Eighteen Sermons

It is very remarkable that the Old Testament ends with the word curse; whereby we are taught that the law made nothing perfect: but blessed be God, the New Testament ends otherwise, even a precious blessing, that glorious grace put into the heart, and dropt by the pen of the disciple whom Jesus loved.

My brethren, as the providence of God calls us now to bid each other a long farewell, can I part from you better than in enlarging a little upon this short but glorious prayer; can I wish you, or you me, better in time and eternity, than that the words of our text may be fulfilled in our hearts, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. In opening which,

First, It will be proper to explain what we are to understand by the word grace.

Secondly, What by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and its being with us all; and then to observe upon the word Amen: shewing you why it is that every one of us may wish, that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with us all.

Perhaps there is not a word in the book of God that has a greater variety of interpretations put upon it than this little, this great word grace: I do not in

tend to spin out, or waste the time by giving you all. It will be enough in general to observe, that the word grace signifies favour, or may imply the general kindness that God bears to the world; but it signifies that here which I pray God we may all experience, I mean the grace, the special grace of the blessed God communicated to his people; not only his favour displayed to us outwardly, but the work of the blessed spirit imparted and conveyed inwardly and most powerfully to our souls, and this is what our church in the catechism calls special grace; for though Jesus Christ in one respect is the Saviour of all, and we are to offer* Jesus Christ universally to all, yet he is said in a special manner to be the Saviour of them that believe; so that the word grace is a very complex word, and takes in all that the blesed Spirit of God does for a poor sinner, from the moment he first draws his breath, and brings him to Jesus Christ, till he is pleased to call him by death; and as it is begun in grace, it will be swallowed up in an endless eternity of glory hereafter; this is called the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: why so? because it is purchasedt for us by the Lord Jesus Christ the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth, in the most emphatical manner, came by Jesus Christ the son of God. If it was not for the purchase of a Mediator's blood, if it was not that Jesus Christ had bought us with a price, even with the price of his own blood, you and I should never have had, you and I could never have had the grace of God manifested at all to our souls. The covenant of works being broken, our first parents stood convicted before God: they were criminals, though they did not care to own it; condemned before God, and in themselves, so that like their children they made excuses for their sin. Man by nature had but one neck, and if God had pleased to have done it, he

might justly have cut it off at one blow; but no sooner had man incurred the curse of the law, but behold a Mediator is provided under the character of the seed of the woman, which should bruise the serpent's head; implying what the Redeemer was first to do without, and afterwards to do in the hearts of all his people: well therefore are we taught in our church collects to end all our prayers with the words, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

upon

Moreover, brethren, this grace may be called the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, because it is not only purchased by him, but it is conveyed into our hearts through Christ; the federal head of his glorious body, is a head of influence to those for whom he shed his blood; thus his disciple said, he was full of grace and truth, and out of his fulness we, all that are true believers, receive grace for grace; grace upon grace, says Mr. Blackwall, in his sacred classicks: grace for grace, that is, says Luther, every grace that is in Christ Jesus, will be by his blessed Spirit transcribed into every believer's heart, even as the warm wax receives the impress of the seal upon it ; as there is line upon line the seal left up on the wax, so in a degree, though we come greatly short of what the law requires, the grace that is in Jesus Christ is, in a measure, implanted in our souls; but the Lord Jesus Christ, blessed be God, has our stock in his hands, God trusted man once, but never will more; he set Adam up, gave him a blessed stock, placed him in a paradise of love, and he soon became a bankrupt,some think in twenty-four hours, however, all agree it was in six or seven days, and that he never had but one sabbath; but now, blessed be God, we are under a better dispensation, our stock is put into Christ's hands, he knows how to keep it, and us too; so this grace may be said to be the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, secured by his blood and

* Procured.

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-kirjat