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THE EXCEEDING ABUNDANT GRACE of God.

REV. G. CLAYTON,

YORK STREET CHAPEL, WALWORTH, FEBRUARY 23, 1834.

"And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."-1 TIMOTHY, i. 14.

IT is the most difficult thing in the world for a man to speak in a becoming and consistent manner concerning himself. Wisdom and modesty in ordinary circumstances would lead him to choose another topic of discourse, and would prevent him from adverting to himself or his own immediate history. But there are occasions in which it may become a man's imperative duty to speak of himself; as, for example, when he is misrepresented and misunderstood-when the shafts of calumny and false accusation are directed against him; it is then most fit and proper that he should speak in the language of explanation, that he should vindicate his principles and clear his character from injurious imputations. So when he speaks with a view to glorify God, either as the God of providence or of grace, having taken occasion from his peculiar circumstances to illustrate and develope his own divine character; and so also when he aims to encourage others by a particular reference to what he may have been and what he may have experienced; in order that they, cheered and animated by a consideration of his peculiar experience, may lift up their heads with joy. If a man thus speak of himself to rebut slander, to glorify God, to encourage his fellow Christians, he does well, whatever may be his own repugnance to the thing he does well pointedly and plainly to allude to himself.

This we find the apostle Paul doing in the immediate context of those words that I have read. But let it be noticed that he speaks of himself very thankfully: "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." He gives glory to his Divine Master for having entrusted to him the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, and counted him worthy of the high honour of displaying, announcing, and recommending that Gospel to others. He speaks of himself very humbly and penitently: “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." You are not to suppose that the Apostle means to diminish aught from the guilt of his conduct when he says that he did it ignorantly and in unbelief." It is true that he did not act, even in the days of his unregeneracy, contrary to the dictates of his own conscience: but he does not mean to extenuate his offences, he admits them in all their full amount and aggravation; but he represents that he obtained mercy because he acted under the influence of a blinded and ignorant mind, and under the guidance of an unbelieving heart. He speaks also most encouragingly to others: "Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first," or in me

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principally, "Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." As if he had said, "Let no sinner despair when he considers what I was and what I am: but by the grace of God I am what I am; and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."

From these words I purpose, First, to direct your attention to " the grace of God" as the only source of hope and salvation to guilty and apostate men. Secondly, I shall take occasion to show you, from the circumstances of the Apostle Paul's conversion and salvation, that towards him this grace was "exceeding abundant." Thirdly, I shall notice the character which this grace will form in those who are really the subjects of it.

Let me direct your attention, first, TO THE GRACE OF GOD AS THE ONLY SOURCE OF HOPE AND SALVATION TO GUILTY AND APOSTATE MAN.

The very terms of this proposition suppose that man is in a guilty and upostate state. He has transgressed the law of his Creator; he has failed in his allegiance to his Maker; he has trampled on the authority of God, and has thus become obnoxious to the sentence of death. The whole world is become

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guilty before God. Who can pretend that our nature is in the precise circumstances in which it came from the hand of Deity, when God surveyed his creatures-both as the effect of his own skill and power, and as wearing his moral likeness-and pronounced it " very good." They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way:" and it is a dark, it is a guilty, it is a destructive path which we have chosen.

We are not in a condition, seeing that our state is that of apostacy, to work ourselves out of this state by any meritorious deeds of our own, or any service or struggles which can conduce to this end: there is no way of escape for us but that which divine grace has provided. There can, in truth, be only one of two ways of acceptance and salvation; we must be saved either by law or by grace. "If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" but "what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

There are two passages to which I would refer you on this part of the subject. The first is Romans iv. 4: 66 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." And again in the same Epistle, xi. 6: "And if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work."

By "the grace of God" we mean his free, unmerited, and unsolicited favour -a gratuitous exercise of divine mercy on behalf of guilty and apostate men, This is the source of our salvation: the motive by which the mind of Deity was employed to provide for man's regeneracy was a purpose of free and unmerited favour. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." The contrivance upon which the whole scheme of our salvation is reared was the

contrivance of grace: not according to our works, but according to his mercy be saved us; he hath "saved us, and called us with a holy calling;" not according to our own works, but according to his own purpose and grace which he perfected in Christ Jesus before the world began.

The effectuation of that great scheme into which the angels desired to look, the contrivance of infinite mercy, is of grace: “ Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich." It was grace which brought him to the manger of Bethlehem, conducted him into the wilderness, led him to the agony in the garden, inflicted upon him the stripes of the Romish scourge, and the indignities of the multitude: it was grace which led him to the cross, which led him to bow his head in anguish there, when he said, "It is finished; the work is done, the great transaction is accomplished, redemption is achieved."

The application of the divine contrivance for man's recovery is of grace. The Holy Spirit, the third person in the glorious Trinity, stands engaged in the economy and covenant of mercy, to "take of the things of Christ, and show them unto us," to apply the blood of sprinkling to the conscience, to grant release and emancipation from the thraldom of guilt, misery, and corruption. And this is all a gratuitous operation. "Uphold me," says the Psalmist, "by thy free," thy princely, thy munificent "Spirit." The gift of God is not to be purchased with money; it is not a bestowal communicated as the reward of human merit and deserving; but the Spirit's influence is poured out, like the freely descending showers, like the dew that waiteth not for man, nor tarrieth for the sons of men.

The completion of this great and glorious work is of grace. Were we to trace the whole process from the commencement to the perfection of it, it would be seen that in every step the grace of God is manifested to be "exceeding abundant :" "Where sin hath abounded, grace doth much more abound." It is grace that carries on the work till the spiritual edifice has attained its utmost elevation, and the top-stone shall be placed with shoutings of “ Grace, grace unto it.”

Now, my brethren, do consider that this is the only source of hope and salvation for guilty man. Tell me of any other if you are able. Will you talk to me of penances, and pilgrimages, and bodily austerities? Will you talk to me of a man's giving the very life of his heart as an atonement for his sins? You must be aware, that all these plans of human device are utterly ineffectual. Nothing that we can do, nothing that we can suffer, can avail to atone for the least of our sins, or to procure for us the smallest favour from heaven. It is utterly of grace; this is the sole source of hope and salvation.

Secondly, IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDANT UPON THE CONVERSION AND SALVATION OF THE APOSTLE PAUL, THIS GRACE WAS "EXCEEDING ABUNDANT."

This will appear, in the first place, if you consider his previous character. He was before, an impious blasphemer, a treacherous persecutor, an injurious reviler. There was no profligate immorality, in the ordinary sense of the word; he was what we should call a moral and irreproachable man; you have his own testimony for this in Philippians, iii, 4-6: "If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching

the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." But though his course and his character were not deformed by any of the grosser immoralities, yet he was a blasphemer, and he compelled others to blaspheme; he was a persecutor, and he dragged men and women to prison and to death for the name of Jesus; and he was "injurious." This word signifies "a reviler:" he was a man who knew no bounds in pouring abuse and contempt upon those who were the despised followers of Jesus of Galilee. When pleading his cause before Agrippa, he related some striking circumstances of his own history, which tend to throw much light, I apprehend, on the subject under consideration: "I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Galilee. Which thing I also did in Jerusalen.. and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities." Oh, with what a sorrowful note does he pour out this confession, and acknowledge himself to have been guilty of the greatest of all crimes in the sight of God-the blaspheming of his Son, and the persecution of his Son's disciples.

What does this prove? That where a man is not chargeable with gross immoralities, yet the sins of the mind, the intellect, the temper and disposition of the heart, may stand out in the sight of God in the most odious, the most culpable, and in the most guilty form. This is precisely the argument of the Apostle, that "the grace of God was exceeding abundant," upon this very ground-that to him, who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, the free grace and mercy of God was shown. Thus it is that God magnifies his grace in the selection of objects, who, according to all the methods of human calculation, seem to bid less fair for the enjoyment of his favour and the communication of saving mercy.

In the second place, the grace of God was exceeding abundant toward this Apostle, if you consider the period of time at which he thus became the subject of renewing and converting mercy. It was at the very moment when, with impetuous fury, he was proceeding to Damascus under the authority of the high priest to make havoc of the Church of God. In the very journey which he had taken for the purpose of exterminating the followers of Christ, and, if possible, the expunging the name of Christ from the living records of the sons of men, did the hand of God arrest him, and the voice of expostulation reach him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And while on the road for the destruction of others and his own destruction, the grace of God rescued and saved him.

In the third place, the exceeding abundant grace of God was conspicuously manifest in the completeness of the change which was produced on his condition and character, It was a very remarkable change, because Paul the disciple presents a contrast so direct, so strong, and so striking, to Saul of Tarsus. The moment that the grace of God effectually reached him, he fell down to the earth, trembling and astonished, and exclaimed, "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" The transition was so apparent from darkness to light, from the kingdom of Satan to God, all the points of the change are so pre-eminent to the view and observation of every one who seriously contemplates them, that we must acknowledge that herein is the finger of God, this is his mighty power, this is the effect of his transforming grace: that grace is "exceeding abundant,"

for you see, that the lion was changed into the lamb; that individual who, under the influence of a mistaken and malevolent heart, was breathing out threatenings and slaughter, now breathes out the language of prayer; he who was aiming a deadly shaft at the very heart of the Redeemer now crouches at his feet, in order to receive a commission from his lips, and to devote all his powers and faculties to the service of him whose cause he had laboured to destroy. Was not the grace of God then “exceeding abundant" in the accomplishment of this glorious change?

Once more, the grace of God was exceeding abundant toward him if you consider the subsequent employment to which he was appointed, the eminent qualifications with which he was endowed, and the great success which attended him in his Apostolic career. The grace of God having selected a man of such a character, and having reached him at such a time, and having produced on his mind a change so extraordinary and so complete, that grace now employs him: "I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee. I have sent thee to the Gentiles, and to the people, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in me." The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant in calling the Apostle to the work to which he was appointed, eminently qualifying him for that work, honouring him with great and extraordinary success in its prosecution, making him the honoured instrument of proclaiming the Gospel before kings, and before rulers, and before the people at large. And who that reflects upon the usefulness that marked his career in life, who that reflects upon the honourable testimony be bore to Christ by his martyrdom, who that reflects upon the long train of advantages that accrued to the Church and to the world in every succeeding age from the writings and example of this holy Apostle, will not immediately acquiesce in the representation, that the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant?

There is yet one point to be considered, in the third place, which I shall touch upon briefly, THE CHARACTER TO WHICH THE GRACE OF GOD WILL ALWAYS FORM THOSE WHO ARE THE SUBJECTS of it. "With faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." The two grand characteristics of the Apostle antecedently to his conversion were, his unbelief and his malignity. Now the character to which he was wrought by the operation of divine grace on his heart, exhibits an entire contrast to these two characteristic qualities; for you find in him faith taking the place of unbelief, and love taking the place of malevolence; he becomes an entirely changed man, the principles of his whole conduct are completely altered, and therefore his character is metamorphosed, as we say, that is, entirely and completely changed. This is indeed the case in all other instances wherever the grace of God takes possession of the heart, it forms a character, and that character consists of these two constituent principles-faith and love; the faith which annihilates self, the faith which brings a man to Christ, the faith which unites him to the Redeemer, as his glorified Head, and enables him to draw out of his fulness, and to derive supplies out of his plenitude; the faith which purifies the heart; faith which overcomes the world, and which triumphs in the dying hour. We might as well talk of a sun without light, as of a Christian without faith; it

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