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saved state, a state of salvation; that they are to manifest it by a corresponding life and conversation, as the apostle speaks in this same epistle," let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel;" proving thereby, "that old things have passed away with them, and that all things are become new:" thus setting forth their salvation, as having taught them to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts." Of the same import is that passage in 2 Peter, i. 10, "Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure;" that is, make it evident-prove by the holiness of your lives, the holiness of your calling, and the certainty of your election; for be assured, that every link in that golden chain, from the predestination of the believer in eternity to his sanctification by the Holy Spirit, and his meetness for glory, is absolutely necessary-break one of these and you destroy the whole. See this beautiful chain, to which I allude, as represented by the apostle, Rom. viii. 29, 30. "For whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate; and whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

I will endeavour to illustrate the idea in this part of our text in as simple a manner as possible. A mechanic, for instance, shall put forth a piece of mechanism, to which he shall affix a name; but it signifies nothing to you by what name he calls it, unless he can point out to you its use. He may call it a time-piece, or he may call it a barometer; but if he do not make it evident to you, that the instrument points out the time of day, or the state of the weather, he might call it by any other name than a time-piece or a barometer for any use it would be to you. So, as it respects the subject under consideration, a man may profess the christian religion, and hold with the doctrines of grace; but if these professed principles do not produce corresponding effects in the life, the man, notwithstanding all his profession, is no more in the world than if he were a deist, yea, an atheist, or any thing else you please. This appears to be the drift of St. James' argument, when he is contending for justification by works. St. James does not mean, that the man is justified before the bar of a righteous and holy God, on account of his own doingshis own works. Such an assertion would have been contrary to gospel principles altogether, but he is contending for the justification of a man's profession of faith, as he very properly speaks of Abraham and others. How would it have been known that these had faith, if there had not been the evidence of works? Their works justified their faith, made it evident to the world; and this is what christian professors should labour to do, and thus work out their own salvation; or, as St. James has it," shew their faith by their works." Let this suffice for an explanation of what the apostle meant in the words of the text.

Secondly, we are to consider, that salvation is nothing to any individual, unless it is personally experienced. You are frequently told, that religion is a personal thing. It is not a matter of mere

speculation, although there are many who speculate in it. The expression in the text, "your own salvation," implies that salvation must be personally experienced. We have seen under the former head of our discourse, what salvation is, generally; and we also hinted at what it is in particular:-it is salvation brought home to a man's own heart. Now a man may hear of salvation all his life long, and yet remain in a state of bondage, in which state he will die, as thousands do, unless salvation is brought home to his soul, and he is actually delivered from that state of bondage in which he lies by nature, and is brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Zaccheus heard of the Saviour, and had a desire to see him; but he knew nothing of salvation, till Christ said to him, "this day is salvation come to thine house." Then salvation became his own; he was no longer a sinner under condemnation, an extortioner and unjust, but boldly stood forth and manifested his salvation, by exclaiming, "Behold! Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold!" Luke xix. 8.

Jesus Christ came to save his people from their sins, he came to make them the subjects of salvation. The apostle tells you how Jesus Christ affects this in the experience of his people; " having obtained eternal redemption for them." He personally saves them, "by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he abundantly sheds on them."

"Your own salvation."-These emphatic words contain something more than sound. No man who hears of salvation, should rest satisfied till he can call salvation his own. If all you of this congregation are saved, what will that avail me if I am not saved; and if all the world are saved, and you are lost, what will it avail you! It is not enough to hear of salvation, nor to know that there is such a thing as salvation by report only; but to know it for yourselves, so as to call it your own. It is not said," blessed are the people who hear but who know the joyful sound, they and they only shall walk in the light of thy countenance, O Lord!" Psalm lxxxix. 15.

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Do you ask, how shall we obtain salvation? Or, in the language of some of old, "what shall we do to be saved?" The answer is ready-come to Christ-" Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." And if you thus come to Christ, it will prove that you are drawn of the Father; and Christ has said, "him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out," John vi. 37. Repent ye, and believe the gospel?" God hath exalted Christ with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance and forgiveness of sins," Acts v. 31. Do you ask, how shall we know that we are in a state of salvation? Consult such scriptures as the following, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," John iii. 3. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation," 2 Cor. v. 17. "Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who

loved me, and gave himself for me," Gal. ii. 20.

"Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you; now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his," Rom. viii. 9. Now these scriptures shew what it is to be in a state of salvation and those only whose state is thus described, have a right to talk about their own salvation. For such persons feel its power and efficacy, and such will work to shew forth the praises of him who hath thus saved them, not according to their own works, but according to his own mercy and grace.

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In manifesting that we are in a state of salvation, the apostle observes, that we should do it" with fear and trembling;" that is, with fear towards God, and trembling respecting ourselves, knowing how insufficient we are of ourselves to think, much less to do any thing of ourselves, for our sufficiency is of God alone. Holy fear becomes a principle in the new man; and when a man is led to do every thing in the fear of God, guided by this fear as a principle, he cannot greatly err: but he may well tremble for himself, lest instead of shewing forth the glory of God in his salvation, he should incur the censure of disgracing his profession, and bringing dishonour upon that holy cause which by the grace of God he has espoused, and lead the enemies of religion to speak evil of the good ways of the Lord.

Thirdly. We are to speak of the positive fact of divine agency, and the absolute necessity of divine influence for every purpose of a saving nature: "It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Every man living in this world is under either satanic or divine influence. It is characteristic of every carnal man, that he is living under the influence of the prince of the power of the air; that is, the spirit that worketh in all the children of disobedience," Eph. ii. 2. Hence it is, that men not only live, but act under satanic influence. This, added to the corruption that is in every man, who is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam, causes him to be opposed to every thing that is holy and divine. To bring such into a state of salvation, requires nothing less than divine agency, nothing less than the power of God. Hence it is said of them that receive Christ, and believe in his name, "that they are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," John i. 13. As the whole work of salvation for and in behalf of the church is of God, so the salvation of every individual believer is begun, carried on, and completed under the influence of the Spirit of God. The conversion of every sinner establishes this fact, whether he may have been notoriously profane, or what is termed by the world a good moral character. For the same divine influence and power must be exerted to humble the pride of the self-righteous moralist, as that which enables an outwardly wicked man to break off his sins by righteousness. By nature the will of man is opposed to God and to all that is good and holy; it is depraved, so much so, that a man has neither will nor power to do

any thing which is really and properly good. He has power to do evil, because his will inclines him to that which is evil, but he has no innate power to do good, not only from the want of inclination, but because he has no moral capacity while he is in a state of nature, of sin, and under the influence of the god of this world. And this moral incapacity remains even when the will. is renewed; hence, says the apostle, "To will is present with me, but how to perform (or a power to perform in myself) that which is good, I find not;" so, in our text, "It is God (nothing in yourself) that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." He must first give the will, and work in us when we have that good will. Every christian then, must be convinced of the fact of divine agency, because he himself is the subject of it; and he is equally convinced of the necessity of divine influence, because without it he cannot pray, he cannot hear the word with profit, he cannot exercise any grace, much less can he overcome any temptation either from without or from within, neither can he perform any good work that is pleasing and acceptable to God.

Perhaps some persons may be ready to say--would you represent man as a mere machine? Certainly not. We are sometimes led to consider certain individuals as instruments used by God for the accomplishment of his own purposes in the world; and in this respect, he uses the wicked as well as the righteous; and by these instruments he performs much of his will in the world, as if time would permit we might illustrate from both sacred and profane history, as well as from many circumstances which have occurred in our own times. But this would not be to our present purpose; I am not inclined to travel beyond my present limits. I am on this occasion considering the necessity of divine influence, and not the use which God is pleased to make of man as his instrument; and I am prepared to say, that man is something more than a machine. For there is some distinction made, I believe, among mechanics between an instrument and a machine. A machine you know is made by various instruments; and if it were only for this idea, I would not call man a machine. No! he is something more. He has power to do many things which he neglects to do; he has power to use means-a machine has not that power. But I will not so far degrade man, even by comparing him to a machine, morally degraded as man is by nature. The comparison would not be just, it would not hold good, for we cannot give principle to a machine, with all our improvements in the arts, except we call motion principle; but even that admission would amount to nothing when compared with the principle with which man is endowed, considering him in his natural state only; and how much more when renewed by the grace and Spirit of God. When a man speaks for God, it appears to come from himself; and when he acts for God, or does any thing that is good generally or particularly, it seems to proceed from himself; and so it does in a certain sense; because it proceeds from that principle with which he is

endowed. "It is God that worketh in him." God is the source of all good, and whatever of good is manifested to be in the christian, it proves from whence it comes, as no good can proceed from any other source than that which is divine; all other, in this world at least, being corrupt. "I live," says the apostle, "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;" and the nature of the life which Paul lived, manifested that Christ was in him as his life and salvation; and from the same divine source from which his spiritual life was derived, and from which it was continued, he was enabled to act, for he uses the same mode of speech in reference to what he did; "not I," says he, “but the grace of God which was with me." God gives the will; he puts the will in motion, if I may speak so; he gives to the will a new bias, and works with the will thus bent towards a right end, according to his own good pleasure. Hence, that which pleases God is the delight of the renewed man, and what is good in God's sight is consented to by the christian. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man," says the apostle, " and I consent unto the law that it is good."

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There has been, and there still is, much dispute in the world on the subject of free agency, or free will. Man is a free agent; he possesses freedom of will, but not in the sense in which we conceive man's will to have been in his state of innocency. The will of man, in his present fallen condition, is free to sin only; the bias of the will being wholly that way, and to that way only, it will not move in any other direction naturally. A man may be led another way by the force of education, the power of habit, or by the impulse of example, and not unfrequently from the fear of punishment; but there is nothing of free will in all this, the bias of the will being towards evil after all. It is only the renewed man that has a will for that which is good, and for that only. The idea is a strong one, but it is well supported by the experience of the apostle, and of that of every real christian in all ages. "To will is present with me"-“ I would do good"-"I would not do evil." From all which expressions, it is clear that the renewed will of the apostle was free for that which is good only. But the apostle tells you, that he had another will; he had not got rid of the old principle-he was still subject to the principle of his carnal and depraved nature, "sold under sin," as he expresses it; and this carnal will was opposed to the new principle with which he was endowed by the grace of God. And these two principles are alike in all the children of God, and are " contrary the one to the other, so that they cannot do the things which they would." See this more at large in Rom. vii. 2.

From what has been stated, we may see clearly the necessity of divine influence for every purpose of a saving nature, and by which influence alone, we can evince that we are in a state of salvation. This will occupy the whole of our lives after our conversion to God, ever remembering, that they only that endure to the end shall be saved, and that nothing short of divine influence can enable us to