The
following discourse is presented to public inspection not from any
desire on the part of the Author to appear in print nor would the
misrepresentation of his sentiments … But placed as he is at the
head of an important Institution which is ….
October
3, 1871
A
Sermon etc, etc
EPHES.
ii. 5.
By
Grace ye are saved.
THE
doctrine of salvation by grace pervades the holy scriptures from the
first revelation of God's will made to fallen man, to the close of
the inspired volume. We discover it in the words, And
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel. In the promise
to Abraham, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be
blessed; in the numberless sacrifices that were offered to Jehovah,
from the days of Abel to the advent of Christ; and in the host of
predictions uttered by the prophets concerning him, this precious
doctrine is strikingly revealed. The lambs that were daily immolated
under the levitical economy, to expiate the guilt of the Israelites,
pointed to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world:
and to him give all the prophets witness, that through his name,
whosoever believeth in him, shall receive remission of sins.
Encompassed with so great a cloud of witnesses to evince his
Messiahship, the Lord Jesus, when the fulness of time was come, made
his appearance in the land of Judea; and then the ancient doctrine of
salvation by grace shone forth with such splendor, that all
antecedent discoveries of it were quite eclipsed: no longer was it
enveloped in types and shadows, and published in language that was,
on the whole dark and ambiguous, but appeared as it were the body of
heaven in its clearness.
Supplied
with this inestimable treasure, the apostles went forth into all the
world, explaining the way of salvation by grace, and beseeching their
hearers to be reconciled to God. Grace was the charming them on which
they dwelt in their public discourses and more private letters. With
this they generally commenced and closed their epistles. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
are the concluding words of the sacred canon: and it is this
delightful and soul-refreshing subject, that demands our attention
and investigation this morning: By
grace ye are saved.
Grace,
a term so frequently introduced in the word of God, is employed to
convey different ideas in different connexions. In one place it
denotes munificence or charity; in another, the gospel is intended by
it; in a third, it expresses the eternal love of God to his own
peculiar people; in a fourth, it exhibits the benefits and blessings
which flow to mankind from the death of Christ. In our text it seems
to be designed to set forth the ground, cause, or means of the
salvation of true believers, from its co-mencement to its
consummation. The word in its proper import, signifies free,
unobliged, undeserved favor: and hence, when we speak of the
salvation of God's people, we consistently say, that they are saved
by sovereign grace: for Jehovah the fountain of grace, is above all
obligation to his creatures, and so is infinitely above any
direction, influence, and controul from them in any thing that he
performs.
An
author pertinently observes,
Sovereignty is in a peculiar
manner essential to all acts of grace, or grace in all cases is
sovereign grace; and what is not so, is no grace at all. For,
whatever good is bestowed, if he that grants it is under any original
obligation to do it, or is obliged to do it from the reason and
nature of things, and so owes it to him that receives it, it is only
an act of justice, and of the nature of paying a debt, and there is
no grace in it: for grace is free, unobliged, undeserved favor, and
that which is not so, is not grace. [Quoting Samuel Hopkins in A
Particular, and Critical Inquiry Into the Cause, Nature and Means of
that Change in which Men are Born of God.]
