militate against their favourite scheme. The truth is, that the way of salvation, if we will only submit to be taught of God, is very plain and simple : it is all comprehended in these few words, " Faith working by love." But if, instead of taking the plain declarations of Scripture for our guide, we will refine upon them, and invent modes of speaking which are widely different from them, and insist upon our own subtilties as if they were the very word of God himself, it is no wonder that heresies arise, and divisions ensue. But against all dogmas of man's invention we should be on our guard. In order to our preservation from them, we have in our text,]
II. An antidote recommended —
We should seek to be " established with grace ;" or, as that expression imports, we should be esta- blished in the Gospel ; (for that is the grace to which Jewish ceremonies are opposed, and it is " the grace wherein we stand^;") 1. As a revelation of grace in itself —
[It is so: it is so altogether: the whole plan, as devised by Almighty God, was formed in his eternal counsels without any reference to human merit, or to any recompence which the whole universe could ever confer. It was undertaken by the Son, purely from his own love and mercy, to die in the place of sinners, and to expiate their guilt by his own blood. The Holy Spirit also engaged to apply that redemption to God's chosen people, and to bring them to the possession of all its blessings by his sovereign and all-sufficient grace. All was the free gift of God to man : and there is not a Christian in the universe who must not say, " By the grace of God I am what I am."
Now to be established in these views is a grand preservative against error of every kind : and a man well grounded in them is incapable of being moved by all the artifices of the most subtle deceivers. Tell the man that he does not deserve the wrath of God ; or that he may save himself by the merit of his works ; or that, if he cannot save himself entirely, he may in part, by some good works and righteousness of his own ; you may perplex him perhaps, especially if he be unaccustomed to weigh the arguments of sophists ; but you can no more convince him, than you can persuade him that he is an angel, or that he is able to create a world. He has within himself the witness of the truths which he maintains ; and as complete a consciousness of his need of the Gospel, and of its suitable- ness to his necessities, as he has of his need of food for his
s Rom. V. 2.