Salvation, throughout the Scriptures, is represented as the "By GRACE are ye saved, through

work of sovereign grace. faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is the GIFT of God." "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his MERCY he saved us." "That being justified by GRACE, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Grace, is favour shown to the illdeserving, and thence must be sovereign. If creatures merit any thing, the reward is not of grace, but of debt. If God saves sinners on account of their own good doings, it is not according to his MERCY that he saves them. Mercy necessarily presupposes guilt,

and desert of misery.

The guilty and the miserable, then,

can only be saved, through a grace, that is rich, free, and sovereign.

REMARKS.

1. If sinners will not save themselves, then, all things considered, they choose destruction, They do not choose to be lost, rather than to be saved. They do not choose and love misery. No, they have a supreme attachment to their own happiness. They exceedingly dread suffering. They tremble when they think of hell, and the lost souls of guilty men. They have no expectation, that there is any happiness amid the society of the damned. They are persuaded, that the vilest passions rage and reign, without control, among the guilty throng of finally condemned immortals: And they cannot, therefore, but feel the utmost dread and horrour, at the thought of mingling with that ruthless company, where not a tender emotion ever flits across the soul, but where all

is wrath, revenge, and blasphemy, and wo. But, notwithstanding all this, they are voluntary in sin, and choose to continue at enmity against God, although they have a clear and full conviction, that their course stands connected with inevitable ruin. They do not, indeed, deliberately resolve to continue in sin, until it shall prove their ruin. This they know will be the unavoidable result, if they die in their sins; but this persuasion does not influence their hearts to turn to God. They choose, in full view of the consequences, to continue in a course of sin, from day to day, from year to year, from one period of life to another, thoughtless of the day of death, until God takes away their souls, and they fall, to rise no more. They now think, that they can repent when they please; and because they feel themselves to be the masters of their own destiny, they keep on venturing, and walk in the way of sin, in the very face of Heaven. The time for them to break their hearts for their iniquities, does not come. They put off, even the thought of preparing to meet their Judge, and thus voluntarily hazard their dearest interests for eternity.

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2. If sinners voluntarily choose a course that exposes them to final ruin, then they will have to blame themselves, eternally, as having been the authors of their own misery. The very principle upon which they act, while they choose sin for the present, under a full view of the consequences, will seal their lips when they shall come to stand before God. They both feel and act, as if their destiny was in their own hands; that they can turn to God when they please; and 'tis

this that makes them easy in sin. If for once, they were brought to see, that all their hopes depend on the sovereignty of God, they would be filled with alarm at their own vain self-dependence. They would not dare to sin, with so high a hand, and in so presumptuous a manner, as they now do. Until they become deeply convinced of this, they will never seriously set about the work of repentance. The deep seated consciousness, that they have been voluntary in their opposition to God, will follow up their eternity; and there will not be a transient moment, during their endless, miserable being, when they will so far lose a present sense of their guilt, that they shall dare to charge their Maker with being the author of their ruin. Infinite wisdom and mercy have been employed, in devising means for their recovery, adapted to their condition and character, as accountable subjects of moral government. These means they have successfully, and voluntarily resisted. And what shall they do in the day of wrath? The pungent conviction, which, in the light of eternity, shall blaze upon their minds with all the force of intuitive evidence, that they have lightly esteemed the Rock of their salvation, shall make their hearts melt within them, and constrain them to acknowledge, that they are the guilty authors of their own misery.

3. If sinners are dependent on the sovereignty of God for salvation, then, those who oppose his sovereignty, hate their own mercies, and oppose their only hope of heaven. They know not what they do.. They despise the very hand that alone can raise them up, and keep them from the burning pit.

If they will not save themselves; if they can derive no help from any, or all of the created agents in the universe; if there is nothing in the history of the world's experience, nor in the Scriptures of Truth, to encourage them to rely on their own sufficiency, who but God, if they are ever saved, can reach their case? "Tis his prerogative to dispose of creatures according to his pleasure, and for his own glory. In the exercise of this prerogative, he is sovereign and uncontroled. Even the overtures of mercy, which he has made to our guilty world, do not lay him under obligations, to save a single sinner of our race. Although the voice of mercy, from the high heavens, sweetly falls upon our ears; and we are called to admire the wonderful exhibition that is made, of vengeance, and compassion, in the scheme of saving love, yet, sinners have no claims on God for salvation. It would be infinitely just in him, if he should leave them to perish. The pardoning power lies with him. He dispenses it, as he pleases; and in every exercise of it, we discover a delightful exhibition of unbounded benevolence, and sovereign mercy. That sinners are dependent on the sovereignty of God for salvation, is the only hope of a sinking world. Oppose they this sovereignty? They are undone.

4. We learn from our subject, what sinners must do to be saved. They must throw themselves into the hands of a sovereign God. Without making any conditions, is it asked? I reply, what conditions dare they make? Do they merit any thing? Are they less deserving of misery, now that God has teld them, that if they will submit to him, he will raise them

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up, than they would have been, had he never told them so? Are they not rather, the more guilty, seeing that they have slighted his offered mercy? Do they exhibit the spirit which God requires, when they come, and say, "Lord, thou hast promised to save us if we will submit, and therefore, we are now willing?" Can that be a disinterested submission, that brings in its hand, the condition, that heaven shall be made secure? 'Tis true, God has offered mercy: But does the offer place him in such a relation to his creatures, as puts it in their power, to lay him under an obligation to save them? Has God promised to save sinners if they will submit? Their submission, then, is the condition of their salvation. But the question recurs; how are they to submit? Submit to be saved? This is no matter of self-denial. feeling of the heart would delight in this. Submit to be damned; without any desire for salvation, or any regard to the overtures of mercy? No-But submit to God's sovereignty. Be willing to be disposed of according to his pleasure. Lie at his feet. Say with Job, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

Every selfish

Feel a greater regard for the

honour of God, than for all created good. Seek not heaven, from a supreme regard to your own happiness. Dread not hell, from a supreme aversion to your own misery. But, both seek the one, and dread the other, from a supreme regard to the glory of God, and a supreme aversion to sin, and suffering. The great question to be decided is this: Do you know, that it is for God's glory, that you should be saved? And can you settle this question in any other way, than to