tongue, will unite, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give we glory." 5. Were not the salvation of sinners wholly and solely by grace, it must follow, that a believer would not have one moment's security, either for the present blessings of grace, or the fature enjoyment of glory; so saith the Apostle of the Gentiles*, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be of grace; to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed." And further, as the text at the head of this paper manifestly shews, were not this the case," Faith would be made void (useless and insignificant) and the promise of none effect." But, blessed be our God and Saviour, his people shall be kept by his divine power, through faith unto salvation; nor shall any be permitted to pluck them out of his hands." So runs the tenor of the everlasting covenant: "I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from met." And, 6. To suppose that human works are conditional of salvation, would rob the believer of his sweetest and strongest arguments for a constant and cheerful obedience to his divine Lord; so very far is the tendency of free-grace truths from giving encouragement to sloth, that they alone give energy and promptness to the Christian in the path of duty. Hence, the Apostle testifies ‡, "The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus 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 that died for them, and rose again." And again, he exhorts, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord §." On so copious, a subject as that under consideration, it would be easy to enlarge; but our limits forbid it. Let the reader, if through divine grace he is delivered from the yoke of legal bondage, with a view to the exercise of holy gratitude, contemplate the infinite and eternal preciousness of salvation by grace. 1st, In reference to its source, whence did it originate? In God. It was a glorious mystery, hid in his eternal mind before the foundation of the world. And the infinite Jehovah hath commended his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, in due time Christ died for the ungodly **. with holy wonder its perfect suitability to the miseries of the degenerate offspring of Adam: the blood of Jesus is the sovereign balm for every wound; his righteousness our deliverance from all condemnation; his fulness (to which the believer may always resort) inexhaustible; and all the blessings of his great salvation are as freely imparted as the air that we breathe. 3. Contemplate 2. View 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. ** Rom. v. S. the blessed and infallible security of his spiritual life, as he is united to Jesus by the faith of the operation of God; for "This is the record, that God hath given us eternal life; and this life is in his Son. Ile that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life*."- Lastly, Let us, my dear readers, ever live with this Scripture as a frontlet before our eyes, that "the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, teacheth us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world: looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." * John v. 11, 12. J.A. K. THE EFFICACY OF GRACE. GRACE (the grace of God that bringeth salvation) is the most important term in language; it includes all that is supremely interesting to sinners on earth, or to saints and angels in Heaven; it glorifies all the perfections of God, gives endearing lustre to his character, assimilates the vilest of the sons of Adam to his holy image, and finally exalts them to the eternal enjoyment of his infinite blessedness. The grace of God which bringeth salvation, by the perfect righteousness of Christ, is the Alpha and Omega of the Scriptures, the essence of the gospel, the only security of improvement and happiness under the institutions of religion and the afflictions of Providence, and the sovereign medium of every degree of usefulness in the work of the ministry. The ignorant and the proud may pervert this grace; it may be abused by the licentious, and ridiculed by the prophane; but the enlightened, believing penitent will have recourse to it for aid in all his spiritual conflicts, and for safety in every storm: and as the only way of his access to God, and the only ground of his acceptance with him, grace will be all his confidence before the throne of mercy, and all his glory at the bar of Jesus. Angels and men, Heaven and earth, time and eternity, unite in celebrating the praises of its mighty conquests and immortal triumphs. The distinction so frequently made between common and special grace, or general and particular grace, is not more inconsistent with the tenor of Scripture than it is calculated to produce mental confusion, and a fatal misunderstanding of what is essential to the import of the term common, or general grace, we are told, is that which all possess in the light of nature and reason; and that it is experienced by most men in the operations of natural conscience. But the word necessarily implies the very reverse of all such low and loose definitions. Grace must be special, it must be particu lar. All the creatures of God are, in various degrees, the subjects of his providential bounty; and it is true that man is distinguished in his fame and constitution from every other species of animal being: but, with all his boasted light and reasoning powers, with all his common grace, he is naturally a child of darkness, and a slave to the basest passions and appetites. Considered physically, we cannot say too great things of his dignity; he is fearfully and wonderfully made." But view him morally, and he is fearfully and wonderfully vile; and without a scriptural acquaintance with the efficacious grace of the gospel, he will be fearfully and wonderfully lost. Grace is efficacious without compulsion. Ignorance and prejudice represent Calvinism as a compulsive system; as forcing some of our race to final misery, and others to eternal happiness. Do what they can, multitudes, it is said, upon the principles of this system must be lost for ever; and other multitudes, do what they will, shall certainly obtain salvation. Yet who that adheres to this system, or rather to the accordant tenor of revelation, who of this class can be justly charged with asserting, or even with supposing that any man is wicked or virtuous, miserable or happy by compulsion! Grace is realized in all its efficacious operations by the believers, in connexion with the most perfect freedom of the will. When he was first brought to believe the gospel, his soul was so captivated by the beauties and transcendent worth of the Saviour, that he voluntarily surrendered himself to his government, and joyfully committed all his eternal concerns into his hands. What compulsion was necessary to save Peter from sinking? What force would be required to make a man who had been blind from his birth admire the glories of the sun when his eyes are enlightened? The first act of almighty victorious grace, is to raise the dead in sin to spiritual life: and all the subsequent operations of this grace display such a sweet, conciliatory, attractive, and captivating efficacy, as leaves the understanding, the will, and the affections, in a state of the happiest liberty. While ignorance and prejudice misrepresent the efficacy of divine grace, enthusiasm and fanaticism awfully mistake its influences. There are many, who stand high in the opinion of the religious world, whose notions upon this subject are so crude, and whose views are so dark and confused, as to make it evident that what they call their experience, may, and does, often prevail wholly unconnected with spiritual discrimination, and a scriptural faith in the doctrine of the cross. At one period they became awakened sinners; then, sometime afterwards, they were converted to God; at some period, probably still more distant, they were justified; and in a fourth happy season, distinct from each of the other seasons alluded to, they were sanctified. The reception of what is denominated the first and the second blessing, form different memorable aras in the state of their experience: and some extraordinary alliatus of the Spirit, some wonderful manifestation working up the mind to a high pitch of rapture, become the ground of their assurance, and the certain pledges of their final salvation. But what is there in all these lofty pretensious that distinguish the essential influences of grace, or that can be considered as complete evidence of believing the gospel? The genuine Christian derives his satisfaction and comfort from what le believes, not from what he feels; as a sinner, he looks only to the righteousness of Jesus; and being justified by faith in that righteousness, he has peace with God. The truth believed, is the source of all his joy. He is, therefore, careful not to confound the fruits of faith with faith itself; and discerning the carnal workings of his own passions from the humbling operations of the Holy Spirit, he duly appreciates the sovereignty of grace, and unpresumptuously anticipates the ultimate fruition of glory, The grace by which the guilty and lost sons of Adam are justified and saved, includes all the sufficiency of Omnipotence. The mightiest atchievements recorded in the page of history, when compared with the triumphs of grace, shrink into insignificance, and lose their very name. Grace is "wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." The sovereign operations of it are coeval with the existence of sin, and will be carried on without interruption till the new creation shall be finished, till all the elect are raised up from the ruins of the fall. In the believing contem plation of the mighty works of grace, we realize the sublimest plea sure of which our natures are now capable, The mind is thus raised above all the beggarly elements of the world; we become superior to all legal dependencies and slavish fears; doubt and anxiety no longer prevail, and every gloomy thought gives way to admiration, gratitude, and joyful confidence. The exceeding abundant grace of our Lord uniformly produces faith and love, not only with reference to our personal salvation, but to all the instances we behold of its efficacy in the salvation of others. When Barnabas came to Antioch and saw the grace of God (i. e. the wonderful change wrought by the grace of God) he was glad: and thus it will be with every one who obtains mercy, especially if, before the period of his own conversion, he was more bold in blasphemy, and more impious in conduct than others. It is the glory of the gospel, and the joy of all who scripturally know it, that the salvation it proclaims includes among its objects the meanest and the vilest of men; that it is the power of God to the salvation even of those who, like Saul of Tarsus, were exceedingly mad against the truth and the disciples of Jesus: that it subdues the most inveterate enmity, and tames the most ferocious passions that by the gospel, Lions and beasts of savage name While the wide world esteems it strange, To this omnipotent grace, all things must be possible and easy; to oppose its operations with success is impossible; and equally impossible will it prove to escape with impunity. Every event of Providence shall be made subservient to its eternal purposes, and a great multitude of all nations shall unite in celebrating its widely extended conquests. Without the grace of Jesus the strongest Christian can do nothing; but, supported by it, the weakest can do all things. By grace he is sufficient for every duty to which he is called, and for every trial with which he is exercised. Here his trust is fixed for lie and death; here he is more than conqueror for e'erity. But the grace of God is not less the subject of the believer's joy as the security of increasing holiness, than as the source of his present and future happiness. There are many who pretend to contide in Jesus as their priest, who despise and reject him as their king. They are wonderfully passionate in their zeal for some of the doctrines of grace, while they discard with secret abhorrence the truth of its sanctifying efficacy: and, as if the grace of our Lord Jesus were honoured in proportion to their moril debasement, they "give themselves over to work all uncleanness with greediness." Such characters give great occasion of triumph to infidels, and to a certain class of professors whose malignant sneer against the doctrine of electing grace are become quite proverbial. However, holiness is an essential object of election, and the elect are regenerated and sanctified by grace now, as certainly as they shall be finally glorified. In this connexion the doctrine in question, and all the other doctrines of grace, are received and enjoyed by every genuine Christian : such Christians make their regeneration the only criterion of their interest in Christ: the degree of their conformity to him is their only measure of happiness; and to live down the antiquated, stale, and futile objections of gainsayers by abounding in holiness, is the height of their ambition. But, finally, To the grace of God we ascribe immutable efficacy. Like its Author, it is without variableness or shadow of turning: it is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. In Eden the first sin was committed, and there the first revelation of grace was made to the sinner. From that period to the present, grace has abounded more secretly or visibly, as existing circumstances were calculated to promote the praise of its glory. In the earlier ages, and under the former dispensation, the waters of life were conveyed through more hidden and mysterious channels, till in the fulness of time the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of Heaven were opened; then these waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and in some future day the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of his salvation as the waters cover the depths of the sea: "He hath said it, he also will do it." He that shall come will come! His counsel shall stand, and all his pleasure shall be accomplished. The immutable purposes of his grace decide every doubt; the immutable promises of his grace Lanish every fear. Men often promise what they cannot perform: they promise what they never seriously design to perfona; and by a thousand unexpected occurrences, their most |