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whereby they must be saved." The application of this great salvation, in its full extent, is gradual Justification, the first and principal blessing of it, is obtained by receiving with a true and lively faith the testimony of God concerning his Son. "By grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God." Thus we are pardoned and justified, reconciled to God and accepted as righteous in his sight. Our guilt is cancelled, our iniquities are blotted out, and our consciences are appeased. This is indeed so distinguished a part of our salvation, and is so immediately connected with every other part, that the true believer is frequently spoken of as already actually saved. "We are saved and called with an holy calling. We are saved by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." "We are saved by grace. The grace of God bringeth salvation. The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. The Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." In these passages, salvation is described as already conferred on us, because the first part of it, the remission of sins, is so; and because this blessing is united with the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit, from which faith springs, and leads on to all the other parts of sanctification, by which salvation is to be completed.

There are various means which God has appointed for carrying on the salvation thus begun, and for perfecting it in the full felicity and purity of body and soul in heaven. These methods are of two sorts. The one may be said to be in the hands of God, the other in our own. Those in the hands of God are the events of his providence, and the communications of his Spirit; those in ours are watchfulness, mortification, and prayer, with all the other graces and duties of the Christian life. These several means tend to advance the final salvation of the true penitent, to give him the peace which flows from justification, to deliver him more and more from sin, to guard him from temptation, to make him a partaker of God's holiness, to increase his love to Christ, his separation from the world, his humility and his joy.

Salvation, in its comprehensive sense, is thus a progressive work, always defective in this world, and only perfected when every sin in the heart and life shall be destroyed, when all its consequences shall be removed, and the work, which was begun by the gift of pardon in the blood of Christ, and the regeneration VOL. II.-73

of the Holy Ghost, shall be completed in the full fruition of God in heaven. It is in this way that men are saved. Justification and sanctification are equally parts of the great blessing. "We are from the beginning chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto we are called by the Gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." "We are to work out" this "our salvation with fear and trembling." As an encouragement and help in doing this, it is added, that we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." The afflictions of ministers are often for the consolation and salvation of their hearers." "To them that look for him, Christ will appear the second time unto salvation." Salvation, in these and many other passages, is spoken of as a future event, which is connected with progressive holiness, which is to be wrought out with fear and trembling, and which is to be expected at the second advent of Christ.

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In this view, it is obvious that the most distressing events, like that referred to by the Apostle, may turn to our salvation, that is, may fall in with the great design of Divine mercy, and conduce to the entire recovery of our souls from the ruins of the fall. Even the holy Apostle himself needed this discipline. He had at one time "a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be exalted above measure." At another, "his God humbled him" amongst the Corinthians; whilst in his constant course, he had to "keep under his body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, after he had preached to others, he himself should be a cast-away." His afflictions, necessities, and distresses, his stripes, and imprisonment, his labors, watchings, and fastings, were all unquestionably designed to promote his growth in grace, his humility, simplicity, patience, contentment, thankfulness, resignation, and separation from the world; his sense of dependence upon God, his desires after heaven, and his love to Christ and his cross. In all these respects, then, they "turned to his salvation."

Indeed, we cannot fail to observe in the historics of the Saints of God as recorded in Scripture, that their various afflictions materially aided them in their way toward heaven. David went astray before he was afflicted, but afterwards he kept God's word. Doubtless the same was the case also with Job, who thus learned to abhor himself, and to repent in dust and ashes; and with Joseph, into whose "soul the iron had entered;" and with

Jacob, who learned to look back with gratitude upon the past, and to acknowlede that even in that most adverse event, the loss of Joseph, Jehovah had, in fact, surpassed all his expectations or desires. Thus "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose." trying of our faith worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope." "Our light afflictions work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." "We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence; shall we not then much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?"

severe.

And if this be the tendency of all trials and temptations generally, it is more peculiarly the tendency of the more painful and The particular affliction to which the Apostle refers in the text was of this nature. It touched him in the most tender point, for all his affections were bound up in the prosperity of the Gospel of Christ. His Apostolical authority had been committed to him by the Saviour himself, and the exercise of it was connected with the true grace of God, in which the churches stood, and was opposed by those only who secretly wished to bring in another Gospel. Thus every thing concurred to quicken his feelings on this subject. He was, besides, at this time, a prisoner, and therefore doubtless more susceptible on any questions which tended to subvert the faith of his converts, and lessen his own just influence over them. And yet in this very point his trials arose. Men entered the church, and "preached Christ of envy and strife," expressly "to add affliction to his bonds." They opposed his authority, and troubled the peace and union of the whole body of the faithful. They corrupted the doctrine of salvation, and endangered the souls of their hearers. This, then, was the very affliction which would of all others most severely press upon his mind. And yet this he was assured would "turn to his salvation;" because this he knew would most effectually wean him from himself, take him off from dependence on the creature, place his entire reliance on the Divine grace, mortify the remaining pride and selfishness of his heart, teach him his own insufficiency and weakness, increase his value of Christ and his salvation, and quicken his ardent longings after the peace and purity of heaven. Other afflictions, which did not affect him so ncarly, would obviously have this tendency in only a proportionably

lower degree. It is disappointment in the favorite object, which loosens the soul from earth, and draws it more powerfully towards Christ and heaven.

It has been thus with the sincere servants of God in every age. Jonah must mourn over his withered gourd. Hannah must long remain childless. David must fly from his throne. Jacob must lose his beloved Rachel. Abraham must offer up Isaac,—even "he that had received the promises, his only begotten son." God knows the most tender part, and suits his providences to our temptations and our necessities. The very thing which our disposition, our turn of mind, our duties and pursuits make most dear to us, he will sometimes smite, on purpose that we may adequately feel the stroke. Thus we learn to subduc an excessive passion, to be separated from the creature, to know our own hearts, to die to the world, and to live by faith in closer union with Christ our Lord. No created thing ought to be essential to our happiness. When general afilictions have been applied in vain, some more piercing and appropriate calamity is often suffered to arrive, in order to leave such a deep and abiding impression, as may produce in us "afterwards the peaceable fruits of righteousness."

This effect, however, is not always obvious and direct. The expression, "I know that this shall turn to my salvation," seems to imply that such a consequence shall eventually take place, though things may appear for a time to have a very different tendency. Afflictions may seem rather to threaten to injure and retard our salvation; they may be brought about by wicked instruments; much that is connected with them may be criminal and sinful, so far as the agents themselves are concerned; they may for a time excite distrust and unbelief, and murmurs in our minds; they may remove us from the means of grace, may expose us to peculiar temptation, may check our joy in religion, and paralyze our exertions may deprive us of the occasion of doing much good, may lessen our strength and capacities for the service of God, and abridge our influence over others; and yet at length. they may turn and fall out, unexpectedly perhaps, and even wonderfully, to our final benefit. They may be diverted from their apparently natural tendency, and be guided to a new and surprising event. "Out of the cater," to apply the proverbial expression, "may come forth meat, and out of the strong may

come forth sweetness." Like the component parts of an efficacious medicine, they may lose their distinct and proper qualities, and be so modified by combination, that they shall exert new agencies, and produce effects of a higher and more important order. The Christian may not remark this operation for a long time; in some instances he may never be able to discern it: but yet, the process is not the less sure. He may think a particular trial to be decidedly hostile to his best interests, and to be approaching him as an enemy; but ere long, like Esau when coming to meet Jacob, it shall forget, as it were, its fierceness, and embrace him with the tenderness of a brother.

Nothing could seem to be more unlikely for the good of the Apostle Paul, than the envy and divisions occasioned by the false teachers; and yet God ordained them for his salvation. Nothing could appear more unpromising to Joseph than the jealousy of his brethren, his being sold to the Ishmaelites, his removal to Egypt, his being falsely accused by the wife of Potiphar, and then cast into prison and forgotten. How could these events be capable of promoting Joseph's salvation? Yet they doubtless humbled him before God, prepared him for his future elevation, protected him from the pride of power, and guarded him in the court of Pharaoh. Who can say that there was any part of these dispensations which was not absolutely necessary, in the order of means, to his reaching heaven? We are so full of folly and perverseness, and worldliness, so subject to declension in religion, so apt to be languid, and cold, and formal, so ready to relapse into temptation, so prone to choose a flowery path rather than a safe one, so little able to judge of our dangers and our enemies, that we should inevitably depart from our God, if his gracious care did not order and direct the affairs of life, so as to promote, not perhaps our fancy but our benefit, not our feelings but our graces, not our fond schemes and projects, but our attention to our heavenly vocation, not the interests of time, but of eternity, not our case, but our salvation. And surely if we resign ourselves, nay, submit with gratitude, to salutary medical discipline, however painful or severe, much more should we lie patiently in the hands of that heavenly Physician, who understands intimately all our spiritual maladies, who perceives the tendency of our circumstances, who knows the stations to which he means to call us, and sees the indispensable necessity of preventing or checking

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