monstration.

And the proclamations of gospel mer

cy are equally unheard, and its aspect of glad and generous invitation is equally disregarded by him, who, ruminating on the mysteries of his own heart, perplexes himself among the depths and the difficulties of faith.

It is known to anatomists, that to have a view of the objects of surrounding nature, the image of all that is visible must be drawn out on the retina of the eye. But the peasant, who knows not that he has a retina, has just as vivid a perception of these objects, as the philosopher had, who first discovered the existence of it. And, in like manner, a babe in Christ might have a lively manifestation of the Saviour, who knows nothing of the metaphysics of faith-who is in utter darkness about all the controversies to which it has given birth—who sees with his mental eye, while in the profoundest ignorance about the construction of his mental eye-who cannot dive into the recesses of his own intellectual constitution, but, by the working of that constitution, has caught a spiritual discernment of him, whom to see and to know is life everlasting." Father, I thank thee, that whilst thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, thou hast revealed them unto babes."

There is not a readier way of running uncertainly, than strenuously to put forth effort in a matter over which the will has no control: and this is often done by those, who, in their anxious desire to get that faith on which salvation is made to turn, try, with all their might, and all their diligence, to believe. Now this is what we never can do sepa

rately from evidence. the understanding, without proof addressed to the understanding, is impossible. If we are out of the way of meeting with the evidence of the truth, we never will attain a belief of the truth. It is no doubt possible, by the mere dint of mental exertion, to conceive what a doctrine is, and to retain that doctrine in our mind, and to recal it when it happens to be away from us: but it is not possible, without a satisfying evidence of the doctrine, actually to believe in it. Here then is a way in which we may incur the expense of effort, and the effort be altogether unavailing. We We may be trying to believe, while we are looking the wrong way for it. It is not merely by poring over the lineaments of our own heart-it is not by witnessing the deficiencies of our faith, and still looking, and continuing to look to the place of these deficiencies-it is not by the reflection of evidences from within, while every avenue is closed of communication from without, that light first arises in the midst of darkness. obtain any such reflection, a beam of manifestation must be admitted from without, making it the entrance of the word of God which gives light unto us and the Spirit of God shining upon his testimony, which causes the demonstration of it to come with power, and with assurance, upon him who is giving earnest heed to the word of that testimony. So that, on the other hand, there is a way in which the will may be rightly and profitably employed in the matters of believing. There is a way in which the advice, of try to believe, is applicable, and may be successfully carried into effect. It is by our will

To carry the conviction of

To

that we open the pages of the Bible. It is by our will that we stir up our minds to lay hold of him who speaketh there. It is by our will that we fulfil his own precept of hearkening diligently. It is by our will that we keep ourselves at the assigned post of meeting between us and the Holy Ghost; and, as the apostles did before us, wait for his coming with supplication and prayer. But it is in the act of at

tending to the word which is without us, that light finds access to our heart. If ever it fall upon us at all, this is the way in which it will come; and, if we are not widely mistaken, we utter an advice which is applicable to the case of at least some dark and disconsolate inquirers, when we say, that instead of fetching their peace and their joy in believing primarily from themselves, they should fetch it from the truths which are without them, and from the great Fountain of Truth and of Grace that is above them. Acquaint thyself with thy Creator, and be at peace, and go unto Christ, all ye who labour and are heavy laden, and he will give you rest.

Thus will we find the righteousness that we are in quest of. Thus will we meet a plea of acceptance already made out for us, and be given to perceive that the only obedience in which God can consistently with the honours of his government admit us into his favour, is an obedience which has been already rendered. If we commit ourselves to this with a perfect feeling of security, as the ground of our dependence, it will never never give way under He who trusteth in Christ shall never be confounded or put to shame. The righteousness which we vainly strive to make out in our own person, is

us.

worthless as pollution itself, when put by the side of that righteousness which has been already made out in the person of another; a righteousness, all the claims of which, and all the rewards of which, are offered to us; a righteousness, which, if we will only humble ourselves to put on, shall translate us into instant reconciliation with God, and, at length, exalt us to a place of unfading glory. Look then unto Jesus. Consider him who is the Apostle and the High Priest of our profession. We should cast our open and immediate regard upon him who is evidently set forth crucified before us. in the act not of looking to their wounds, but in the act of looking to the brazen serpent, that the children of Israel were healed, even so is the Son of man lifted up, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

And as it was

III. We have already attempted to prove, that the man who seeketh a righteousness by works, seeks it in a way which must land him in vanity and disappointment, and that he alone has attained the position with which he may take up and be satisfied, who has found the righteousness that is by faith. He alone who has accepted of the gospel offer, and puts his trust in its faithfulness, knows what it is to set himself down under a secure and unfailing canopy; and to delight himself greatly with the abundance of peace which he there enjoys. It cannot be adequately conceived by those who have never felt it; and therefore it is, that when a man looks to the offer of that righteousness which is unto all, and upon all who believe, as addressed to himself, and when, treating it accordingly, he

makes it the subject of his actual acceptance, along with the faith which has taken possession of him,— then enters the peace of God in Christ Jesus, which passes all understanding. When, weaned from every other dependence, he has at length learned to leave the whole weight both of his plea and of his expectation upon the Saviour, it is not easy to form an adequate thought of the change which then takes place upon his condition; how, by so doing, the whole deadness and heaviness of his soul are cleared away; how, as if loosed from a confinement in which it hath lain past from infancy, it breaks out into free and fearless intercourse with that God before whom it trembled; or away from whom all its thoughts and all its desires lay hid in carnal insensibility. They who never felt of faith in any other way than as a mere unmeaning or cabalistic utterance, and are strangers to the term as fixed and substantiated in experimental reality, on a positive operation of the soul, perceive not the magnitude nor the glory of that transition which it causeth the soul to undergo. They know not the import of being made alive thereby unto God. But there are some who, though destitute in fact of this faith, may have some obscure fancy of what the effect must be, when the Being, with whom all power and all immensity stand associated, enters into a new relation with one of his own creatures, altogether opposite to that in which he stood before; and, instead of an enemy whom one fears, or a master whom one dislikes, or a dark and distant personage, from whom one has lived all his days in utter estrangement, he draws near to the eye of the