quity-He may see them despising, reproaching, persecuting that profession and practice, which, if the scriptures are true, must belong to such as live godly in Christ Jesus. Of both these classes of pretended Christians the faith is found to be spurious, and at an infinite remove from the faith of God's elect: for in neither of them does it purify the heart, or work by love. The scriptures teach us better.

As faith, in general, is reliance upon testimony, and respects solely the veracity of the testifier; so that faith which constitutes a man a believer before God, is a simple and absolute reliance upon his testimony, exhibited in his word, on this solid and SINGLE ground, that he is the God who cannot lie. It was not a process of reasoning which riveted in Abraham's mind the persuasion that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, and procured him the appellation of the father of the faithful. It was an act of NAKED TRUST in the veracity of his covenant-God, not only without but above and against, the consultations of flesh and blood. Abraham BELIEVED GOD, believed him in hope, against hope; and it was counted to him for righteousness. It is the same at this hour. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it-must silence every objection, and cut short every debate. And they who do not thus receive the scrip

tures, cannot give another proof that they believe in God, as a promising God, at all.

The testimony of God which faith respects, comprising the whole revelation of his will, centers particularly in the free grant which he has made of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to sinners of the human race; assuring them, that whoever believeth on him shall not perish, but shall have everlusting life; that he will be a Father unto them, and they shall be his sons and his daughters; that he will dwell in them, and walk in them, and be their God, blessing them, in their precious Redeemer, with all spiritual and heavenly blessings. Now that faith after which we are inquiring, consists precisely in receiving and resting upon Christ Jesus for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel, that is, in the testimony of his Father.

This faith is not the creature of human power. It is a contradiction to suppose that men can argue themselves, or be argued by others, into a reliance upon the testimony of God. Because this implies a spiritual perception of his eternal veracity: whereas the reason of man is corrupted by sin, and the natural tendency of corrupted reason is to change the truth of God into a lie. Nothing can rise above

its own level, nor pass

the limits of its being.

It were more rational to expect that men

should be born of beasts, or angels of men, than that a principle of life and purity should be engendered by death in a mass of corruption and carnal men are DEAD in trespasses and and sin. Cast it, therefore, into the fairest mould, polish and adorn it with your most exquisite skill, that which is born of the flesh will still be flesh; weak, corrupt, abominable; enmity against the law of God, and, if possible, more rank enmity against the gospel of Jesus Christ. From this source it is vain to look for faith in his blood. We must seek it higher.

It is of divine original. A gift which cometh down from the Father of lights: By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

It is of grace-for it is one of those covenantmercies which were purchased by the Saviour's merit, and are freely bestowed for his sake. It is given us, on the behalf of Christ, to believe on his name.

Of grace--because it is a fruit of the gracious. Spirit. As Jehovah, the Sanctifier, he creates and preserves it in the soul. For this reason he is called the Spirit of faith, which is, therefore, of the operation of God.

From this faith there result two glorious effects. Let us consider them, in their turn, as they are stated in the text.

I. It purifies the heart.

Human depravity is a first principle in the oracles of God. From within, out of the heart proceed those evil thoughts, and evil words, and evil deeds, which defile, disgrace, and destroy the man. And he who refuses to admit the severe application of this doctrine to himself, has not yet arrived at the point from which he must set out in a course of real and consistent piety. He may, indeed, flatter himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful, but who shall ascend into the hill of God? or shall stand in his holy place? He, and he only, who has clean hands and a pure heart. Now, as it is the grace of faith by which a sinner obtains that purity which qualifies him for the fellowship and kingdom of God, we are to inquire, in what the purity of the heart consists? and what is the influence of faith in producing it?

The heart is a term by which the scriptures frequently express the faculties and affections of man. As the pollutions of sin have pervaded them all, they all need the purification of grace.

At the head of the perverted tribe stands a guilty conscience. Stern, gloomy, suspicious, it cannot abide the presence of a righteous God; and yet lashes the offender with a whip of scorpions. To render the conscience pure,

pardon must intervene, and shelter it from that curse which rouses both its resentments and its terrors. This is effected by the blood of the covenant, which, speaking better things then the blood of Abel, sprinkles the heart from an evil con

science.

The will is purified, when it is delivered from its rebellion against the authority of God, and cordially submits to his good pleasure. This, too, is from above: for his people are made willing in the day of his power.

The understanding is purified when its errors are corrected, and the mists of delusion dissipated. When its estimate of sin and holiness, of things carnal and things spiritual, of time and of eternity, corresponds with the sentence of the divine word. This also is from above. The eyes of our understanding are enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe.

In fine, the affections are purified when they are diverted from objects trifling and base, to objects great and dignified. When they cease to be at the command of every hellish suggestion and every vagrant lust-When they add to the crucifixion of those profligate appetites in the gratification of which the unVOL. III. 14.