master hand in every page. It was a subject which, from his first
conviction of sin, while playing a gat at cat on a Sunday, had excited
his feelings to an intense degree, absorbing all the powers of his
soul. It was eminently to him the one thing needful—the sum and
substance of human happiness. He felt that it included the preservation
and re-structure of the body—raised from filth and vileness—from
sickness, pain, and disease—from death and the grave—to be perfected
in immortality like the Saviour’s glorious body. That included in this
salvation, is the death of death, and the swallowing up of the grave,
to be no more seen for ever. The soul will be perfect, and, re-united
with the body, be filled ‘with bliss and glory, as much as ever it can
holdl’ all jars and discord between soul and body will be finished;
and the perfect man be clothed with righteousness; in a word, be like
Christ and with him. All this is the work of grace, performed by the
ever-blessed Trinity.
In displaying the feelings and experience of the inquiring, alarmed,
quickened sinner, we are instructed by a continual illustration of the
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. He manifests profound
knowledge of the devices of Satan—the workings of unbelief—the
difficulties thrown by the wicked one in the way of the sinner, to
prevent his approach to Christ. He fastens conviction upon
conviction—gives blow upon blow to human pride; proving that there can
be found nothing in our fallen nature to recommend the sinner to
God—all is of grace—from the foundation to the top-stone of a sinner’s
salvation. And above all, he clearly shows that salvation by grace is
the most sin-killing doctrine in the world, as well as the most
consoling tidings that can be brought to a sin-sick soul. ‘O, when a
God of grace is upon a throne of grace, and a poor sinner stands by and
begs for grace, and that in the name of a gracious Christ, in and by
the help of the Spirit of grace, can it be otherwise but that such a
sinner must obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need? O, then,
COME BOLDLY!’ p. 360.
But I must not detain the reader from entering upon this solemn
subject; only for a moment, while I quote another passage conceived in
all the ardour of Bunyan’s feelings:—‘O Son of God! grace was in all
thy tears—grace came out where the. whip smote thee, where the thorns
pricked thee, where the nails and spear pierced thee! O blessed Son of
God! Here is grace indeed!’ Unsearchable riches of grace! Grace to make
angels wonder, grace to make sinners happy, grace to astonish devils!
And what will become of them that trample under foot this Son of God?’
Reader, may this searching, comforting, reviving subject be blessed to
our well-grounded consolation!
GEO. OFFOR.
TO THE READER.
COURTEOUS READER,
In this little book thou art presented with a discourse of the GRACE of
God, and of salvation by that grace. In which discourse, thou shalt
find how each Person in the Godhead doth his part in the salvation of
the sinner. I. The Father putteth forth his grace, thus. II. The Son
putteth forth his grace, thus. III. And the Spirit putteth forth his
grace, thus. Which things thou shalt find here particularly handled.
Thou shalt also find, in this small treatise, the way of God with the
sinner, as to his CONVERSATION, 1 and the way of the sinner with God in
the same; where[in] the grace of God, and the wickedness of the sinner,
do greatly show themselves.
If thou findest me short in things, impute that [to] my love to
brevity. If thou findest me besides the truth in aught, impute that to
mine infirmity. But if thou findest anything here that serveth to thy
furtherance and joy of faith, impute that to the mercy of God bestowed
on thee and me.
Thine to serve thee with that little I have,
J.B.
SAVED BY GRACE.
“BY GRACE YE ARE SAVED.”—EPHESIANS 2:5.
In the first chapter, from the fourth to the twelfth verse, the apostle
is treating of the doctrine of election, both with respect to the act
itself, the end, and means conducing thereto. The act, he tells us, was
God’s free choice of some (verse 4,5,11). The end was God’s glory in
their salvation (verse 6,14). The means conducing to that end was Jesus
Christ himself—“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (verse 7).
This done, he treateth of the subjection of the Ephesians to the faith,
as it was held forth to them in the Word of the truth of the gospel, as
also of their being sealed by the Holy Spirit of God unto the day of
redemption (verse 12-14). Moreover, he telleth them how he gave thanks
to God for them, making mention of them in his prayers, even that he
would make them see “what is the hope of his calling, and what the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the
exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to
the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he
raised him from the dead,” &c. (verse 15-20).
And lest the Ephesians, at the hearing of these their so many
privileges, should forget how little they deserved them, he tells them
that in time past they were dead in trespasses and sins, and that then
they walked in them “according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2,3).
Having thus called them back to the remembrance of themselves—to wit,
what they were in their state of unregeneracy, he proceedeth to show
them that their first quickening was by the resurrection of Christ
their Head, in whom they before were chosen, and that by him they were
already set down in heavenly places, (verse 5,6); inserting, by the
way, the true cause of all this blessedness, with what else should be
by us enjoyed in another world; and that is, the love and grace of God:
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ [by grace ye are saved].” These last words seen to be the
apostle’s conclusion rightly drawn from the premises; as who should
say, If you Ephesians were indeed dead in trespasses and sins; if
indeed you were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, then
you deserve no more than others. 2
Again, if God hath chosen you, if God hath justified and saved you by
his Christ, and left others as good as you by nature to perish in their
sins, then the true cause of this your blessed condition is, the free
grace of God. But just thus it is, therefore by grace ye are saved;
therefore all the good which you enjoy more than others, it is of mere
goodwill.
“BY GRACE YE ARE SAVED.”
The method that I shall choose to discourse upon these words shall be
this—I will propound certain questions upon the words, and direct
particular answers to them; in which answers I hope I shall answer
also, somewhat at least, the expectation of the godly and conscientious
reader, and so shall draw towards a conclusion.
THE QUESTIONS ARE—
I. What is it to be saved? II. What is it to be saved by grace? III.
Who are they that are saved by grace? IV. How it appears that they that
are saved, are saved by grace? V. What might be the reasons which
prevailed with God to save us by grace, rather than by any other means?
Now the reason why I propound these five questions upon the words, it
is, because the words themselves admit them; the first three are
grounded upon the several phrases in the text, and the two last are to
make way for demonstration of the whole.
QUEST. I.—WHAT IS IT TO BE SAVED?
This question supposeth that there is such a thing as damnation due to
man for sin; for to save supposeth the person to be saved to be at
present in a sad condition; saving, to him that is not lost, signifies
nothing, neither is it anything in itself. “To save, to redeem, to
deliver,” are in the general terms equivalent, and they do all of them
suppose us to be in a state of thraldom and misery; therefore this word
“saved,” in the sense that the apostle here doth use it, is a word of
great worth, forasmuch as the miseries from which we are saved is the
misery of all most dreadful.
The miseries from which they that shall be saved shall by their
salvation be delivered, are dreadful; they are no less than sin, the
curse of God, and flames of hell for ever. What more abominable than
sin? What more insupportable than the dreadful wrath of an angry God?
And what more fearful than the bottomless pit of hell? I say, what more
fearful than to be tormented there for ever with the devil and his
angels? Now, to “save,” according to my text, is to deliver the sinner
from these, with all things else that attend them. And although sinners
may think that it is no hard matter to answer this question, yet I must
tell you there is no man, that can feelingly know what it is to be
saved, that knoweth not experimentally something of the dread of these
three things, as is evident, because all others do even by their
practice count it a thing of no great concern, when yet it is of all
other of the highest concern among men; “For what is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matt 16:26).
But, I say, if this word “saved” concludeth our deliverance from sin,
how can he tell what it is to be saved that hath not in his conscience
groaned under the burden of sin? yea, it is impossible else that he
should ever cry out with all his heart, “Men and brethren, what shall
we do?”—that is, do to be saved (Acts 2:37). The man that hath no sores
or aches cannot know the virtue of the salve; I mean, not know it from
his own experience, and therefore cannot prize, nor have that esteem of
it, as he that hath received cure thereby. Clap a plaster to a well
place, and that maketh not its virtue to appear; neither can he to
whose flesh it is so applied, by that application understand its worth.
Sinners, you, I mean, that are not wounded with guilt, and oppressed
with the burden of sin, you cannot—I will say it again—you cannot know,
in this senseless condition of yours, what it is to be saved.
Again; this word “saved,” as I said, concludeth deliverance from the
wrath of God. How, then, can he tell what it is to be saved that hath
not felt the burden of the wrath of God? He—he that is astonished with,
and that trembleth at, the wrath of God—he knows best what it is to be
saved (Acts 16:29).
Further, this word “saved,” it concludeth deliverance from death and
hell. How, then, can he tell what it is to be saved that never was
sensible of the sorrows of the one, nor distressed with the pains of
the other? The Psalmist says, “The sorrows of death compassed me, and
the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then
called I upon the name of the Lord”—(mark, then), “then called I upon
the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul,”—then,
in my distress. When he knew what it was to be saved, then he called,
because, I say, then he knew what it was to be saved (Psa 18:4,5;
116:3,4). I say, this is the man, and this only, that knows what it is
to be saved. And this is evident, as is manifest by the little regard
that the rest have to saving, or the little dread they have of
damnation. Where is he that seeks and groans for salvation? I say,
where is he that hath taken his flight for salvation, because of the
dread of the wrath to come? “O generation of vipers, who hath warned
you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt 3:7). Alas! do not the most
set light by salvation?—as for sin, how do they love it, embrace it,
please themselves with it, hide it still within their mouth, and keep
it close under their tongue. Besides, for the wrath of God, they feel
it not, they fly not from it; and for hell, it is become a doubt to
many if there be any, and a mock to those whose doubt is resolved by
atheism.
But to come to the question—What is it to be saved? To be saved may
either respect salvation in the whole of it, or salvation in the parts
of it, or both. I think this text respecteth both—to wit, salvation
completing, and salvation completed; for “to save” is a work of many
steps; or, to be as plain as possible, “to save” is a work that hath
its beginning before the world began, and shall not be completed before
it is ended.
First, then, we may be said to be saved in the purpose of God before
the world began. The apostle saith that “he saved us, and called us
with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his
own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began” (2 Tim 1:9). This is the beginning of salvation, and
according to this beginning all things concur and fall out in
conclusion—“He hath saved us according to his eternal purpose, which he
purposed in Christ Jesus.” God in thus saving may be said to save us by
determining to make those means effectual for the blessed completing of
our salvation; and hence we are said “to be chosen in Christ to
salvation.” And again, that he hath in that choice given us that grace
that shall complete our salvation. Yea, the text is very full, “He hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world” (Eph 1:3,4).
Second. As we may be said to be saved in the purpose of God before the
foundation of the world, so we may be said to be saved before we are
converted, or called to Christ. And hence “saved” is put before
“called”; “he hath saved us, and called us”; he saith not, he hath
called us, and saved us; but he puts saving before calling (2 Tim 1:9).
So again, we are said to be “preserved in Christ and called”; he saith
not, called and preserved (Jude 1). And therefore God saith again, “I
will pardon them whom I reserve”—that is, as Paul expounds it, those
whom I have “elected and kept,” and this part of salvation is
accomplished through the forbearance of God (Jer 50:20; Rom 11:4,5).
God beareth with his own elect, for Christ’s sake, all the time of
their unregeneracy, until the time comes which he hath appointed for
their conversion. The sins that we stood guilty of before conversion,
had the judgment due to them been executed upon us, we had not now been
in the world to partake of a heavenly calling. But the judgment due to
them hath been by the patience of God prevented, and we saved all the
time of our ungodly and unconverted state, from that death, and those
many hells, that for our sins we deserved at the hands of God.
And here lies the reason that long life is granted to the elect before
conversion, and that all the sins they commit and all the judgments
they deserve, cannot drive them out of the world before conversion.
Manasseh, you know, was a great sinner, and for the trespass which he
committed he was driven from his own land, and carried to Babylon; but
kill him they could not, though his sins had deserved death ten
thousand times. But what was the reason? Why, he was not yet called;
God had chosen him in Christ, and laid up in him a stock of grace,
which must be given to Manasseh before he dies; therefore Manasseh must
be convinced, converted, and saved. That legion of devils that was in
the possessed, with all the sins which he had committed in the time of
his unregeneracy, could not take away his life before his conversion
(Mark 5). How many times was that poor creature, as we may easily
conjecture, assaulted for his life by the devils that were in him, yet
could they not kill him, yea, though his dwelling was near the
sea-side, and the devils had power to drive him too, yet could they not
drive him further than the mountains that were by the sea-side; yea,
they could help him often to break his chains and fetters, and could
also make him as mad as a bedlam, 3 they could also prevail with him to
separate from men, and cut himself with stones, but kill him they could
not, drown him they could not; he was saved to be called; he was,
notwithstanding all this, preserved in Christ, and called. As it is
said of the young lad in the gospel, he was by the devil cast oft into
the fire, and oft into the water, to destroy him, but it could not be;
even so hath he served others, but they must be “saved to be called”
(Mark 9:22). How many deaths have some been delivered from and saved
out of before conversion! Some have fallen into rivers, some into
wells, some into the sea, some into the hands of men; yea, they have
been justly arraigned and condemned, as the thief upon the cross, but
must not die before they have been converted. They were preserved in
Christ, and called.
Called Christian, how many times have thy sins laid thee upon a
sick-bed, and, to thine and others’ thinking, at the very mouth of the
grave? yet God said concerning thee, Let him live, for he is not yet
converted. Behold, therefore, that the elect are saved before they are
called. 4 “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he
loved us, even when we were dead in sins,” hath preserved us in Christ,
and called us (Eph 2:4,5).
Now this “saving” of us arises from six causes. 1. God hath chosen us
unto salvation, and therefore will not frustrate his own purposes (1
Thess 5:9). 2. God hath given us to Christ; and his gift, as well as
his calling, is without repentance (Rom 11:29; John 6:37). 3. Christ
hath purchased us with his blood (Rom 5:8,9). 4. They are, by God,
counted in Christ before they are converted (Eph 1:3,4). 5. They are
ordained before conversion to eternal life; yea, to be called, to be
justified, to be glorified, and therefore all this must come upon them
(Rom 8:29,30). 6. For all this, he hath also appointed them their
portion and measure of grace, and that before the world began;
therefore, that they may partake of all these privileges, they are
saved and called, preserved in Christ, and called.
Third. To be saved is to be brought to, and helped to lay hold on,
Jesus Christ by faith. And this is called saving by grace through
faith. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).
1. They must be brought unto Christ, yea, drawn unto him; for “no man,”
saith Christ, “can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me
draw him” (John 6:44). Men, even the elect, have too many infirmities
to come to Christ without help from heaven; inviting will not do. “As
they called them, so they went from them,” therefore he “drew them with
cords” (Hosea 11:2,4).
2. As they must be brought to, so they must be helped to lay hold on
Christ by faith; for as coming to Christ, so faith, is not in our own
power; therefore we are said to be raised up with him “through the
faith of the operation of God.” And again, we are said to believe,
“according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in
Christ, when he raised him from the dead” (Col 2:12; Eph 1:19,20). Now
we are said to be saved by faith, because by faith we lay hold of,
venture upon, and put on Jesus Christ for life. For life, I say,
because God having made him the Saviour, hath given him life to
communicate to sinners, and the life that he communicates to them is
the merit of his flesh and blood, which whoso eateth and drinketh by
faith, hath eternal life, because that flesh and blood hath merit in it
sufficient to obtain the favour of God. Yea, it hath done so [since]
that day it was offered through the eternal Spirit a sacrifice of a
sweet-smelling savour to him; wherefore God imputeth the righteousness
of Christ to him that believeth in him, by which righteousness he is
personally justified, and saved from that just judgment of the law that
was due unto him (John 5:26, 6:53-58; Eph 4:32; 5:2; Rom 4:23-25).
“Saved by faith.” For although salvation beginneth in God’s purpose,
and comes to us through Christ’s righteousness, yet is not faith
exempted from having a hand in saving of us. Not that it meriteth
aught, but is given by God to those which he saveth, that thereby they
may embrace and put on that Christ by whose righteousness they must be
saved. Wherefore this faith is that which here distinguisheth them that
shall be saved from them that shall be damned. Hence it is said, “He
that believeth not, shall be damned”; and hence again it is that the
believers are called “the children, the heirs, and the blessed with
faithful Abraham;” that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be
given to them that believe (Gal 3:6-9,26; Rom 4:13,14).
And here let Christians warily distinguish betwixt the meritorious and
the instrumental cause of their justification. Christ, with what he
hath done and suffered, is the meritorious cause of our justification;
therefore he is said to be made to us of God, “wisdom and
righteousness;” and we are said to be “justified by his blood, and
saved from wrath through him,” for it was his life and blood that were
the price of our redemption (1 Cor 1:30; Rom 5:9,10). “Redeemed,” says
Peter, “not with corruptible things, as silver and gold,” alluding to
the redemption of money under the law, “but with the precious blood of
Christ.” Thou art, therefore, as I have said, to make Christ Jesus the
object of thy faith for justification; for by his righteousness thy
sins must be covered from the sight of the justice of the law. “Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “For he shall save
his people from their sins” (Acts 16:31; Matt 1:21).
Fourth. To be saved is to be preserved in the faith to the end. “He
that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt 24:13).
Not that perseverance is an accident in Christianity, or a thing
performed by human industry; they that are saved “are kept by the power
of God, through faith unto salvation” (1 Peter 1:3-6).
But perseverance is absolutely necessary to the complete saving of the
soul, because he that falleth short of the state that they that are
saved are possessed of, as saved, cannot arrive to that saved state. He
that goeth to sea with a purpose to arrive at Spain, cannot arrive
there if he be drowned by the way; wherefore perseverance is absolutely
necessary to the saving of the soul, and therefore it is included in
the complete saving of us—“Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an
everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world
without end” (Isa 45:17). Perseverance is here made absolutely
necessary to the complete saving of the soul.
But, as I said, this part of salvation dependeth not upon human power,
but upon him that hath begun a good work in us (Phil 1:6). This part,
therefore, of our salvation is great, and calleth for no less than the
power of God for our help to perform it, as will be easily granted by
all those that consider—
1. That all the power and policy, malice and rage, of the devils and
hell itself are against us. Any man that understandeth this will
conclude that to be saved is no small thing. The devil is called a god,
a prince, a lion, a roaring lion; it is said that he hath death and the
power of it, &c. But what can a poor creature, whose habitation is in
flesh, do against a god, a prince, a roaring lion, and the power of
death itself? Our perseverance, therefore, lieth in the power of God;
“the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
2. All the world is against him that shall be saved. But what is one
poor creature to all the world, especially if you consider that with
the world is terror, fear, power, majesty, laws, jails, gibbets,
hangings, burnings, drownings, starvings, banishments, and a thousand
kinds of deaths? (1 John 5:4,5; John 16:33).
3. Add to this, that all the corruptions that dwell in our flesh are
against us, and that not only in their nature and being, but they lust
against us, and war against us, to “bring us into captivity to the law
of sin and death” (Gal 5:17; 1 Peter 2:11; Rom 7:23).
4. All the delusions in the world are against them that shall be saved,
many of which are so cunningly woven, so plausibly handled, so rarely5
polished with Scripture and reason, that it is ten thousand wonders
that the elect are not swallowed up with them; and swallowed up they
would be, were they not elect, and was not God himself engaged, either
by power to keep them from falling, or by grace to pardon if they fall,
and to lift them up again (Matt 24:24; Eph 4:14; Rom 3:12).
5. Every fall of the saved is against the salvation of his soul; but a
Christian once fallen riseth not but as helped by Omnipotent power—“O
Israel, thou hast fallen by thine iniquity,” “but in me is thy help,”
says God (Hosea 13:9; 14:1; Psa 37:23).