"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ," saith St. John, "is born of God. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John v, 1-5. You perceive, sir, that, according to this apostle, faith is a principle of grace and power sufficiently forcible and victorious to regenerate and make us partakers of the Divine nature, enabling us to triumph equally over the most seducing,. as well as the most afflicting occurrences in the world. Have you obtained, or have you even sought the faith of which such excellent things are spoken.

N. You embarrass me. I never heard the least intimation of such a faith in this country.

B. Indeed, sir, you are in an error, since this very faith is plainly set forth in the sixteenth chapter of the Helvetic Confession. "The Christian faith," say the pious ministers who composed that work, "is not a mere human opinion or persuasion, but a state of full assurance: it not only gives a constant and clear assent to, but also comprehends and embraces the truths of God, as proposed to us in the apostles' creed. The soul, by this act, unites itself to God, as to its only, eternal, and sovereign good, and to Jesus Christ as the centre of all the promises.” Have you, then, this Divine persuasion, this full assurance of the truths of our holy religion? And have you experienced this act, by which the soul is united to God, through Christ, as to its sovereign good?

N. I have, undoubtedly, a persuasion that the word of God is true. But how may I absolutely determine, whether or no I am a possessor of the faith of which you speak?

B. If you are possessed of faith, you have some experimental knowledge of those happy effects of that grace, which are thus enumerated in the same confession: "True faith restores peace to the conscience. It procures a free access to God, enabling us both to approach him with confidence, and to obtain from him the things which we need. It retains us in the path of obedience, enduing us with power to fulfil our several duties both to God and our neighbour. It maintains our patience in adversity, and disposes us, at all times, to a sincere confession of our confidence. To sum up all in a single word, it produces every good work." "Let it be observed," says the same confession, "that we do not here speak of a pretended faith, which is vain, ineffectual, and dead, but of a living, effectual, and vivifying faith. This is a doctrine which St. James cannot be understood to combat, seeing he speaks of a vain and presumptuous confidence, of which some were known to boast, while they had not Christ living in them by means of faith."

N. "Christ living in them by means of faith!" I pray, sir, what is to be understood by this expression? I do not comprehend the thing. But, if I recollect, I shall have an opportunity, in a few hours, of mentioning the matter to our pastor, whom I expect here this evening to make up a party at cards. The true believer, after thanking his worldly neighbour for the patience with which he had listened to his conversation, took his leave and withdrew, apprehending every evil consequence from the de. cision of a pastor who was known to indulge a taste for play and vain amusement. His fears were too well founded. The minister, true to his engagement, arrived at the appointed hour, and the gentleman thus

eagerly addressed him: "I have been receiving some singular advice from a person of a very unaccountable turn, who appears to agree either with the Mystics or the Pietists. He spoke much of faith, asserting that all true Christians are really regenerate, and that they have Christ living in them by faith. What think you, sir, of such assertions as these?" "I will tell you freely," replied the minister, "that these abstruse points of doctrine are among those profound mysteries, which neither you nor I are appointed to fathom. It is usual with enthusiasts to speak in this manner: but such mystic jargon is now out of season. There have been ages in which divines were accustomed to speculate concerning this faith, and publicly to insist upon it in their sermons. But, in an age like this, enlightened by sound philosophy and learned discoveries, we no longer admit what we cannot comprehend. I advise you, as a friend, to leave these idle subtilties close shut up in the unintelligible volumes of our ancient theologists. The only material thing is to conduct our selves as honest men. If we receive revelation in a general sense, and have good works to produce, there can be no doubt but that our faith is of a proper kind, and highly acceptable before God." To this short discourse the card table succeeded, which served to strengthen the bands of intimacy between our careless clergyman and his deluded neighbour: so perfectly alike were their faith and their manners.

The circumstances alluded to in the above relation are not imaginary; and there is every reason to fear, that circumstances of the same nature are no less common in other Christian countries, than in that which gave birth to the writer of these pages.

Thus the worldly minister, instead of preaching this important doctrine in its purity, seeks to destroy even the curiosity which would engage an irreligious man to inquire into the necessity, the nature, the origin, and the effects of evangelical faith. And while the generality of those who are required to publish this victorious grace are seen to reject it with contempt, no wonder that the true minister esteems himself obliged to contend for it, with increasing earnestness, both in public and private, Jude 3.

To close this section. When the Christian minister proclaims salvation by faith, he adheres, not only to the Holy Scriptures, but also to those public confessions of faith, which are in common use among the Churches of Christ. "We believe," say the Churches of France, "that every thing necessary to our salvation was revealed and offered to us in Christ, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," Art. xiii. "We believe that we are made partakers of righteousness by faith alone; since it is said, that he [Christ] suffered in order to procure salvation for us, and that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish," Art. xx. "We believe that, by this faith, we are regenerated to newness of life, being by nature in bondage to sin. So that faith, instead of cooling in us the desire of living righteously and godly, naturally tends to excite such desire, and necessarily produces every good work," Art. xxii.

Such also is the doctrine of the Helvetic Confession: "We believe, with St. Paul, that sinful man is justified by faith alone in Jesus Christ, and not by the law. Faith receives Jesus, who is our righteousness; and on this account justification is attributed to faith. That by means

of faith we receive Jesus Christ, he himself has taught us in the Gospel, where he significantly uses the terms applied to eating for believing : for, as by eating we receive bodily nourishment, so by believing we are made partakers of Christ," chap. xv. "Man is not regenerated by faith, that he should continue in a state of indolence, but rather that he should apply himself, without ceasing, to the performance of those things which are useful and good: since the Lord hath said, 'Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit,' Matt. vii, 19: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, John xv, 6."

The Church of England expresses herself in the following terms upon salvation by faith, and the good works produced by that faith:-“We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works and deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doc. trine, and very full of comfort," Art. xi. "Good works do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known, as a tree discerned by the fruit,' Art. xii.

The true minister goes on to announce a lively hope.

"GODLINESS with contentment is great gain," 1 Tim. vi, 6. And the pastor, who is possessed of so invaluable a blessing, cannot be backward in soliciting all, within the circle of his acquaintance, to share it with him. Happy in the enjoyment of that precious secret, which enables him to rejoice without ceasing, he readily communicates it to the afflicted, by leading them to that lively hope which consoles and sustains the heart of every believer.

In a word, where the bitterness of evil is continually increasing; where we discover the scourges of a God, who will not fail to chastise his rebellious creatures; where disappointment and death successively deprive us of our dearest comforts, and where the forerunners of death are continually weakening all our imperfect enjoyments; in such a world, it is evident, that the most exalted pleasure we are capable of, must spring from a well-grounded hope of those immortal joys which are reserved for the righteous: The language of mortality is too feeble to describe either the power, or the sweetness of such a hope. Here we can only cry out with the psalmist, "O taste, and see how gracious the Lord is," Psalm xxxiv, 8, in providing so potent a cordial for those who are travelling through a vale of tears.

The lively hope which gives birth to a believer's felicity, is one of the most exhilarating fruits of his faith, and is inseparably connected with it, since "true faith is the substance of things hoped for." In proportion as the truths and promises, upon which faith is founded, are evidenced and apprehended, such will be the hope with which that faith is accompanied. If Moses then, by the faith which he professed, was enabled to renounce the prospect of an earthly crown, with the hope of obtaining a more glorious inheritance; if he esteemed "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, having respect unto the recompense of reward," Heb. xi, 26; what may not be expected from VOL. III.

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a hope founded upon those precious promises, which have been sealed with the blood of that condescending Saviour, who "brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel?" 2 Tim. i, 10. "The law," saith the apostle, "made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God," Heb. vii, 19. "Seeing then that we have such hope," continues the same apostle, "we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory," 2 Cor. iii, 12, 18.

We every day observe the men of the world exulting in the hope of some temporal advantage. The prospect of an honourable title, an augmentation of fortune, an advantageous marriage, or even a poor party of pleasure, is sufficient to allure, to animate, to enrapture them. They will even acknowledge, that the flattering hope of future pleasure is sweeter than enjoyment itself. Who then shall attempt to declare those transports which flow from the lively hope of a triumphing Christian? A hope which is founded upon the Rock of ages, and which has, for its multifarious object, riches, honours, and pleasures, as much superior to those of worldly men, as the soul is superior to the body, heaven to earth, and eternity to the present fleeting moment.

The true minister publicly announces this hope to the world, persuaded that, if mankind were once happy enough to possess it, they would exchange a load of misery for a prospect of blessedness. But since he knows that this hope can never be admitted into hearts replete with sin, his first concern is to overthrow the vain confidence of the impenitent, to undermine the presumption of the Pharisaical, and to point out the true distinction between a sinner's groundless expectation, and the wellfounded hope of a believer in Christ.

In every place there are many to be found, who, without "evangelical faith or hope," are filled with a presumption as blind as that of the Pharisees, and as fatal as that of heathens hardened in their sin. To every such person, the true minister uniformly declares that he is "without Christ, without hope, and without God in the world," Eph. ii, 12. These very men, it is probable, may offer to the Deity a formal worship, and indulge high expectations from the mercy of a Divine Mediator, though they are totally destitute of an unfeigned "repentance toward God, and a true faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," Acts xx, 21. Thus far the unconverted may proceed in a seemingly religious course. But the regenerate alone can truly say, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world: looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ," Tit. ii, 11–13.

The hope of unrighteous men is founded upon pride, false notions of the Deity, ignorance of his law, and upon those prejudices, which the irreligious communicate one to another. On the contrary, the hope of believers has, for its basis, the word of Him "who cannot lie,” Tit. i, 2. "Whatsoever things were written aforetime," saith the apostle, "were written for our learning, that we [the children of God] through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope," Rom. xv, 4. It is founded not only upon the word, but equally upon the oath of God. Men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to

them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, [namely, his word and his oath,] we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast," Heb. vi, 16-19.

When the faithful minister has rooted up every false hope, he then announces Jesus Christ, who hath brought in a better hope than that of heathens or Jews. Observe here the reason why those pastors who preach not Christ are incapable of doing any thing toward the furtherance of that living faith, of which Christ is the grand object, and that lively hope, of which he is the inexhaustible source. "Jesus Christ," saith St. Paul," is our hope," 1 Tim. i, 1: and we declare unto you "the mystery, which hath been hid from ages," and is still hidden from worldly men, "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Thus the everlasting Son of the Father is made to his true followers the beginning and the consummation of hope, as well as "the author and finisher of faith," Heb. xii, 2.

By the mercy of God, and through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, the believer has already received the promise of a free pardon for past offences; otherwise he deserves not to be termed a believer: at least, he is destitute of evangelical faith. Now, when the believer sincerely receives the glad tidings of redeeming grace, he then assuredly receives Jesus Christ, in whom "all the promises are yea and Amen," 2 Cor. i, 20; and he would conduct himself in a manner contrary to that which both reason and Scripture prescribe, if he should refuse to rejoice in God his Saviour. By such a mode of acting, he would prove his want of gratitude for that which Christ hath already done, and of hope for that which he hath promised still to perform. But when he gives himself up to a joy, as reasonable as it is refreshing, he then answers the gracious designs of his benevolent Lord. Continually taken up with more satisfactory enjoyments, he despises the seducing pleasures of sin. He carries in his own bosom a source of celestial pleasure, while the man of the world disquiets his heart in the vain pursuit of earthly joys. The difference between the enjoyments of these two characters is as great as between the rational pleasures of those who gather their wheat into the barn, and the puerile mirth of children, who are busied in collecting the scattered straws and thorns; the former are securing an inestimable treasure, while the latter have nothing more in view, than to dance round a short-lived blaze, the truest emblem of a sinner's satisfaction.

In the Holy Scriptures very excellent things are spoken of the hope which produces this sacred joy. (1.) It is a Divine hope, since it has for its object the enjoyment of God, and because it draws supplies of strength from that Holy Spirit which discovers to believers the greatness and stability of Gospel promises. Thus St. Paul teacheth us that "the Father of glory giveth us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation: enlightening the eyes of our understanding, that we may know what is the HOPE of our calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance among the saints," Eph. i, 17, 18.