ed; but to render these Christian means of salvation effectual, they must be improved. All those passages of the New Testament, which speak of Christ as bearing our transgression, being a propitiation for our sins, being our righteousness, &c. are descriptive of the methods which God has adopted, through the ministrations of Christ Jesus to deliver us from the habit and the guilt of sin.

SERMON XIX.

EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE NECESSARY TO SALVATION,

PHILIPPIANS ii. 12, 13.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure,

YOU will recollect that I proposed reviewing the fourth article of the Calvinistick creed under three distinct propositions. The second of these is the subject of our present discourse, viz.

2. To state the agency which the scriptures assign to men in the Christian plan of salvation.

Salvation is placed within the attainment of every individual of the human family. God, who gave existence to man, designed that existence as a blessing, and he grants every degree of power and instruction necessary to enable him to obtain the happiness presented to his contemplation, as the reward of his virtuous efforts. By the mediation and ministry of Jesus Christ, every thing has been accomplished for our salvation which is consistent with our intellectual and moral natures. Our Father in heaven has, by his Son, redeemed us from

the bondage of sin and the empire of death. He hath clearly instructed us in our duty, and promised to support us under all its conflicts. He invites, he persuades, he commands us to obey his laws, that we may be happy. While men were sinners, God appointed his own Son to be their saviour, and of his own goodness taught us the path of life; yet he treats us as the subjects of a moral government; and when he shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, he will reward them according to their works.

Though Jesus has called us to life eternal, made us partakers of the privileges of the sons of God, and adopted us into his family; yet if we abuse the privileges of children, and hold the truth in unrighteousness, we shall be excluded from the future kingdom of God. To make our calling and election sure, we must imbibe the temper of the gospel, and in practice give an exemplification of the virtues and graces of our religion. As a preparation for heaven, we must be formed to a likeness of the character of the Divine Author of our religion. When we seriously attend to the passages of scripture which make this improvement of our Christian privileges essential to salvation, we shall perceive a perfect harmony between them and those passages which represent salvation to be the free gift of God. Besides the places in the New Testament, in which the sacred writers expressly treat of the day of judgment, and in which they most explicitly declare that men shall be judged according to their works, I might mention particularly the parables of the Virgins, and the Talents. These and most

of the lectures of our Saviour were intended to illustrate the moral condition of mankind under his reign, and they all show the necessity of improving the means of religion to secure its rewards; they all state that the privileges of the gospel are freely granted, and that all men are invited to lay hold on life eternal. The invitation of the gospel is universal. "Ho! every one that thirsteth; come ye to the waters of life. He that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." All men are endowed with a capacity for improvement in rational and moral life: all who possess the gospel are alike favoured by its instruction and assistance; and yet we are in the clearest manner informed that at the coming of Christ to judgment, some of his nominal disciples will be made heirs of the heavenly inheritance, and others banished from the kingdom of God. The reason of this difference rests with men themselves. Some in the state of probation wisely improve the means of knowledge, piety, and virtue, and thereby qualify themselves for the happiness of heaven; others pass the period of their probation without improvement, and in the day of account they will be found destitute of the qualifications of the Christian character; they will therefore be condemned, and their punishment aggravated in proportion to the extent of means which they abused.

Men, in different proportions, possess the powers of intellectual and free agents; and hereafter an account will be required of the manner in which each talent has been managed. Men differ in their intellectual and moral faculties, and individuals must

account only for talents committed to their management. Men are accountable for what they have, and not for what they have not. Their future rewards will be proportioned to attainments actually inade under their respective circumstances.

To all observations of this nature, some may reply-Moral preparations are indeed absolutely requisite for salvation. No one will be admitted to heaven, who in the present world is not conformed to the image of God. Men must become the children, before they can be made the heirs of God. The very question is-Can they of themselves acquire the necessary qualifications for heaven? Can they, in their own power, form in their souls the image of their Creator? I answer, We possess nothing which we did not receive; and if we received all our powers from God, why should we glory as though we received them not? The pretence to independent power or agency in a creature is preposterous. But our Maker formed us free moral agents, and he has appointed the method by which the true end of our existence may be obtained. God has fitted the earth to yield its increase for the present support of man, and he prospers the tiller of the ground in his labours; but he who labours not during seed time, will not gather in the appointed weeks of harvest. God in mercy has, by Jesus Christ, promised eternal life to all, who by a patient continuance in the ways of well doing, seek for glory, honour and immortality; but they who do not comply with the condition, can have no claim to the reward. Be not deceived: God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he