!""""-~ Serm.XXI. ~ An Expojition of the epijlle SE R M .O N X X I.' E p ll E s. 2. 8, 9; I o. I, 8. I' or by grace ye are Jawd throu,gb Faitb, a11d that mt ofyourfell!es ~ it if the Gift of god: . - ' 9· 'l'{ot of Works, left a1ry Man .fhould boaft; 1 o. For we are his Workma11{hip, created ill Chrift ]ejM unto good Works, which God bat/, before ordained, that we Jhould walk. in them. T Hefe Words which I hav~ now read unto you, they are an additional g1ece, added to that D&ourfe of ~e Ap?flle before, concerning the \=aufe a~dParts of our Salvation, 1~ fhewmg the exceeding Riches of Qrace, m the Apphcauon·of Salvation to us, laid forth by free Grace from everla(ting, and purchafed by Chri!l:. The' Words here, they are one of the great Forts of the Protefiant DoDrine, a Place which all our Divines, in haadling of Ju!l:ification, and Salvation by Fa1th, and by free Grace, and not of Works, have recourfe unto, as wherein Salvation by Faith is fpoken of, tanquam in propria fedr, as in its proper place : And therefore it is reckoned as the Sum (as indeed it is) of all the Apoflle had faid concerning this, both in the 3d and 41h Chap– ters to the Romam, and in the 3d to the Galatians. I will not !l:and to repeat any thing which I delivered for the opening of the Words formerly, until I am over the tenth Verfe: I fl1all, tho not much, yet fomewhat more enlarge, becaufe I conceive, that the Truths delivered therein are of exceeding great Moment. To begin therefore with the Expofition of each word apart. Here is the Apoale's main A!fertion laid down, and that is, that by Grace ll'e are faved; and it is ufl1ered in with this Particle [For] For (faith he) by Gme are ye faved; which is a Particle of~Coherence aruiConnec.tion, and fo mull: re· fer to the former Words. The word is fometimes ufed for an IntroduDion to an Affertion, or further Explication of a thing formerly a!ferted; fometimes as giving a reafon of what had been C:1id before. And I take it, that both do !l:and here, in relation to two feveral references that thefe words have. 1. They refer to what he had faid in the 51/J Verfe, when he had but begun to mention the Application of Salvation to us, in quickning of us; his Heart being big with it, faith he there, by way of ParentheGs, 'By Grace ;·eare faved. He lots fall there a brief Word, which yet was the Cemer that all his Motions and Roundsabout the Text were directed to. Now then, he having but hinted this by the way there, when be had made an end of thot Vein of Difcourfe, which he had in hand, and was engaged m, he now comes to reaffume that which he had before but fcattered by the way ; and to hold up this as the eminent Thing, as the Ccnter,'and the Upfhot of what he aimed at in his whole Difcourfe. And fo he enters upon. a new Common-place of Matter, to !hew how by Grace we
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