the jailor, when bidden to believe in Christ. They believe ; they look ; they live.]
On the observation thus explained we ground a few words of advice —
1. Accept with gratitude this free salvation —
[Do not suffer the pride of your hearts to rise against it. Do not grudge unto God the honour of saving you by his own grace. Were you sinking in the midst of the ocean, would you refuse deliverance, unless you were left to earn it, or some of the honour of your preservation were to be assigned to you ? Be not then such enemies to yourselves as to reject a free salvation from death and hell. You know full well, that you did nothing to induce God to send his only Son into the world: you know also that you contributed nothing to Christ, to give perfection to his obedience, or virtue to his sacrifice. You must know too, if you are not blinded even to infatuation, that you can do nothing which does not need mercy on account of its own imperfections. Be prevailed upon then to accept with thankfulness a free and full salvation : you can add nothing to what Christ has done and suffered for you : and the consequence of attempting to add any thing will be inevitable and eternal ruin. Let Christ have all the honour of his own work, and you shall have all the benefit.]
2. Give no occasion for the objections that are raised against it —
[Those who are averse to the doctrines of grace, always represent the favourers of those doctrines as embracing them in order the more quietly to live in sin : and if they can find a person who turns the grace of God into licentiousness, they will not be contented with blaming him, but will cast the blame on the Gospel itself, and represent such conduct as the natural result of such principles : and one such instance of hypocrisy will be made a subject of great notoriety, when a thousand instances of blameless and exemplary piety will be overlooked. Be careful then, brethren, to give no occasion for such observations. Be careful not to cast a stumbling- block before the ungodly world ; for, if there be a " woe to the world because of offences," there will be a ten-fold heavier " woe unto him by whom the offence cometh." Be watchful against the incursions of sin, and the temptations of Satan; ' that he who is on the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you."]
3. Recommend and adorn it by a holy conver- sation—