for this. The evil of this world's crookedness will

work its own cure, if you are led by it to look less at this world and more at the next. Guard, I pray you, against covetousness, and learn to be content with your condition. Without this you cannot feel the force of christian motives, and will be sure to have your lives embittered with the disappointments of the world. Recollect of how little consequence the world seemed to you, when you first began to attend to the care of your soul. It is of no more value now, though your eye be not so single and simple as it was then. And that you may be encouraged to all this, constantly bear in mind, that your salvation is of grace, not of works, and be, as the Scripture says, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus." God is faithful by whom you were called to the fellowship of his Son.

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The crookedness you see and feel alters not your relation to God. You are his children by faith in Jesus. He will never leave you nor forsake you. " I commend you to God and the word of his grace; who is able to build you up, and grant you an inheritance among them that are sanctified." Be much in prayer, that you may be armed, taught, corrected, comforted, and led by the Spirit of God; and you shall find yourselves made more than conquerors through him that loved you. You have a noble prize, a blessed resurrection before you. A Saviour all-sufficient is provided, and a mansion is reserved for each of you in his kingdom. Enter into it now by faith; carry your cross daily, and, denying yourselves, and following Jesus, patiently endure the crookedness of the present scene, till your God make all things straight in eternity.

But what shall I say to you who are men of the world? I call you so, who have not laid to heart these things; who do not "consider the work of God" in all this. You place your bliss in the world. You have no idea of any other; and you think of being lucky or unlucky; and neither look at God's providence for your bodies, nor at his grace for your souls. If you are young, I pity you much. You are vainly hoping for that happiness which you can never get from outward things. The world is a cheat: You will find it so: The pleasures you love the most, will all disappoint you: Seek for happiness where it is to be found. Now is the time, while Jesus calls. "Seek the Lord while he may be found." Old Sinners! will you be as those trees, which the older they grow strike the deeper root into the earth? You are on the edge of the grave. Awake to righteousness, and lose no time to acquaint yourselves with God and to be at peace with him, so shall that good come to you, which you have sought in vain from the world, and its possessions. Let your treasure be no longer upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But " in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." Matt. vi. 19, 20.

SERMON XVI.

THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE

AND

HUMAN AGENCY IN THE WORK OF OUR
SALVATION.

Philip. ii. 12, 13.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling : for it is God which worketh in you, both to will, and to do of his good pleasure.

THE true meaning of this passage will be better understood by considering to whom the words were spoken. They were not spoken to men in an unconverted state, but to the pious Philippians, whom the Apostle regarded with peculiar pleasure, as real children of God. His words preceding the text are,

my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence." They had ever been obedient to the gospel of Christ, since they had "heard it, and had known the grace of God in truth." They had given this great proof of sincere conviction, by their conduct in the absence of the Apostle as well as in his presence. So that it was not merely a personal regard to the character and authority of the Apostle, but it was a heartfelt, rooted, and genuine regard to the word of God; it was the vital power of the truth itself, spiritually understood, which kept them true to the name and doctrine of Jesus. God had thus evidently wrought on their minds to will and to do, and therefore they ought to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. And he observes afterwards, that they shone " as lights in the world, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation."

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From this view of the persons to whom the words are addressed, it appears to be an exhortation proper only for real christians, for those who shine as lights in the world. Indeed the Apostle evidently tells us so; as ye have always obeyed, work out your own salvation." This can scarcely be properly said of an unconverted man, who has at present nothing to do with salvation, but is far from it. There are exhortations, indeed, proper for him, to be found in Scripture: Such as "repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, repent and believe the gospel. Seek the Lord while he may be found*."

To real christians, then, the words are addressed. And they are reminded, that the power both to will and do that which is good is of God, and proceeds from his good pleasure. "For the condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and

* And here I would remark, that it is of unspeakable prejudice to many, to take it for granted that they are true christians, and in the favour of God, and partakers of his grace, and under the influence of his Holy Spirit. Many seem to imagine they are so, because they are baptized and are called christians; and this notion is so very flattering, that they are always apt to call one uncharitable for endeavouring to strip them of it; and it is also one of the main advantages which they give to Satan to keep them in an unconverted state.

good works to faith and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will." So speaks the church in her tenth article. Her language is perfectly agreeable to the text, and helps to explain it. She teaches us, that the fallen state of nature is such, that it is not in us either to will or to do; and therefore we need God's grace in Christ to prevent, that is, to go before us, that we may have a good will, and afterwards to work with us, when we have that good will. The truth of this statement is experimentally known by all truly godly souls. They feel that they cannot give themselves a good will, and even after it is given them by God's grace, they find not how to perform that which is good, without continual quickening aids from above. They know that they themselves are not masters of the times and seasons of grace, nor indeed of any thing belonging to the whole subject. God works all " of his own good pleasure." And since this is the case, they are exhorted, with zealous care, and devout reverence, and humble thankfulness to " work out their salvation" in all the branches of duty to which they are called. They are the subjects of divine operations, which require to be attended to with the most serious regard. How watchful should they be to improve the seasons of grace and the influences of the Spirit when afforded! and with what fear and trembling should they answer the calls of God to their souls, in all duties! since it is in his quickening presence and support that they live. If