venly birth and spiritual kind, what food is adapted to its nature, but that which is supplied by the gracious Spirit? It is not the Lord's method to furnish his people with a stock of grace, and then leave it entirely to their good management. Were this the case, like witless prodigals, they would soon squander away not only the earnest of their inheritance, but the inheritance itself. No, he deals with them more tenderly and wisely. It is in spiritual, as in temporal life. The food which sustains our nature to-day, was not intended to serve us to-morrow; and therefore it is our duty to be no less mindful of our souls than of our bodies, when we offer up our petition for our daily bread. The branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine. It is the fulness of Christ from which we receive grace for grace. The advocate whom he hath promised -the Lord, the sanctifier, dwells in his people as a well of living waters. He purifies their affections; he encourages their hope; he nerves their exertion. From the effect of his mighty working, he is denominated the Spirit of grace; and for the same reason, progress in those holy tempers of which he is the immediate author, is called growth in grace.

Equally free, equally unmerited, is the completion of our salvation. He who begins the

good work, performs it until the day of Jesus Christ. He hath GIVEN to us eternal life. The inheritance of believers is an inheritance already purchased. The full price was paid by their surety, and it is kept, by the faithfulness of God, till they become of age, when they shall enter with exceeding joy, into the kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the world.

As the great salvation is, in all its parts, the offspring of gratuitous bounty, so the manner in which we acquire a property in its benefits, corresponds to its nature. Which leads us to consider, in the

III. Place, the mean or instrument by which salvation becomes ours. This is faith. By grace are ye saved, THROUGH FAITH. Genuine faith, as has been remarked already, is a cordial assent to the testimony of God, and a firm reliance upon his new covenant faithfulness. It views him as a promising God, and as a God who performs what he promises. Thus Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. The love of God proposes Christ Jesus as the propitiation for sin; as the peace-maker between God and man; as the only foundation of our hope and confidence. We are told that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth

in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The offer of his salvation is made in style the most tender, and terms the most unlimited: Hearken to me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness. Behold, I bring near my righteousness. Eternal Truth has sworn that no sinner, be his character what it may, if he flee to this righteousness, shall ever be rejected. Him that cometh to me, saith the Redeemer, I will in no wise cast out. "Amen," says the believing soul, with her eye fixed on the exceeding great and precious promises, "it is enough: these are all my salvation, and all my desire. I wish for no other, no better security. Christ is offered to sinners freely and indiscriminately. Here is my ample warrant to receive him: I am a sinner: I appropriate to myself the general offer: I take Jesus to be my Saviour and portion, and God to be, in him, my covenant God. Henceforward I am not my own, but bought with a price, I am bound to serve, God with my body and with my spirit, which are his." In thus receiving the divine testimony respecting the Redeemer, we set to our seal that God is true. And that he And that he may mark with an indelible stain the pride of all human glory, the apostle takes care to inform us that even this faith by which we embrace the Saviour, does not originate in our will; is not

effected by our power: Ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the GIFT OF GOD. The Scripture is decisive on this head. It is GIVEN us to believe in Christ. It is God who deals the measure of faith. It is he who fulfills in his people, the work of faith with power.

The subject we have been considering, affords matter for copious and interesting meditation. We shall very briefly improve it, for correcting a very common but destructive error; for inviting the sinner to lay hold on eternal life; and for quickening the believer in his way to glory.

I. We may correct, from what has been said, a common but destructive error. Multitudes who would gladly break down the hedge of distinction which God has planted around his chosen: and reduce them to a level with the carnal world, are fond of the notion, that the faith which constitutes a Christian is but a rational assent to the truth of the gospel. A notion, my brethren, which will ruin eternally the man who dies under its influence. An assent to historical fact, and to rational proof, is an exercise of the mind, which belongs to us as intellectual beings. It is an essential property of a reasonable creature. Destroy this property, and you destroy his very nature. But it is by no means necessarily con

nected with good moral qualities. And who does not know that it is moral state and character which distinguish the believer from the world? Intellectual powers, necessarily, belong to us: but the faith of a Christian is not born with him, nor is he born with powers which can produce it: if he were, it could not be a faith of God's operation. A speculative, and a saving faith, are therefore specifically different. The difference, and an important one it is, lies here: the one is the fruit of arguments addressed to the understanding merely, and may be possessed, in a very high degree, by the devil himself. The other is the proper effect of the sovereign and almighty agency of the Spirit of truth, not only upon the understanding, but upon the heart, and upon the will. And it is the more needful to be decided in this matter, because men, as long as they indulge the idea that they are able to believe at their pleasure, will slumber in security, and dream of bliss, but will not, cannot, be solicitous about salvation by grace. But a free, an absolutely free salvation is the substance of the gospel. While, therefore, we may properly improve our subject for alarming the fears of men by showing them their utter inability to help themselves, we must not forget to improve it.