SERMON III.

On the Nature and Efficacy of Divine Grace.

2 COR. xii. 9.

And he faid unto me," My Grace is fufficient

for thee: for my Strength is made perfect "in Weakness.

FOR

OR the accomplishment of any useful defign, it appears neceffary that all inferior instruments should be subjected to one superintending power. In the ftructures of human mechanism, however numerous, however complicated may be the contrivances by which the ultimate object is pursued; fome main-fpring, fome master-wheel, fome ruling force, fome preponderating weight, actuates and controls all the fubordinate parts, and gives motion and efficacy to the whole. It

is thus, if we may presume to connect together by any femblance of comparison the labours of terrestrial feebleness and ignorance with the operations of infinite perfection; that the divine wifdom conducts its plans to their appointed fuccefs. Earth and air, cold and heat, clouds and funfhine, the interchange of day and night, the gradual viciffitudes of seasons, and all the principles of vegetation by which food is produced and ripened for mankind: these are all but means governed and directed by the providence of God. Youth and age, health and sickness, affluence and poverty, profperity and distress: thefe and all other fecondary caufes through which falvation is vouchfafed to man, are all but inftruments in the hands of the Firft Cause: these are all but ministering agents fubfervient to the fway of the grace of Chrift.

Never perhaps was the power of divine grace more glorioufly difplayed than in its effects wrought through the inftrumentality of St. Paul! Never perhaps among all the children of Adam did it form to itself a more able, or a more willing minifter! This great inftructor of the Gentiles, in vindicating his character and his apoftolical authority against the infinuations of falfe teachers among the Corinthians, was led to specify, among other

evidences

evidences of his divine commiffion, the vi→ fions and revelations with which he had been favoured in a very uncommon measure by his Lord. He describes himself as having been caught up into Paradife; into the third Heaven, whether in the body or out of the body he knew not; and as having heard unfpeakable words, words not to be uttered by human lips. The Saviour of the world, however, fhewed himself not unmindful that his holy apostle was but man. According to the wisdom displayed in all the difpenfations of his providence, he tempered his extraordinary mercies with fuch a portion of humiliation and fatherly chastisement, as might guard his beloved fervant against spiritual pride, and extravagant ideas of his fuperiority over his fellow Chriftians. There was given to St. Paul, to use his own words, a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him, left he should be exalted above meafure through the abundance of the revelations. This thorn in the flesh, the precise nature of which, as being well known to the Corin thians, among whom he had refided eighteen months, it was not neceffary to particularise evidently appears to have been fome perfonal infirmity, which St. Paul regarded as likely to impair his ability and leffen his usefulness

as a preacher of religion. In the verfe from which the text is taken, he ftiles it an infirmity. In his epiftle to the Galatians, he alludes to it in fimilar expreffions. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the firft. And my temptation which was in my flefb, ye defpifed not nor rejected. From the tenth and eleventh chapters of his fecond epistle to the church at Corinth, we learn that the enemies of the apoftle reprefented him as rude in speech, contemptible in fpeech, and weak in bodily prefence. Here perhaps we obtain fome insight into the nature of the infirmity with which he was vifited. But whatever the thorn in the flesh might be, the apoftle, grieved at the prospect of its interference with the efficaciousness of his ministry, with earnest and repeated fupplication befought the Lord Jefus that it might depart from him. The prayer Chrift did not fee fit to grant. The motive which prompted it he beheld with complacence. He beheld the heart of his apoftle glowing with zeal for his glory. But he knew, what the apostle could not know, the methods by which his glory might best be promoted. He knew that the feebleness of the fervant would conduce to the glory of his Lord; that the imperfection of the inftrument would magnify the strength

of

of him by whom it was wielded; that the fuccessful labours of the apoftle, in the face of circumstances which might in fome degree have a tendency to excite fcorn or disgust, would prove that the faith of his converts flood not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. He replied unto the petitions of St. Paul; My grace is fufficient for thee: for my ftrength is made perfect in weakness. "Be not afraid; be not difpirited. I the "Lord am able to complete my own work. My grace, without which thou canst do "nothing, shall be with thee; and that can accomplish every thing."

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grace

In this reply of our Saviour to the request of his apostle, we read a diftinct intimation of the nature and the importance of divine grace. The inftruction thus conveyed to St. Paul is applicable to every man. In the farther confideration therefore of the fubject, I propofe, in the prefent, and in two fubfequent difcourfes, to explain the neceffity of the grace of Chrift to falvation; to prove that every man is enabled to obtain this grace; to indicate the means by which it is to be acquired; to point out the tests and proofs by which the poffeffion of it is to be ascertained; and to evince its complete and unalterable fufficiency. Some obfervations will afterwards.

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