SERMON XI. SALVATION BY GRACE. EPHESIANS II. 8. By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. THE apostle Paul was largely indebted to redeeming love; and, like all other debtors to that love, he was so far from being ashamed of the debt, that he thankfully owned the obligation it laid upon him, and exulted in it, as his happiness, his honor, his glory. Fully convinced, that in opposing the gospel of Jesus he ignorantly courted ruin, and rushed with mad precipitation upon the thick bosses of Jehovah's buckler, he gratefully commemorates that undeserved, unexpected, undesired grace, which sprung from the highest heavens-arrested him in his career of impiety-unmasked him to himself-revealed to him the Savior. This grace is the affecting and dignified theme which melts his heart which elevates his powers, and tunes his tongue to praise. Whenever he mentions the endearing subject, his whole soul dissolves in tenderness; the emotions which heave his holy bosom he communicates in Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.” ""Tis a faithful saying; it is worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I know, by experience, the cheering truth; for he saved me, who am the chief of sinners." Viewing now, from his rock of safety, the darkness, the danger, the death, which environ the unconverted; he sighs for their misery, and ardently covets the honor of being made instrumental in warning them to flee from the wrath to come. Far as his voice can be heard -wide as his labors can extend-distant as his writings may reach-he proclaims to perishing men the deadly disease under which they labor, and the remedy which is provided by the covenant, and is offered by the gospel of peace. His invaluable epistles are a comment upon the prophetic declaration, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help. For all the evils which sin has introduced, he directs us to grace, reigning grace, as the sovereign antidote. To abase pride, to confound presumption, to guard against the vortex of error which has sunk into |