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of worship: then will all that fear God be near and dear unto us "in the bowels of Jesus Christ."

9. Was not this the spirit of our dear friend? And why should it not be ours? Oh thou God of love, how long shall thy people be a by word among the heathen? How long shali they laugh us to scorn, and say, "See how these Christians love one another?" When wilt thou roll away our reproach? Shall the sword devour for ever? How long will it be, ere thou bid thy people return from "following each other?” Now, at least, "let all the people stand still, and pursue after their brethren no more!" But whatever others do, let all of us, my brethren, hear the voice of him, that, being dead, yet speaketh! Suppose ye hear him say, "Now, at least, be ye followers of me as I was of Christ! Let brother 'no more lift up sword against brother, neither know ye war any more!' Rather put ye on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercies, humbleness of mind, brotherly kindness, gentleness, long suffering, forbearing one another in love. Let the time past suffice for strife, envy, contention; for biting and devouring one another. Blessed be God, that ye have not long ago been consumed one of another! From henceforth hold ye the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace!"

10. Oh God, with thee no word is impossible! Thou doest whatsoever pleaseth thee! Oh that thou wouldest cause the mantle of thy prophet, whom thou hast taken up, now to fall upon us that remain ! "Where is the Lord God of Elijah ?" Let his Spirit rest upon these thy servants! Show thou art the God that answerest by fire! Let the fire of thy love fall on every heart! And because we love thee, let us love one another with a "love stronger than death!" Take away from us "all anger, and wrath, and bitterness; all clamour and evil speaking!" Let thy Spirit so rest upon us, that from this hour we may be "kind to each other, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us !"

HYMN I.

1 SERVANT of God, well done!
Thy glorious warfare's past,
The battle's fought, the race is won,
And thou art crown'd at last;
Of all thy heart's desire
Triumphantly possest,
Lodged by the ministerial choir
In thy Redeemer's breast.

2 In condescending love,

Thy ceaseless prayer he heard;
And bade thee suddenly remove
To thy complete reward:
Ready to bring the peace,
Thy beauteous feet were shod,.
When mercy sign'd thy soul's release,
And caught thee up to God.

3 With saints enthroned on high,
Thou dost thy Lord proclaim,
And still To God salvation cry,
Salvation to the Lamb!
Oh happy, happy soul!
In ecstasies of praise,

Long as eternal ages roll,

Thou see'st thy Saviour's face!

VOL. I.

4 Redeem'd from earth and pain,
Ah! when shall we ascend,
And all in JESUS' presence reign
With our translated friend?
Come, Lord, and quickly come !
And, when in thee completo,
Receive thy longing servants home,
To triumph at thy feet!

HYMN II.

1 GLORY, and thanks, and love,
And everlasting praise,

Ascribe to God, who reigns above
Supreme in power and

To his co-equal Son,

grace:

The dear-bought sinner's Friend,
Jesus, who freely loves his own,
And loves them to the end:

2 To God the Comforter,

The Earnest and the Seal,
The Witness of our sonship here,
The Gift unspeakable :

To the great Triune God

Be ceaseless honours given,

Till Christ, descending on the cloud,
Turns all our earth to heaven!

3 He bids us now partake
Our fellow servant's bliss,

Whose soul returns in safety back
From life's tempestuous seas:
Who driven and toss'd no more,
No more o'erwhelm'd, opprest,
Claps his glad wings, escaped to shore,
To the Redeemer's breast.

4 He sees the trial past,

He leaves the storm behind,

To his triumphant Head at last
Inseparably join'd:

Shout all the hosts above,

When Jesus saith, "Well done!"

And deigns his servant's faith t' approve,

And seats him on the throne '

5 Thanks be to God who gave
The victory and he prize!

Join, all who own his power to save,
The triumph of the skies!

The church of the first-born,

To them by faith we come,

And, conquerors of the world, return
To our celestial home!

6 We know in whom we trust,
We haste to his embrace,

Mix'd with the spirits of the just,
The perfected in grace :
Their ripest joy to share,

Exulting we ascend,

And grasp our old companions there,
And our eternal Friend!

31

SERMON LIV.-Free Grace.

Preached at Bristol.

"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii, 32.

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1. How freely does God love the world! While we were yet sinners, "Christ died for the ungodly." While we were dead in sin," God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." And how freely with him does he "give us all things!" Verily, free grace is all in all !

2. The grace or love of God, whence cometh our salvation, is FREE IN ALL, and free for all.

3. First: It is free IN ALL to whom it is given. It does not depend on any power or merit in man; no, not in any degree, neither in whole, nor in part. It does not in any wise depend either on the good works or righteousness of the receiver; not on any thing he has done, or any thing he is. It does not depend on his endeavours. It does not depend on his good tempers, or good desires, or good purposes and intentions; for all these flow from the free grace of God; they are the streams only, not the fountain. They are the fruits of free grace, and not the root. They are not the cause, but the effects of it. Whatsoever good is in man, or is done by man, God is the author and doer of it. Thus is his grace free in all; that is, no way depending on any power or merit in man, but on God alone, who freely gave us his own Son, and "with him freely giveth us all things."

4. But is it free FOR ALL, as well as IN ALL? To this some have answered, "No: it is free only for those whom God hath ordained to life; and they are but a little flock. The greater part of mankind God hath ordained to death; and it is not free for them. Them God hateth; and therefore, before they were born, decreed they should die eternally. And this he absolutely decreed; because so was his good pleasure; because it was his sovereign will. Accordingly they are born for this, to be destroyed body and soul in hell. And they grow up under the irrevocable curse of God, without any possibility of redemption; for what grace God gives, he gives only for this, to increase, not prevent,

their damnation."

5. This is that decree of predestination. But methinks I hear one say, "This is not the predestination which I hold: I hold only, the election of grace. What I believe is no more than this: that God, before the foundation of the world, did elect a certain number of men to be justified, sanctified, and glorified. Now all these will be saved, and none else for the rest of mankind God leaves to themselves; so they follow the imaginations of their own hearts, which are only evil conti nually, and, waxing worse and worse, are at length justly punished with everlasting destruction."

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6. Is this all the predestination which you hold? Consider: perhaps this is not all. Do not you believe, God ordained them to this very thing? If so, you believe the whole decree; you hold predestination in the full sense, which has been above described. But it may be, you think you do not. Do not you then believe, God hardens the hearts of

them that perish? Do not you believe, he (literally) hardened Pharaoh's heart, and that for this end he raised him up, or created him? Why this amounts to just the same thing. If you believe Pharaoh, or any one man upon earth, was created for this end, to be damned, you hold all that has been said of predestination. And there is no need you should add, that God seconds his decree, which is supposed unchangeable and irresistible, by hardening the hearts of those vessels of wrath, whom that decree had before fitted for destruction.

7. Well; but it may be you do not believe even this: you do not hold any decree of reprobation: you do not think God decrees any man to be damned, nor hardens, irresistibly fits him for damnation: you only say, "God eternally decreed, that all being dead in sin, he would say to some of the dry bones, Live, and to others he would not; that, consequently, these should be made alive, and those abide in death, these should glorify God by their salvation, and those by their destruction."

8. Is not this what you mean by the election of grace? If it be, I would ask one or two questions: Are any who are not thus elected, saved? Or, were any, from the foundation of the world? Is it possible any man should be saved, unless he be thus elected? If you say, No; you are but where you was: you are not got one hair's breadth farther: you still believe, that in consequence of an unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, the greater part of mankind abide in death, without any possibility of redemption; inasmuch as none can save them but God, and he will not save them. You believe he hath absolutely decreed not to save them; and what is this, but decreeing to damn them? It is, in effect, neither more nor less: it comes to the same thing: for if you are dead, and altogether unable to make yourself alive; then, if God has absolutely decreed he will make only others alive, and not you, he hath absolutely decreed your everlasting death; you are absolutely consigned to damnation. So then, though you use softer words than some, you mean the self same thing; and God's decree concerning the election of grace, according to your own account of it, amounts to neither more nor less than what others call, "God's decree of reprobation."

9. Call it therefore by whatever name you please, election, preteri tion, predestination, or reprobation, it comes in the end to the same thing. The sense of all is plainly this: by virtue of an eternal, unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, one part of mankind are infallibly saved, and the rest infallibly damned; it being impossible that any of the former should be damned, or that any of the latter should be saved.

10. But if this be so, then is all preaching vain. It is needless to them that are elected; for they, whether with preaching or without, will infallibly be saved. Therefore the end of preaching, to save souls, is void with regard to them. And it is useless to them that are not elected, for they cannot possibly be saved. They, whether with preaching or without, will infallibly be damned. The end of preaching is therefore void with regard to them likewise; so that in either case, our preaching is vain, as your hearing is also vain.

11. This, then, is a plain proof that the doctrine of predestination is not a doctrine of God, because it makes void the ordinance of God: and God is not divided against himself. A second is, that it directly tends to destroy that holiness, which is the end of all the ordinances of God. I do not say, none who hold it are holy; (for God is of tender mercy to

those who are unavoidably entangled in errors of any kind ;) but that the doctrine itself,-That every man is either elected or not elected from eternity, and that the one must inevitably be saved, and the other inevitably damned,-has a manifest tendency to destroy holiness in general. For it wholly takes away those first motives to follow after it, so frequently proposed in Scripture, the hope of future reward and fear of punishment, the hope of heaven and fear of hell. That these shall go away into everlasting punishment, and those into life eternal, is no motive to him to struggle for life, who believes his lot is cast already : it is not reasonable for him so to do, if he thinks he is unalterably adjudged either to life or death. You will say, "But he knows not whether it is life or death.' What then?—this helps not the matter: for if a sick man knows that he must unavoidably die, or unavoidably recover, though he knows not which, it is unreasonable for him to take any physic at all. He might justly say, (and so I have heard some speak, both in bodily sickness and in spiritual,) "If I am ordained to life, I shall live; if to death, I shall die: so I need not trouble myself about it." So directly does this doctrine tend to shut the very gate of holiness in general, to hinder unholy men from ever approaching thereto, or striving to enter in thereat.

12. As directly does this doctrine tend to destroy several particular branches of holiness. Such as meekness and love: love, I mean, of our enemies; of the evil and unthankful. I say not, that none who hold it have meekness and love; (for as is the power of God, so is his mercy ;) but that it naturally tends to inspire, or increase, a sharpness or eagerness of temper, which is quite contrary to the meekness of Christ; as then especially appears, when they are opposed on this head. And it as naturally inspires contempt or coldness towards those whom we suppose outcasts from God. "Oh but," you say, "I suppose no particular man a reprobate." You mean, you would not if you could help it. But you cannot help sometimes applying your general doctrine to particular persons: the enemy of souls will apply it for you. You know how often he has done so. But you rejected the thought with abhorrence. True: as soon as you could: but how did it sour and sharpen your spirit in the mean time? You well know it was not the spirit of love which you then felt towards that poor sinner, whom you supposed or suspected, whether you would or no, to have been hated of God from eternity.

13. Thirdly, This doctrine tends to destroy the comfort of religion, the happiness of Christianity. This is evident as to all those who believe themselves to be reprobated; or who only suspect or fear it. All the great and precious promises are lost to them; they afford them no ray of comfort for they are not the elect of God; therefore they have neither lot nor portion in them. This is an effectual bar to their finding any comfort or happiness, even in that religion whose ways are designed to be "ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace.'

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14. And as to you who believe yourselves the elect of God, what is your happiness? I hope not a notion; a speculative belief; a bare opinion of any kind; but a feeling possession of God in your heart, wrought in you by the Holy Ghost, or the witness of God's Spirit with your spirit that you are a child of God. This, otherwise termed "the full assurance of faith," is the true ground of a Christian's happiness.

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