cribing all its hopes and all its benefits to the high source whence only they can proceed. Denying the right of any one to boast of his religious attainments, or vainly to glory in his future hopes; at the same time recog nizing the rational and moral dignity of our nature, they instruct us to render to God the homage which is his due, by acknowledging our entire obligation to his mercy and goodness for all our present privileges, and for the prospects which we enjoy of future happiness. For, though the Epistle from which our text is taken, was written, as some have supposed, to several churches, or, as is generally believed, to a church of converted Gentiles at Ephesus; yet are these words so general in their nature, and admit of such universal application, that all Christians may regard them as addressed immediately to themselves.

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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."

In discoursing more at large from these words, I would direct your attention, my friends, to the salvation which is mentioned; to the source whence this salvation is derived;

and to the condition by which this salvation is made ours.

I. Let us first attend to the salvation here spoken of: "Ye are saved."

The term salvation, implies a deliverance or preservation from evil, whether natural or moral, temporal or eternal. It is sometimes also applied to the means of preservation, and to the happiness consequent upon any deliverance. And, in the sacred writings, it is frequently used to express the happy infiuence of the Gospel in preserving us from sin and ignorance; and that righteousness of conduct, and improvement in moral character, which the Gospel inculcates; and also that glory and happiness which are held in reserve, as the future inheritance of those who prove faithful to the end.

1. Salvation implies the divine influence of the Gospel in delivering us from sin and ignorance. "I cease not," said the Apostle, in the same Epistle from which our text is taken-" I cease not to give thanks for you; making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him that the eyes of your mind being enlightened,

ye may know what is the hope of his having called you, and what are the glorious riches of his inheritance among the Saints."* And, again, "God hath given life to you, who were dead in offences and sins, in which ye formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the powerful ruler of the air, and of the spirit which now worketh in the sons of disobedience."t

Here is a direct allusion to the ignorance of these Gentiles, and to their sinful practices, before their conversion to Christianity, and to that acquaintance with divine truth and knowledge of their duty, which they had derived from their reception of the Gospel. In common with the rest of the heathen world, they had suffered under the influence of that moral darkness which so generally prevailed; exposed to all the ruinous absurdities of superstition and idolatry combined; ignorant of the divine character; unacquainted with the grounds of moral obligation and the duties of life; unassured of a future state of existence, and of those eternal consequences of our conduct, which await us in another world. From this hopeless state of ignorance and vice they had been saved by the influence of + Eph. ii. 1, 2.

* Eph. i. 16, 17, 18.

the Gospel. The Apostle himself had previously introduced it. The light of revealed truth now shone amongst them. They were no longer without the knowledge of God. They were now instructed in the duties of life; were acquainted with the difference between sin and righteousness; and were not strangers to those salutary hopes and fears, with reference to another state of being, which agitate the breasts of those who are enlightened by revelation. Thus had they been delivered, thus had they been saved, from the ignorance of heathenism, by the introduction of the Gospel.

2. Salvation also implies, that righteousness of conduct, and improvement in moral character, which the Gospel inculcates. "We are his workmanship," says the Apostle, writing to the same converted Gentiles-" We are his workmanship, having been created through Christ Jesus to good works, in which God before designed that we should walk."*

This is a direct assertion of the transforming influence of the Gospel of Christ, in calling these converts out of the sinful state of heathenish darkness, and introducing them

* Eph. ii. 10.

into the light of heavenly truth, to a knowledge of God, and to the possession of those divine principles which had so effectually wrought in them, as, as it were, to create them anew. They were, in a moral point of view, new creatures. Such, indeed, is the power of the Gospel, wherever it has its proper influence, that it exalts the human character to the highest state of moral perfection of which it is capable in this world. Taking possession of the secret springs and principles of action, and giving a proper direction to all the powers of our nature, it diffuses over the human character so divine a lustre, that the impress of Heaven is seen upon earth. The divine image is recognized, and the most abandoned are constrained to render homage. The happy subject feels assured that he is in possession of a great salvation; a salvation from the tyranny of ignorance, from the dominion of sin; a salvation of progressive holiness in life, of righteousness of conduct, of improvement in moral character.

3. Salvation also implies, that glory and happiness which are held in reserve, as the future inheritance of those who prove faithful to the end. This, my brethren, is salvation in the most full and extended sense. It is not