ourselves, does not faith afford us the same ground of glorying?' I answer, No : for it is of the very nature of faith to renounce all hope in ourselves, and to found our hopes solely on the merits of another : it disclaims all glorying in self, and gives all the glory to Him from whom it derives its blessings. In this it differs essentially from every other work : other works, though wrought in us by God, bring a glory to ourselves; but this, of necessity, transfers to God all the glory resulting from its exercise; and, consequently, neither does, nor can, nor desires to, arrogate any thing to itself.
Thus we hope that the point is clear, — salvation is alto- gether of grace from first to last. The plan of salvation as originally devised, the Saviour who wrought it out for us, the acceptance of his vicarious sacrifice in our behalf, and the faith whereby we are made partakers of his sacrifice, are all the gifts of free and sovereign grace : the foundation and the superstructure are wholly of grace: and, " when the head- stone shall be brought forth, it must be with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto itg!"
If to this it be objected, that by such doctrines we subvert the very foundations of morality, we answer,
II. That, though good works are wholly excluded from all share in the office of justifying the soul, yet is the performance of them effectually se- cured— Believers are " the workmanship of God" altoge- ther, as much as the world itself is : and as the world was created by Christ Jesus, so are they " created anew in Christ Jesus." But we are " created unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them."
The concluding words of our text shew us,
1. That God has ordained good works as the path wherein we are to walk —
[This is an unquestionable truth : the whole of the moral law demonstrates it: every promise, every threatening in the whole Bible attests it. Not a word can be found in the whole sacred volume, that dispenses with the performance of good works: on the contrary, it is expressly said, that " without holiness no man shall see the Lord." The least idea of reach- ing heaven in any other path, is invariably reprobated as a
e Zech. iv. 7.