Veu. 23.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 453
thus a pli3'sician saveth a man, not by preventing the disease, but by curing it, when otherwise it woukl be mortal ; or as a shepherd saveth a sheep that snatcheth it out of the mouth of the wolf or lion. As a prince that rescueth his captive subjects, and saveth them out of the hands of the enemy, so properly Jesus Christ is our Saviour ; for ' he seeketh and saveth that which is lost/ Luke xix. 10. Our salvation is a recovery and restoration ; we were by nature lost, and there is no way of recovery but by Christ.
2. That salvation is positive and privative. We generally take it in a privative sense and notion. If a person be delivered from an evil likely to befall him, we count him saved. So it is taken Luke i. 71, ' That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us.' There it importeth freedom from misery. But this would not content and satisfy Christ ; he would also make us everlastingly happy : John iii. 17, ' God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved ; ' where it hath a positive sense. So 1 Peter i. 5, ' Ye are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation ; ' meaning thereby not only our deliverance from sin and misery, but our intro- duction into glory ; as the Lord told Abraham, Gen. xv. 1, ' 1 am thy shield, and exceeding great reward.'
3. Salvation is either temporal or eternal.
[1.] Temporal salvation, when we are saved from the dangers inci- dent to the present life. In this notion it is taken 1 Peter iii. 20, ' Wherein eight souls were saved by water ; ' which can be meant of no other than temporal salvation, for cursed Ham was one of them ; therefore it is meant of safety from the outward judgment, I cannot say but that sometimes we have temporal preservation by the death of Christ. All our common mercies are the fruit of his mediatorial satisfaction. The world would not have stood so long as it doth, nor the wicked enjoy so many forfeited mercies, but in consideration of the death of Christ. But the great salvation which the gospel holdeth forth unto us is eternal salvation, Heb. v. 9, that body and soul may be eternally safe in those blessed mansions which he hath prepared for us. Freedom from the evils of the present life is ascribed to Christ. We need not build a temple, as the heathens did, Dem saluti, to the goddess of safety ; when they were saved and delivered from dangers in their temples, they did offer sacrifices called salvation-offerings. No ; ' Salvation belongeth unto the Lord,' Ps. iii. 8. Christians are taught to direct their praises and thanksgivings to a better object : Ps. Ixviii. 19, 20, ' Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with his benefits, even the God of our salvation. He that is our God is the God of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong the issues of death.'
[2.] However, we have a better salvation to wait for besides the mercies of daily providence, even the enjoyment of God and Christ to all eternity ; this is salvation, and this is blessedness. This is the end of our faith, 1 Peter i. 5. Better we had never been born if we have not an interest in this salvation. Alas ! when the pageantry of this world is over, what will it benefit us to have had a little pleasure, honour, or greatness in this life ? to be preserved from temporal dangers, when we are reserved to wrath and judgment to come ? No ; the eternal salvation is that from whence our Saviour is chiefly denomi-
454 SERMONS UPON EPHKSIANS V. [SeR. XXVIII.
nated, and that we are to endeavour for and look after throughout our whole lives.
4. Eternal salvation is either begun or consummate. Salvation begun is attributed to the grace vouchsafed to us in this life ; as the grace of justification or sanctification.
[1.] Justification : Eph. ii. 8, 'By grace ye are saved through faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.' He speaketh of justification, which is principally by faith, and that salvation which is obtained in this life as soon as we are accepted in Christ and freed from the guilt of sin. So 2 Tim. i. 9, ' Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling ; not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which he hath given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.' Then we are put in the way of salvation when we are adopted and taken into God's family.
[2.] Sanctification is the other branch of this begun salvation, and indeed a principal branch : Mat. i. 21, ' His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.' He hath his name and his ofiice for that use ; he doth not only save his people from trouble and temporal misery ; yea, not only from hell and damnation, but from their sins ; not only from the evil after sin, or malum naturale, which is contrary to our interest and happiness, but from malum morale, the evil of sin, which is contrary to God's honour and the subjection we owe to him. Christ came to save us from this mainly ; which is to be noted against one sort of men, who place our salvation only in privileges and freedom from wrath and obligation to punish- ment, and scarce allow sanctification the place of an evidence. Oh, no ! The chief part of Christ's salvation, and the great work and blessing of the Mediator, is to save us from our sins : Acts iii. 26, ' God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquity.' On the other hand, many expect pardon and heaven from Christ, and that he doth procure our peace with God, but then think that we are left to work out all the rest ourselves, and so lessen his sanctifying influence, as if it were not go necessary. See Titus iii. 5, ' He saved us by the washing of re- generation, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.' It is a great ])art of his work to accomplish in us the things he requireth of us. That is salvation, to save us from the power of sin as well as the guilt of sin.