A blessed word of a most blessed doctrine founded in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is JEHOVAH'S salvation to the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6) I refer the reader to the article Redeemer for the several features of salvation. And in addition to what is there said, I would just beg to observe that the thing itself meets poor lost souls so many ways, and answereth to their wants in such a variety of purposes, that it is always blessed to meditate upon it.

The term salvation implies somewhat more than a state of recovery from a state in which before the sinner was lost, but it includes every thing that is blessed in that state of recovery. The lost soul is not only brought out of bondage and the shadow of death, but brought into the liberty of the sons of God. So that in salvation is meant a release from all evil, and an introduction into all that is good. A right and interest in all temporal, spiritual and eternal blessings, is the sure consequence. Everlasting life, with all its preliminaries, for it hath the promise of "the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

And what endears salvation yet more, is the consideration of the almighty and all-loving author of it, and by whom it was accomplished. What he is in himself, in the glories of his person, his greatness, fitness, suitability, and all-sufficiency; what he is in his work, and what he hath done for his redeemed, the salvation he hath wrought beyond all conception of value in its completeness, and beyond all reach of extent in its efficacy, being like himself, everlasting and eternal; and what he is in his relations to his people, being their everlasting Father, Brother, Husband, Friend all these things, included as they all are in salvation, give the happy partakers of it "a joy unspeakable and full of glory;" so that every individual finds cause to join in the hymn of the church, and say: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation: he is a rock, his work is perfect, just and right is he." (Isaiah 61:10)


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