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GUILT AND PUNISHMENT OF INFIDELITY.

CHRISTIANITY, which unbelievers reject, is a message from God; and, considered simply as a message from God, how much disrespect to the divine authority-what a daring contempt of the divine Majesty does it imply! And, independently of the nature or purpose of the message, what an awful condemnation will the mere refusal of it bring upon their guilty heads! But deeper is their guilt, and more awful their condemnation, when we recollect what that message is which they spurn away from them. It is a message of grace: it conveys to them the offer of pardon, reconciliation, and eternal life: it makes a complete provision for their deliverance from hell, and for their final exaltation to heaven. In refusing the gospel, therefore, they refuse to be saved. They deliberately prefer a continuance in that state of alienation from God, and of liability to everlasting destruction, in which disobedience has already placed them. And continuing in that state, they must inevitably perish. And all that they shall suffer as sinners, must be aggravated tenfold by the reflection, that they suffer because they despised the redemption that was provided for them-because they shut their eyes against the light of heaven, and their ears against the voice of heaven, and their hearts against the mercy of heaven-because they persevered in infidelity, in despite of all the tenderness with which God entreated them, and in defiance of all the authority with which he commanded them, to believe in one who was "mighty and able to save them to the very uttermost."

DUTY OF INSTRUCTING THE HEATHEN.

I DID not expect to hear that it could be a question, whether any nation, uninstructed in religion, should receive instruction; or, whether that instruction should be imparted to them by a translation of the Holy Books into their own language. If obedience to the will of God be necessary to happiness, and knowledge of his will be necessary to obedience, I know not how he that withholds this knowledge, or delays it, can be said to love his neighbour as himself.. He that voluntarily continues in ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces, as to him that extinguishes the tapers of a light-house might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks. Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity; and as no man is good, but as he wishes the good of others, so no man can be good in the highest degree, who wishes not to others the largest measures of the greatest good. To omit for a year, or for a day, the most efficacious method of advancing Christianity, in compliance with any purposes that terminate on this side of the grave, is a crime of which the world has seldom had an example.

FAITH THE TRUE MEDIUM OF VISION..

IT is by faith that we contemplate unseen things. To the eye of a clown, a planet appears but a twinkling star; but if he looked through a telescope, and were able to calculate, he would perceive that it was a great world, and would be astonished at its distance and magnitude. While

the gay and the busy are moving on their little mole-hills, full of anxiety, faith thus reaches beyond the world; it views death as at hand; it looks at heaven, and catches a glimpse of its glory; it looks at hell, and sees the torments of the condemned; it looks at judgment, and realizes that awful day; it looks at eternity, and says, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

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He who looks upon Christ through his graces, is like one that sees the sun in water, which wavers and moves like the water:-Look upon Christ, only as shining in the firmament of the Father's grace and love, and there you will see him in his own genuine glory and unspeakable fullness.

RESOLUTE FAITH.

Ir the believer would attain increasing consolation, he must likewise be more resolute and express in his actings of faith. It will be necessary for him to be resolute in looking away from every other object of dependence to Jesus. He must habitually and peremptorily resolve to trust simply in Him; and, in full assurance of faith, to intrust all his salvation and all his concerns to his care. By thus casting his burden upon the Lord Jesus, and trusting that he will make all

things work together for good, his heart will become light and cheerful; he shall be freed from a thousand anxieties which otherwise would disquiet and distract his soul. The more distinct and explicit the actings of his faith are, the more peace will they bring into his conscience, and the more joy into his heart. When his actings of faith are so lively and express, that he becomes habitually conscious of them, he thereby sits down to a rich feast of inward tranquillity, and even of spiritual delight. When his faith, under the influences of the Holy Spirit, is so direct and so peculiar in its exercise, as to meet Christ in the promise, heart to heart, and eye to eye, it is like a rod of myrtle in the hand of the traveller, which, as some say, revives his spirits, and enables him to proceed without feeling himself weary. He thereby dwells in Him, who is the consolation of Israel, the fountain from which all the streams of ineffable delight do flow. Let every believer, then, study to be more distinct, particular, and express in his exercise of faith.

Faith can support when nature shrinks; faith can call God, Father, even when he frowns; and make some discovery of a sun through the darkest cloud.

HOW FAITH JUSTIFIES.

Bur it remains that we inquire how faith justifies. Certainly not in that sense, as though God graciously accepts the act of faith, and new evangelical obedience proceeding from faith, in the room of that perfect obedience, which, ac

cording to the strictness of the law, we ought to have; for this were to make void the whole gospel. In the room of perfect obedience, which the law requires to justification, the gospel hath not substituted our faith, but the obedience of Christ, by which the righteousness of the law is fulfilled and it is false that faith and our obedience are one and the same thing. I confess, faith is a virtue commanded by the law, and that the believer, so far as he believes, does obey God. I confess again, no faith is to be accounted true and living, which is not productive of good works. But yet faith is one thing, and obedience flowing from faith quite another thing, especially in the business of justification, of which we treat; for Paul always contra-distinguisheth all manner of works from faith. Lastly, neither the truth nor righteousness of God suffers, that our faith and obedience, which are imperfect, should be admitted as perfect; for it is the will of God, that the righteousness of the law should be fulfilled in our justification, not that any thing should derogate from it.

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH NO RELEASE FROM PERSONAL OBEDIENCE.

WHAT superficial views of the gospel must they entertain, who can once suppose that the obedience of Christ, in the room and stead of sinners, was ever meant to grant them a release from personal obedience! How strange a conclusion! How absurd to think, that the great God would have employed such a wonderful method to assert the dignity and authority of his

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