SERMON XI. 2 Peter iii. 18. GROW IN GRACE. THE word Grace has various meanings in the New Testament, which not being sufficiently attended to, and ascertained, have occasioned, and still continue to occasion, much altercation, and are the cause of several gross and fundamental errors, both in theory and practice. Sometimes it means a gift or favour, which Almighty God gives to man out of his pure liberality, and which man on his part has done nothing to merit; thus, when by creation he gave us existence, and when by redemption he restored to us our forfeited immortality, both these gifts were, and are properly denominated, the Grace of God. In other places it means spiritual gifts, communicated miraculously to particular persons for some great and important purpose; thus various graces were given to the Apostles, as the gift of tongues, the gift of healing, and the like, in order to enable them the more successfully to execute their mission, and propagate the divine truths of the Gospel. Grace is also very frequently put to signify that inward assistance which the Holy Spirit of God communicates to the sincere believer of his Son, in all times and places, enlightening his understanding, rectifying his will, and becoming that comforter to his soul which was promised by Christ to be sent to the faithful, after he was withdrawn from them, and to continue its salutary operations to the end of the world. The last sense of the word GRACE which I shall mention, and which seems to be the meaning of the Apostle in the text before us, is the practice of Christian virtue, or our improvement in holiness; for at the very conclusion of his Epistle, as his last and most important exhortation, as a recapitulation of all that he had said before, he calls upon his Converts to grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; as if he had said, endeavour, my Brethren, to improve yourselves in all those good qualities which become your Christian profession; make yourselves acquainted with the life, actions, and character of your blessed Master and Saviour; and endeavour, as far as in you lies, to imitate the perfections of Him, your great Exemplar, who was given unto you as a pattern, that you might follow his steps. it But here it must be carefully observed, that when the word Grace is put, as it is here, for Christian Vir ue, always includes the former signification of the word, and implies also the assistance of God's Holy Spirit to make that virtue acceptable, or in any sort efficacious. It is a fundamental article in the creed of a sincere Christian, that he can do nothing himself as of himself; but that his sufficiency is from God. It is this only that can secure him from spiritual pride and self-presumption. Moral Virtue, as practised in the heathen world, always produced one or both of these bad qualities. The arrogancy of the Stoics (though undoubtedly the best Moralists among the various sects of Gentile philosophy) is even proverbial, and the reason is evident; supposing, as they did, that the human mind was of itself capable of attaining to the very height of moral perfection, they would naturally take the merit of every moral action entirely to themselves, and in consequence become the more vain in proportion as they were the more virtuous. It is God that worketh in me to will and to do of his good pleasure, says the humble spirit of the disciple of Christ; when I have done my best, my very best, without his assistance I am an unprofitable, I am worse, I am a presumptuous servant. How different, how very different this language from that of philosophy and vain deceit: how much more becoming the mouth of fallible man! We must therefore understand the word Grace in the |