SERMON I. SALVATION. TITUS, III, 5, 6. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us; by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Saviour. THE great subject of this Text is our salvation: but besides this, it describes the original or first cause of our salvation, viz., the mercy of God; the means of it viz., regeneration and renewing; the worker or agent of these, viz., the Holy Ghost; and the meritorious cause of all, viz., Jesus Christ, our Saviour The subject of it, then, is our salvation; for in it St. Paul says, "He saved us." Here then is a subject which should deeply interest us all. For what are all questions of this present world compared with that of our salvation. This is the question of questions. Am I saved from a condemned world, which will one day sink into endless woe and ruin? Now, this salvation the Apostle does not speak of as something yet to be; but as having already taken place, as begun in fact at a past time for he says, God "saved us You have been already saved, and may be so still. So St. Paul speaks, in (1. Cor. 1. 18.) of this salvation as already begun for he says "the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it is the power of God." Do not then understand that your salvation begins only in the next life; the tree must be planted in this time of winter, and not in the full blaze of that summer: do not lop off this state of things from the eternal state, making a chasm between them: there is a great gulph between Lazarus and Dives, between the states of men hereafter, but there is none between this world and the next. The beginnings of all things are here: your faith begins here, and in heaven is realized in sight; your life begins here, and expands into eternal life; your holiness begins here and is complete, when as just men perfect you see God; your justification begins here, and is finished when the Judge at last declares you acquitted; and so your salvation begins here, and is certain when, the tares being bound in bundles to be burned, you are gathered as wheat into the Lord's barn. Rejoice, then, that you have been brought into a state of salvation. Do not doubt it; but be anxious only that you may continue in it. Now, of this salvation the first cause is the mercy of God. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." The first notice of your salvation was a promise of God, that the seed of the woman should "bruize the serpent's head;" and being by a promise, it could not be by your works, but by the mercy of God who promised it, when the guilty Adam, and in him all hist fallen offspring, stood before Him. "In the fulness of time God sent his Son, made of a woman," to be "a Saviour, Christ the Lord :" and from what was he to be a Saviour? from sin, as is said, "He shall save his people from their sins." How then can the salvation. be by our righteousness? Could the heathen world, which St. John says, "lieth in wickedness," be saved by its righteousness? And as for yourselves, you were not only" shapen in iniquity;" but as children, when you had not done any good or evil, but were freely chosen of God, as was Isaac, you were made God's children, and brought into a state of salvation; and, therefore, to you it could not have been by your righteousness that you were saved, but must have been by the mercy of God, who will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. Speak only then of the mercy of God; but speak of this from thankful hearts, and evermore declare his goodness in redeeming you from death. Again, the means of our salvation is "the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." By the washing of regeneration is undoubtedly meant our baptism, called elsewhere “the washing of water;" wherein we are regenerate, or born again. For so our Saviour speaks of the effect of Baptism, in which alone water is used in his religion, saying, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." That our Baptism is a means of regeneration appears also from the figure under which it is elsewhere described, viz., a burial and a resurrection. For so St. Paul says, (Col. 2. 12.) "Buried with him in Baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God:" for a burial and a resurrection is a regeneration; even as our burial and resurrection at the last day are called “the regeneration." This regeneration is also here said to take place in Baptism, and not at some other time; so that our Baptism is undoubtedly the means of our regeneration and is "the washing of regeneration. This regeneration, however, is only one part of the means of our salvation, so far at least as an Adult person is concerned. St. Paul in the Text is speaking of Adults, whom he had just before described as living in many vices. To these at least there is something more necessary in order to be saved besides regeneration. St. Paul calls it, "the renewing of the Holy Ghost," and mentions it as different from regeneration and, therefore, as a distinct thing. For our regeneration is a change of state or condition, that is, from wrath to grace, and is but once, as birth is but once; but the renewing of the Holy Ghost is a change |