never was, nor end shall be; our hallowed and pious feelings will be lost in amazement; and the words of David will not only be pronounced, but rush with depressing force into our minds, "Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him?"

When we remember, that His omniscience implies a wisdom which extends to the knowledge of all things, past, present, and to come; to the actions of every man, in every nation; and to the thoughts and wishes of every mind, that ever lived or

shall live

such wisdom will excite within us the strongest sensations of adoration and astonishment.

The omnipotence, which enables Him to punish all transgression, and to furnish the soul with a life-preserving property, that may fit it for the endurance of endless woe; will bow us to the earth, as creatures of His will, and make us tremble before a power which we can neither resist nor avoid.

His inflexible justice, which will in no wise clear the guilty, will fill us with horror at the remembrance of our past transgressions, and make us fear lest the hours which are yet to come, may prove but the echo of those that have been; but can never cheer us with one ray of hope, that the actions of our past life, or the exertions of our future days will ever entitle us to the favour of that Being, who is of" purer eyes than to behold iniquity.'

And when appalled, and humbled, and oppressed with thoughts like these, with what gratitude and joy do we extract from the well-spring of life, an assurance such as this" 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."

But while it is calculated to convey to us emotions of gratitude and thankfulness, too deep to find expression in human utterance; our joy must be selfish indeed, if it be not checked and chastened with the remembrance, that this very sentence, soothing and consoling as it may be to us, has been so interpreted by many of our brethren who are unlearned or unstable, as to make us tremble lest they have fallen into the error which St. Peter notices, and wrested this, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

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Apart from all other considerations, the simple misapprehension of the term grace" has been a fruitful source of religious error, and spiritual delusion. This term has been used to convey, so much more than in truth it does convey, that its simple meaning is lost sight of, and its real import in many instances forgotten, and in yet more unknown. Grace is that disposition of the Almighty, which confers hap

"favour."

piness where it is not merited; and is, in fact, only another term for " mercy" or Yet, many who would not doubt our meaning, if we said, that it was by the favour of God, that our daily food was conducive to our support; or by His mercy, that the blood of the Redeemer was available to our salvation, would look for some hidden and mysterious agency, if told it was accomplished by His grace. And, thus, while a rank and poisonous weed has disfigured the beauty of the Almighty's vineyard, it has prepared the soil to receive a mighty tree of error, whose roots strike deeply into the consecrated ground, and whose branches darken, by their baneful shade, an alarming portion of the hallowed spot. Error progressively advancing has at length reached the fearful and impious climax of declaring, that faith is a gift of God, not vouchsafed to all upon whom the bright beams of the Gospel shine, but only to a favoured few, who are thence enabled to lay hold on Christ, while the rest of their brethren are left to perish. The belief of such a doctrine has had the most fearful