SERMON XXIV.

PREACHED AT HENLEY, OXON, AT A MEETING OF MINISTERS.

According to the power that worketh in us.-EPHES. III. 20.

SOME of my hearers may need to be informed that I am appointed on this occasion to preach on the efficacy of the gospel.

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This is a subject with which we must become acquainted, in order to our eternal safety and feliMay I not hope to be accompanied by serious attention? Permit me also to solicit your ardent prayer that I may speak according to the Holy Scriptures, and that what shall be spoken, may be followed with that divine blessing which insures success.

We inquire, Wherein doth the efficacy of the gospel consist?

This question involves two terms, which may require some little explanation; the one is gospel, the other is efficacy.

By the gospel, we mean, the revelation of divine

grace to fallen man, which is manifest in the word of God, and more especially under the New Testament dispensation of religion.

The word of God is often spoken of as the word of his grace; it displays the unmerited favour of God in sending his Son to seek and save lost sinners of the human race, and recover them to a state of purity, dignity, and bliss. These good tidings of salvation in Christ Jesus were published immediately upon the fall of Adam, and were more fully explained and enlarged under the succeeding dispensations of religion. The gospel was preached unto the Fathers as well as unto us. Heb. iv. 2. David and the prophets saw and felt the divine effects of the gracious word in the enlightening the mind and converting the heart unto God; but by the personal appearance and ministration of the Messiah himself, and the perfect dispensation he thus introduced, divine grace shone forth in its brightest glory, and its salvation hath been proclaimed unto the ends of the earth.

This system of grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ possesses various constituent parts, distributed into doctrines, institutions, precepts, promises, examples, and prospects. We do not intend to consider these separately, or to detach the one from the other, but to refer to all as parts of the same glorious whole.

The term efficacy is sometimes used in a restricted sense for the effecting some purpose; but the more obvious and general import is, the

strength, force, energy, or power which attend a thing.

If we apply the remarks we have made to our present subject, we shall be led to this general proposition.

Doctrine. The word of divine grace is attended with a peculiar and mighty power or energy.

Shall we ask whether this influence attends the reading of the Scriptures or meditation upon them, or more generally the preaching of the gospel? This is quite immaterial; no one of these means should exclude the others, and the Holy Spirit blesses each of them, that we may more fully be engaged to use them all.

To display the energy of the gospel we are at no loss for materials. Shall I raise up to your view the embattled ranks Christianity has had to encounter and subdue? or, set before you the matchless victories she hath obtained over numerous and combined enemies, who tried every method of attack? Nations, both the learned and the rude, in successive periods of time, have been subdued by her heavenly arms, and the very powers of darkness and of hell tremble at the name of her great Leader. The achievements performed by the gospel were obtained, not by secular power, not by fascinating eloquence, not by the influence of worldly connexions, nor by warlike instruments; it rejected with disdain all carnal weapons, selected some of the most weak instruments, adopted the most sim

ple methods, and took occasion from those to demonstrate its power to be divine.

Without launching out into these general views of the triumphs of Christianity, I shall confine my thoughts to that seat of its operation specified in the text, as "a power which works in us." While I disclaim the attempt to mark out accurately its efficacious operations through the progressive stages of Christian experience, I am desirous of throwing some light upon its regenerating and sanctifying grace. I propose to show,

I. That the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is powerful.

II. That saving energy is peculiar to the gospel. Under this head we shall also inquire, whether it should be considered as innate or inherent, or attendant.

After a short discussion of these points, I shall aim at an extensive improvement.

I. That the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is powerful.

"It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," Rom. i. 16. "Unto us which are saved it is the power of God," 1 Cor. i. 18. Have not all the churches been truly addressed, as in 1 Thess. i. 5: "Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power." Let us enter into some of its scriptural representations, and trace its effects.

Consider the divine representations.