ways fo. But Man being in Honour did not long abide fo: he foon finned and forfeited his hopes of heaven, loft the happiness he enjoyed upon earth, and laid himself open to an everlasting hell: intailing the fame on all his offspring, who, as born in fin, are by nature children of wrath, doomed to it, and prepared for it.

Salvation, as now become needful, fpeaks the primitive law broken, grace and heaven loft, the foul and body defiled, and both under the sentence of death, the wages of fin. Our being bid to work out our falvation, supposes this to be our antecedent condition, which may well keep us humble as long as we live. It is supposed,

2. That there is a way open, by which we may be delivered from all that evil present and future, which fin deferves, and may be made partakers of the glory and bleffedness revealed in the gospel, as purchased by the death of Christ, and promised for his fake to all that believe: for we had never been enjoined to work out our falvation, had we been left under an inevitable neceffity of perishing.

This command of working out our falvation is given us after we have had an account of the Redeemer's fufferings, by which our falvation is obtained, and after his exaltation to the right-hand of God, in order to its being applied. This was the end of his being fent, God fo loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whofoever believeth in him, Jhould not perish, but have everlasting life, John iii. 16.

Apoftate angels are utterly loft. No Saviour is provided for them, no falvation is obtainable

I

by

by them: they have no ground to expect it, or encouragement to labour after it. It would be all in vain for them to feek it: but the Son of man is come into our world, to feek and to fave that which was loft, Luke xix. 10. He was wounded for our tranfgreffions: he was bruised for our iniquities, had the chaftifement of our peace upon him, and therein laid the ground of our eternal redemption. By his fufferings and death, juftice is fatisfied, reconciliation made, death abolished, and fo a way is opened to escape the wrath threatened; and life and immortality is brought to light through the gofpel, which we are not only to view, but to lay hold on. It is our Jefus, who has delivered us from the wrath to come, by procuring the pardon of fin that exposed us to it, through his dying on the cross a facrifice that we might never fall under ît; and who now ever lives to make interceffion at God's right-hand, that he may fave to the uttermoft all that come unto God by him.

3. This farther is fuppofed, that God is very defirous of their falvation, to whom this command is fent, and that nothing pleaseth him more than our compliance with it, and fetting about it. And in proof of what is here fuppofed, it is elfewhere pathetically expreffed, as 2 Pet. iii. 9. Not willing that any should perish, but that all fhould come to repentance, Ezek. xxxiii. 11. As 1 live, faith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he may turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die, O boufe of Ifrael? i. e. Do not de ftroy your fouls, after I have done fo much for VOL. II. C C

your

your recovery. Such language as this from the great God, plainly intimates his compaffion for loft finners, and that though they have been felf-destroyers, he is very defirous they should be faved.

These are the things supposed.

II. Let us fee what is included in the falvation which it is our great business to work out.

And here, as confidering ourselves in several respects and cafes, what we are concerned to do in each of them, is plain. Confidering ourfelves;

1. As fallen creatures, under the guilt and power of fin, our firft work is to get our state changed, and not to rest satisfied till we are restored to the favour and image of God, and fo brought into a ftate of reconciliation with him through Jefus Chrift. Here our falvation in the application of it begins. And with what earneftness should it be laboured after by every one that loves his fafety, and would not perish for ever? By nature, we are all over polluted and defiled, as well as guilty and condemned; and the foundation of our recovery is laid in our being washed, and justified, and fanctified in the name of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and by the Spirit of our God. When the kindness of God effectually appears for his peoples recovery, according to his mercy, he faveth them, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghoft, which he fheds upon them abundantly through our Lord Jefus Chrift, Titus

iii. 5.

All

All the heirs of heaven are born from thence, and have all old things done away, and all things made new. The fpirit of life from Chrift Jefus takes hold of their fouls, makes them fenfible of their need of a Saviour, and brings them into a fpecial union to him: upon which, his grace is communicated for their fanctification, and they are interested in his righteousness for pardon. If any man be in Chrift, he is a new creature ; and there is no condemnation to those that are in him, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The change is both real and relative: they are inwardly purified, and made partakers of a divine nature; and they are pardoned and juftified too, and fo, are of children of wrath, reftored to the favour of God, accepted in the Beloved, and intitled to the privileges of his kingdom.

This is the falvation, which, if hitherto we are in a natural unregenerate ftate, we are to work out, or endeavour to be interested in, i. e. To get our eyes opened, our corruption fubdued, our guilt removed; to feek to be delivered from the power of darkness, and tranflated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, and thereafter to follow him, as the captain of our falvation, under the conduct of his Spirit in the way of holiness, till we get to heaven.

How fad is the state of the finner that is a ftranger to falvation in this part of it! He is in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, under the guilt of all the fin that ever he committed, and in him it dwells in its power, and unfubdued. That which fuch an one has Cc 2

to

to do, is to labour to be fenfible of the fadness of his cafe, and get out of it; to cry earnestly to God for his quickening Spirit and pardoning grace, and never to reft fatisfied, till he is heard and relieved.

Open thine eyes, O foul, take a view of thy mifery, and fay no more, Peace, Peace, till a change is made. A power greater than thine own, is neceffary to do it: and in working out thy falvation, thy bufinefs is to call it in, and to let no bar be wilfully put or kept in the way. Look upon thyfelf as a diseased condemned rebel, that equally needs to be pardoned, and healed; and implore the grace neceffary to both. Throw down thy weapons of rebellion, renounce thy most beloved fin, deliver up thy foul to Chrift, to be fanctified, pardoned, made alive to God, and fitted to glorify and please him here, and in the way of holiness, to be led up to the enjoyment of him for ever.

2. Confidering ourfelves as in a ftate of grace, but as yet imperfect in attainments, the working out of our falvation includes the mortifying of the remains of corruption in us, the refifting of temptations, the making of additions to grace received, and our preffing on towards glory. And how much has a Christian to do, as to all these?

When any, by the Spirit of life from Chrift Jefus, are freed from the tyranny of fin, they feel enough of its remains, to make them fenfible their work is not yet done, nor their rest attained to. As long as fin has a being in them, it will be working, and making them cry out with