Will it be demanded, if we do not, by this representation, require the regeneration of the heart, the cultivation of a divine and holy taste, as a prerequisite to faith, of which change, however, faith is acknowledged to be the only genuine cause? No; degenerate as human nature is, it still so far possesses ideas of moral excellence, so far approves, with the mind, the perfection of the divine law, and consents to it, that it is good, even when, by the law of sin which is in his flesh, he violates it, as, under the gracious influences of the Spirit of God, co-operating with his holy word, to be a sufficient foundation of this understanding, operative and sanctifying faith, of which we speak, in its first and incipient state. And when once this holy illumination, this divine taste exists in the weakest and most imperfect degree, it prepares the soul under the culture of the same word, and the continued influence of the same spirit, to receive every doctrine of the gospel with a fuller conviction, to perceive increasing beauties in the system of grace, and to feel with augmented force the obligation of the whole law of holiness.

But in treating of the moral and sanctifying influence of faith, we must add to that spiritual understanding of the doctrines of the gospel, and that divine taste of their beauty, which it implies, those powerful motives, also, to duty, to evangelic obedience, and universal holiness which it draws from celestial and eternal things. For, it is, saith the apostle, the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. It penetrates

the veil which covers them from mortal eyes, and presents them to the devout mind with a certain ineffable and spiritual sensation; especially the glory of God, the infinite love of the Redeemer, the final judgment of the

universe, the everlasting retributions of the righteous and the wicked. But, on these divine subjects, and the respective influence of each, both on devotion and on practice, your time does not now permit me to dilate. Your faith, believer, renders it unnecessary. The conceptions of faith in the heart of a humble and sincere disciple, far outgo all that the feeble powers of language could convey.

Let us, then, briefly review the principles which we have hitherto laid down. Faith, consists in the first place, and in its most general idea, in receiving the sacred scriptures as containing the gracious revelation of the will of God for our instruction in righteousness, and our eternal salvation. It consists, in the next place, not only in the belief of the divine authority and direction under which the scriptures have been communicated to the world, but in a clear and spiritual understanding of the nature and perception of the excellence and perfection of their holy doctrines. Thirdly, in a strong impression on the heart, of those high motives to practical piety and virtue, which religion has drawn from the glory of God, from the redemption of the cross, and the retributions of eternity. And, finally, in a profound persuasion of the personal, and everlasting concern which we have in these precious, these glorious, and these awful truths.

What moral system, then, or institute of religion, has ever laid such a foundation for purity of heart and sanctity of life, and for attaining ultimately the perfection of our nature, as the christian religion, resting, as it does, on the doctrine of a sincere faith in the Redeemer of the world. Here we behold the infinite purity and perfection of the divine nature, and are assimilated to it

by the powerful influence of a holy love; we behold the excellence and beauty of the law of holiness, and are led to obedience by the delightful attractions of a divine taste, and the sweet constraints of a renewed nature; we behold the love of the ever-blessed Redeemer extending salvation to a guilty world through his own sufferings, and the believing penitent from the depth of his affliction on the account of his sins, looking up to Heaven for merey, is led to embrace the cross with an ecstacy of gratitude; we behold the glorious rewards of life and immortality, purchased by the death, confirmed by the resurrection of the Saviour, and shining in every promise of the gospel, and the spirit of holiness becomes raised by the view, to its highest tone.

Assemble all these objects of faith in one view; receive them as the infallible truths of God, not with a vague unmeaning assent, the fruit, merely, of custom and example, but with a profound conviction, arising from reflection, from examination, and from the holy influence of prayer, aided by the concurrent illumination of the Eternal Spirit, and what principles or what motives drawn from any other source, can be compared with those of the gospel, for their purity, their efficacy, and their persuasive power on the heart? These considerations naturally lead to the second topic of this discourse; the illustration of the excellence of this grace. Previously, however, to entering directly on this branch of the subject, permit me to take notice of some common definitions, or representations of faith, the coincidence of which with the views hitherto presented to you may not immediately appear.

Faith, in the holy scriptures is sometimes characterised by one of its principal acts; Abraham is said to

have believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, because he trusted implicitly in the divine promise, in opposition to the most untoward events, and of appearances which might have discouraged the strongest hopes. Such confidence could have existed only in a heart prepared to receive with submissive duty and obedience every word of God.

Sometimes it is characterised by one of its principal objects; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, said the apostle to the jailor. And, in another place, descending to an idea still more particular, he says; if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The doctrine of the resurrection of the Saviour is so intimately involved with the accomplishment of the atonement, and with the truth of all the promises and hopes of religion, that sincerely to receive it, in all its relations and consequences, is to embrace the whole gospel.

The pious and learned compilers of our catechism have chosen to describe it by one of its essential and inseparable fruits; receiving and resting upon Christ alone for salvation. Desirous of giving some single criterion of this grace which would be least liable to be mistaken by a believer himself in judging of his own spiritual state, they have fixed on this self renunciation, this absolute dependence of the penitent sinner on the grace and merits of the Saviour as one that is most certain, because one to which the pride and self-complacency of man most reluctantly submits: one to which he never does submit, till the sense of his own depravity and guilt; till the purity, the holiness and justice of the divine law; till the grace and all-sufficiency of the right

eousness and power of the Redeemer; in a word, till the whole gospel has taken full possession of his soul.

II. But returning to the views already given of the grace of faith, permit me now to add a few reflections to illustrate its excellence as a principle of moral conduct, which will justify the high rank which the apostle has assigned to it, along with hope and charity in the christian system.

The enemies of the gospel who delight in disingenuous representations of its spirit, and its institutions, affect to consider the command to believe as an address to the credulity of mankind and as substituting faith in the room of good morals and a life of virtue. Oh! falsehood, embittered by malignity! Does not the gospel invite, does it not require the most rigorous investigation into its pretensions? And is it not the crime of unbelievers that they do not apply themselves, with seriousness and faithfulness, to this great and interesting enquiry? Instead of being designed, as they falsely and wickedly assert, as a substitute for morals, is it not true, on the other hand, that it is the purity, which they esteem the unnecessary rigor, of the morality of the gospel, that is the genuine source of all their hostility to it? Is it not the very ground on which the sacred writer extols this grace, not that it stands in the room of a virtuous and holy practice, but that it is the proper spring of all true virtue, and the most efficient principle of a holy life?

In entering on this subject, let me lay it down as an established maxim in morals, that right principles when truly understood and heartily believed, will ever be followed by rectitude of conduct. False principles, on the other hand, tend to vitiate the fountain of virtue and piety in the heart; and in the practice of life to lead