that he might impress their minds the more deeply with it, he repeats it again, by grace ye are saved. So much was the apostle Paul concerned to inculcate a doctrine which some are ready to look upon as unnecessary, and others perhaps as dangerous. But the apostle's authority is abundantly enough to outweigh all that can be laid in the opposite scale. And it will appear from what I have further to offer, that if it had not in this view so direct a sanction from his express testimony, the conclusion would follow by the justest deduction of argument from principles so fundamental to the gospel, that they cannot be denied without subverting its whole superstructure. And here, if I would treat the subject in its full extent, I might consider what we mean by gospel salvation: But I content myself at present with telling you in a few words, that it implies" a deliverance from that ruinous and calamitous condition into which, by our apostacy from God, we are fallen;" and it also includes "our being restored to the divine favour, and all the happy effects of it, as extending not only to time but to eternity." I might also consider at large the nature of that faith to which the promises of salvation are made. But that is a subject you have heard so frequently explained, that I shall only remind you of that general account of it which has often been illustrated among you. "Saving faith," for of that we are now speaking, "is such a persuasion, that Christ is the great Messiah, the Son of God, and the Saviour of men; and such a desire and expectation of the blessings he has procured under that character; as shall engage us cheerfully to commit our souls to him in his appointed method of salvation, with a disposition cordially to devote ourselves to his service in all the ways of holy and evangelical obedience." The several branches of this definition are to be taken in their connection with each other; and then there would be no difficulty in shewing from the whole tenor of scripture, that as nothing short of this can be acceptable to God, so wherever such a principle really is, the soul in which it is found is entitled to all the blessings of the covenant of grace, and has all the security for eternal happiness which the promise and oath of God can give. I might also easily shew you, that this is such a description of faith, as effectually secures the interest of practical religion, and guards against every presumptuous hope, which may be formed in a soul destitute of a principle of universal holiness. But, waving the further prosecution of these preliminaries to our subject, which we have occasion so often to dilate upon, I shall make it my present business, 1. To consider how we may be said to be saved through faith. II. How it appears, that in consequence of this, we are saved by grace. III. I shall examine the force of the apostle's additional argument which is drawn from the consideration, that faith is the gift of God. And then, IV. I shall collect some inferences from the whole. And may God write on your hearts, as with the point of a diamond, them and the premises on which they are founded! I. We are to consider in what sense it may be said, that christians are saved through faith. Ye are, says the apostle, [σowovo] the saved ones,-the persons who have already received the beginnings of salvation, and the certain pledge of its complete accomplishment,[dians ;] through, or by means of, faith. Now I apprehend we shall take in the full sense of the apostle's assertion, and of all that it is most necessary to believe and know on this subject; if we acknowledge and remember— that faith is absolutely necessary in order to our salvation, so that we cannot possibly be saved without it;-and also, that every one who hath this faith shall undoubtedly obtain salvation. -But yet, that after all, a christian is not to ascribe his salvation to the merit of his faith, but entirely to that of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great author and finisher of it. These are three very obvious remarks: None is so weak but he may easily understand them; and yet I speak very seriously, when I say they seem to me to contain the sum of all that is most important in the many large volumes which have been written on the subject. 1. "Faith is so absolutely necessary to our salvation, that we cannot possibly be saved without it." So our Lord tells us, in the most express and emphatical forms of speech: If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins: which most certainly implies the loss of salvation, and indeed much more. And elsewhere the incarnate wisdom and truth of God saith, He that believeth not, shall be damned *. He shall not, as the baptist says, see life+: Nay, as our Lord himself expresses it in the strongest terms, He that believeth not, is condemned already; not only on account of all those other sins for which the wrath of God, to which he became immediately obnoxious, still abideth upon him; but for this additional reason of dreadful provocation, Because he hath not believed in the venerable and majestic name of the only-begotten son of God‡. Without this faith, there is no knowledge that will save a man, though it should be the most various, and the most exact knowledge of the most divine and important subjects, which ever entered into a human mind. So far is it from this, that one need not scruple to say, a man might as reasonably expect to be saved by skill in the mathematics, or in music, as by skill in polemical divinity, though it were in its most essential branches, if after all it were no more than mere speculation. And it is no less certain, that without this faith, morality will not save a man, be it ever so unexceptionable, be it ever so exemplary. This is indeed much better than the former; but if there be nothing more, it will be fatally ineffectual to the great purpose which we have now in view. I speak not now, as you may easily imagine, of such a continual and uniform obedience to the divine will, as perfectly answers the demands of God's original law; for no man ever has attained to this, or will ever in fact attain to it in this world: But I speak of what the world generally calls morality, a freedom from gross impiety and scandalous vice, yea, though attended with the practice of the humane and social virtues. This is indeed amiable and honourable so far as it goes; and will undoubtedly have its reward, in the pleasure of such a conduct, in the esteem and love of mankind, and in the possession of many temporal advantages and blessings, which in the common course of providence are connected with it. But alas! it is after all a very partial and imperfect thing: And as a man may be temperate in himself; just, faithful, and benevolent to men ; without having any appearance of religion towards God, or making any pretence to it: So he may have some sense of God upon his spirit, which one would think none but an atheist could entirely avoid, while for the neglect, or it may be the rejection of the gospel, he stands exposed to its sentence of condemnation. If Christ be not regarded as the rock on which we build our hopes, the foundation is sandy, and will be ruinous; and if we do not receive Mark xvi. 16. ↑ John iii. 36. + John iii. 18. Christ by such a faith as I described above, we offer him a most insolent affront, by pretending to put our unsanctified and rebellious hearts under his patronage. We see then, that without this faith we cannot possibly be saved. It is the counterpart of this important truth, which wę now add, when we observe, 2. That, "every one who hath this faith, shall undoubtedly be saved." You will here be sure to observe, that I say, "Every one who hath this faith," meaning the faith described above; which includes in it our devoting ourselves to Christ in the way of holy obedience, as an essential part of it: And consequently there can be no reason to say, as some have wildly represented the matter, "A believer shall be saved, let him live as he will;" which is either a most notorious and mischievous falsehood, or an express contradiction in terms, If the word believer be supposed to signify one who merely assents to the truth of the gospel in speculation, nothing can be more false; and the whole epistle of James, to omit a thousand particular passages of other scriptures, is a demonstration of the contrary: But if it be meant, as I suppose it generally is, of a true believer, it is an express contradiction; and is as absurd as it would be to say a really good man shall be saved, though he should at the same time be a very bad one. For no one can, in the sense described above, which is the scriptural sense, be a true believer, but one who wills to live in a holy manner; since the same operation of God upon the soul, which disposes it to believe, sanctifies the will, and though freely, yet effectually leads it into a prevailing determination to make the service of God the business of life: Or, in other words, it is plain from the whole tenor of scripture, that a saving is also a sanctifying faith; but there cannot be a sanctifying faith in an unholy heart; neither can there be a holy heart, where there is a wicked life; For the tree is known by its fruits*: And when we speak of the heart, we mean not merely the affections, but the will, the determinations of which are indeed the very actions of which we speak, so far as they are properly ours. There cannot therefore be a more insolent falsehood, than the pretence to holiness of heart, where that of the life is wanting, or to saving faith in the absence of both. There may indeed be an error in the understanding as as to some cir produce some erAch the infirmity of a temptation, may s, contrary to the genee: But there cannot pose believer, an habitual, alce to any one commandment of and truth of God saith, He that believeth He shall not, as the baptist says, see himself expresses it in the strongest t is condemned already; not only sins for which the wrath of God ately obnoxious, still abideth r reason of dreadful provocati the venerable and majestic. Without this faith, + man, though it should it as a necessary preliminary; and knowledge of the mos may very securely build upon it this entered into a hum osoever hath such a faith as this, shall need not scruple t Whatever his former guilt may have been, saved by skill in rious, ever so long continued, ever so aggrapolemical divi' crimes had been committed, From which he if after all it been justified by the law of Moses*, but And it doomed by it to an infamous Death without will not set on exerting such an act of faith in Christ, the exemplmediately stands a justified person before God, preany good works of his own: Yea, though he should die grez be have an opportunity of performing any, in this case, yo if ever it happen, is by the way the only case in which works are not, according to the gospel-covenant, neces if the Ꮷ sy to an actual admission into heaven) an omniscient God calls things that are not as if they were ‡, and accepts those fruits of holiness which he discerned in their root or their bud, though he did not afford time for their coming to maturity. And if life be spared, the believer continuing such, continues in a state of favour and acceptance with God, though there may be remaining imperfections in him; and though he may see reason to complain, that he cannot do the things which he would, but that the Law in his members struggles against the law of his mind §, yet he' shall finally be saved, whatever difficulties are to be broken through, and how long soever his trials may continue: And his salvation as a believer is as certain, from the whole current of the word of God, as the condemnation of the unbeliever, which we proved above. He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life ; he hath it already in its beginnings and earnests, and he shall ere long rise to the complete possession of it. For Christ Gives unto his sheep *Acts xiii. 39. + Heb. x. 28. + Rom. iv. 17. |