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and speculation, if not of positive denial. Let us a listen to his words in their specific, strictest sense, ‘If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.'

If any man be disposed to say that he has no power over his belief; the inveterate drunkard or libertine urges the same excuse; he says he has no power over his practice. No man can bid A to the away his evil propensities by a mere effort of the as being will; and it is equally admitted, that no man can, the turning by a mere effort of the will, bid away his unbeour Lord put lief. Means must be employed. Means will be Share, Believe ye effectual in both cases. And the first means is, d when he said to cease cherishing, either by thought or deed, the que, Be not afraid, only evil which is desired to be eradicated. Ceasing had no reference to to do evil is a preparatory, and the most imporwica our Lord said to Peter, tant step in learning to do well, in matters of , wherefore dost thou doubt?' speculation as well as in matters of practice. If Have faith in God; for faith in the gospel be desired—and who would not you, that whosoever shall say desire to have a firm faith in its sanctifying truths kli, Be thou removed, and be thou and glorious promises?—avoid every thing that is ase, and shall not doubt in his heart, hostile to it, and welcome every thing that is hove those things which he saith shall friendly. she shall have whatsoever he saith;'1 » 4x 4 state of mind and heart alone which was tusk Now, the faith which justifies and sex is as specific in its nature, and as much an of the mind and heart alone, as was the faith which miracles were wrought or received. When the apostle says, "They have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God,' Rom.

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3, he evidently speaks of a mental, and not of a moral act; for these words stand opposed to gnorance of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness. And says ho elsewhere, To him that worketh not, but believeth, his faith is counted for righteousness.' Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,'-not worketh, nor worketh and believeth taken conjunctively, but believeth taken distinctively.' Hence the prominence and importance given to faith in the word of God. It is called 'the work,' and 'God's commandment' by way of eminence. This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ. Let us then beware of confounding what the apostle calls the 'obedience of faith,' that is, of believing-of yielding assent unto the truth, with the obedience of works. Let us not suppose that we are obedient to the truth as it is in Jesus, merely because we are doing our little utmost to be obedient to the moral law; which little utmost we may try to do, while Christ is not in all our thoughts, or there, only as a subject of doubt

As another preparatory means, let us examine the heart whether it be right toward God, and willing to receive truth from whatever quarter, and however humbling. The heart and not the understanding is the stronghold of unbelief. Therefore, let pride and prejudice, and above all, the love and practice of sin, be renounced; let humility, piety, love of truth, and a sacred regard to the dictates of conscience, become the cherished inmates of the breast; after, or along with this preparatory process, let the understanding be directed to the investigation of the truth of scripture, and to the study of scripture truth, under a solemn impression of the momentous importance of the inquiry, and with earnest prayer to the God of truth, that he would aid, direct, and bless our inquiries. Let these means be employed, and then let us say whether it be true that we have no power over our belief. A modification, or an entire change of our former creed, will be inevitable. We have not, it is true, such a command over our belief, as to be able to determine, beforehand, what will be its precise complexion;—and yet what a command have even sceptics over their belief, and with what facility and certainty can they mould it to their prejudices and passions, when they allow themselves to be led by these! We may not be able to determine, beforehand, what will be the precise result as to our belief; but surely we would be no more entitled, on this account, to say that we have no power over it, than the merchant would be entitled to say that he

MAY.

Has the gospel only made provision for the forgiveness of the past, and left us to work out and merit anew the salvation of the soul? On such a supposition salvation would be impossible. For let God enter into judgment with us after our belief of such a gospel, and who could stand the scrutiny of his righteous judgment? We must inevitably be condemned and perish, just as before the proclamation of such a gospel.

But it may perhaps be thought, that while such a gospel provides for the forgiveness of the sins that are past, it provides also for the relaxing of God's severity of justice in judging for the time to come, makes him less strict in entering into judgment with us, nay, makes an imperfect obedience meritorious If this be supposed,

obedience, an unmitigated punishment for unmiti- | But in what does this salvation consist, and what gated disobedience, or a mitigated punishment, yet must we do in order to become partakers of it? still a punishment, for an imperfect obedience. If we go to mercy for remission either of an unmitigated or mitigated punishment, we must go renouncing all claim of right, and receive, as a free and unmerited favour, whatever mercy is willing to bestow. So that for a sinner to speak of personal merit as the ground of his acceptance with God, is the grossest folly, not to say impiety. To speak thus, argues a state of heart utterly unbecoming the transgressor-a state of heart which is the essential element of impenitence. If then there must be the exercise of mercy in our acceptance by God, is it any dishonour done to justice to consult and answer its claims in the method by which the mercy is vouchsafed? Yet this is precisely what justification by faith does. It is a method of acceptance devised and prescribed it follows that the effect of the death of Christ by God, for the express purpose that he might has been to prove, that God must have been be a just God, and at the same time a Saviour. too strict before, and convicts him of injustice It does honour to justice, by inflicting its penalty in originally exacting from us more than an on an altogether willing and all-meritorious sub-imperfect obedience. If God has entered into stitute; and by requiring an humble and ador- judgment with us on the principles of strict ing acknowledgment by faith on our part, that such a vindication of the claims of justice was indispensable to our salvation. Far, therefore, from justification by faith being derogatory to the justice of God in the moral government of the world, it is the only way in which we can be saved in consistency with that attribute; and so far are we from being able to be justified by the works of the law, that we have already been condemned by them. We will never have views of the moral government of the universe consistent in themselves, honouring to God, and comforting to our souls, till we can say with the apostle, 'Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.'

unbending justice, and on these principles, has declared that condemnation hath passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; and if he afterwards departs from such a strictness, lets down the demands of his law, and enters into judgment with us, and justifies us on less strict principles; then, one of two things must follow; either he was unjust to us in pronouncing condemnation in the first instance, or he was unjust to his own law in pronouncing justification in the second instance; that is, he must either be an unrighteous Governor exacting more than he can justly demand, or a fickle and inconsistent governor, beginning his government on one principle, and unable on account of its severity to carry it out, ending it with another and less stringent principle. One or other of these conclusions must be arrived at if we entertain the idea that the gospel provides for the relaxing of the strictness of God's justice in judging us for the time to come. The impiety of both conclusions should make us turn with horror from the premises.

But how are these conclusions to be escaped? By being found in Christ, not having our own righteousness which is of the law, but that which which is of God by faith. Found in him,' we is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness are able to meet the strictest demands of justice. In him we have suffered the penalty of the law, and obtain remission for the past. In him we have a perfect righteousness sufficient to meet all, even the highest demands for the future. And it

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is no relaxing of justice to deal with us as found in | or suffering, but not a self-loathing culprit. But such a substitute. His death is more demonstra- let him be renewed in the spirit of his mind, and tive of the unchangeableness of the law, and more what formerly seemed to him a mere scripture honouring to its prerogatives, than the death of the hyperbole, or perhaps a calumny against our actual transgressor. His righteousness is infin-nature, will be seen and felt to be a certain and itely more meritorious as a ground of acceptance humbling truth. Let his eyes be opened to the than that of any creature, even the most innocent holiness of God, and like Job, too much a selfand exalted. It is the righteousness which is approver before the appearing of the Holy One, he of God. Found therefore in Christ, 'not having will be brought to exclaim, 'I have heard of thee our own righteousness which is of the law, but that by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye which is through the faith of Christ,' the justice seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent of God, instead of being relaxed or impaired, is in dust and ashes. Let him by faith be brought confirmed and magnified in our salvation. What to the great High Priest of our profession, to an emphasis does this view of salvation by the have his character, as a sinner, judicially progospel, give to the words of Paul! And, O God, nounced, and like the leper with his clothes rent, grant that I through faith may be enabled to appro- his head bare, and a covering upon his upper lip, he priate them.' 'We have no confidence in the shall be constrained to cry out, Unclean, Unclean. flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.'

SECOND DAY.-MORNING.

'But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all
do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away,' Isa. lxiv. 6.
HERE are three of the most distinguishing fea-
tures of the genuine penitent,-self-loathing, self-
renunciation, sense of estrangement from God
and of consequent spiritual impotency.

1. Self-loathing. We are all as an unclean thing.' It is of the nature of uncleanness to be insensible to its own defilement. The swine is not only an unclean, but an unconsciously unclean beast. It has a sense of its own, but that sense seems to find gratification equally in the unclean and the clean. So is it with the impenitent. He is insensible to spiritual defilement, either in himself, or in his sinful enjoyments. He has a sense of right and wrong, of happiness and misery; but by that sense he can know only, and that but partially, the punishment of sin, or at most, its worthiness of punishment. He cannot, while impenitent, feel its offensiveness as a self-polluting uncleanness. Consciousness of guilt may make him a fearful

2. Nor will it be uncleanness of person only, but uncleanness of covering, that will then be discovered and confessed. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,' tainted with the leprosy of sin.-It would seem that it is possible to form too low an estimate of the value of our righteousnesses in the sight of God. Let a man form ever so low an estimate of his benefactions towards his fellow-men, and he will be commended not less for his humility than for his beneficence. He may be thought more humble than necessary; yet his very excess of humility will command reverence; while a self-complacency, less even than an exact estimate of his benefactions would warrant, will provoke envy and detraction. But it is, and if we are to be taught by the wise in this world, it ought to be otherwise, when we speak of righteousness in the sight of God. We must not, it seems, suppose that the humility and self-renunciation which commend us to our fellow-men are acceptable and well-pleasing in the sight of God. Let us speak of the worthlessness of our good deeds done to our neighbour, and the stronger our language, and the greater our sincerity in using it, the greater will be our commendation. But let us speak of the worthlessness of our good deeds as done to the holy heart-searching God, and the stronger our language, and the deeper our sincerity, the greater will be our reprobation— the stronger our language, the more will we be deemed hypocrites; the deeper our sincerity, the more will we be deemed fools and fanatics. But, O my God! be mine the sincerity of such hypocrisy! be mine the wisdom of such folly! Enter not into judgment with thy servant. innocence I have worn to rags. My moralities, my charities, my prayers, my love, my zeal, my holiest, heavenliest frames of mind and heart have been leavened, leprosied, and polluted by

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