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I. WHAT IS UNDERSTOOD BY A MEANS OF SALVATION. It is that by and through which the Lord Jesus doth by His spirit convey grace and salvation into a soul. These means are some outward, some inward; some ordinary, others extraordinary.

II. WHAT THESE MEANS OF SALVATION ARE.

1. The inward means is faith (Hebrews 4:2). This ordinarily requires an outward means to work it by. But being wrought, it is the great inward means of communication betwixt Christ and the soul.

2. Extraordinary means are whatsoever the Lord in His sovereign wisdom is pleased to make use of extraordinarily for conveying grace into the hearts of His elect, as He did a voice from heaven for the conversion of Paul.

3. The outward and ordinary means are the Lord's own ordinances (Romans 10:14, 15).

(1)  In general, all the ordinances of God without exception, which He has set up in His Church for that end.

(2)  The most special means of grace and salvation are the Word, sacraments, and prayer.

III. WHAT MAKES ANY ORDINANCE A MEANS OF GRACE, a well of salvation, out of which one may in faith look to draw water for his soul, or get spiritual good by.

1. No ordinance whatsoever can avail without a particular blessing; for the efficacy of ordinances is not natural, or from themselves.

2. Men's institutions or ordinances, in respect of God, are forbidden, and condemned by the Lord's word, namely, in the second commandment.

3. Men's use of them is not only useless, but worse, not only to no good purpose, but to ill purpose. That which makes any ordinance a means of grace or salvation, is Divine institution only (Matthew 28:20). Therefore the first question in all ordinances ought to be, Whose is this image and superscription?

IV. TO WHOM THE LORD'S ORDINANCES ARE MADE EFFECTUAL.

1. Not to all who partake of them. "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Many come to these wells who never taste of the water. I think it an unwarrantable expression, that all God's ordinances do attain their end, in the salvation or damnation of all that come under them; for damnation is not the end of any of God's ordinances, but salvation.

2. But to all the elect they are effectual, unto whom they come (Acts 13:48; John 10:26).

V. WHENCE THE EFFICACY OF ORDINANCES PROCEEDS. It does not proceed from any virtue in themselves, or in him that administers them, but from the Spirit of the Lord working in them and by them (1 Corinthians 3:7).

(T. Boston, D. D.)

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KJV: Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

WEB: Therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation.