him in the act of slaying a tenderly beloved son, "accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead." In almost every act of his truly illustrious life, he showed that his was "a faith that worked by love;" and such alone can be a justifying faith. Let us not imagine that true faith is nothing more than a quiescent principle of abstract holiness, that wins the grace of God, by the mere silent aspirations of his name. In all ages of the church, the faithful have been invariably the best Christians, practically as well as spiritually the best. Good actions have ever formed the distinguishing feature of their lives, associated with purity of mind and piety of heart. Look at the apostles, the "noble army of martyrs!" We find that their belief did not confine them to the cavern or the cloister, but sent them "about doing good," after the example of their divine master and Saviour. Their lives were spent, so to speak, in promoting the spiritual interest of sinners.

Now, let us for a moment examine the strength, the nature, and tendency of our faith, and see how far it will support its pretensions to that divine grace, which is consummated by such infinite rewards as "the Lord hath prepared for them that love him." Only ask your own hearts, if there be not many articles of doctrine clearly and indisputably set forth in the gospel of Christ, which you rather do not deny, than sincerely believe?

Are you not apt to persuade yourselves, that the Almighty will in some instances do what he has positively declared he will not, and that he will in others not do what he has solemnly pledged himself to execute? Do you not often rather assent to those spiritual duties which you occasionally assemble to perform, than feel convinced of their necessity? "Being justified freely by God's grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," do you not often "lay the flattering unction to your souls" of eventual pardon, through the merits of his death and sufferings; however deficient you may be in those graces which he demands of his disciples-however you may "have walked unworthy of the vocation wherewith you are called"? Do you not often partially apply the promises of divine mercy, and the threatenings of divine judgment to the condition of your own souls, drawing out of "broken cisterns which can hold no water,” rather than out of those which are full and overflowing? Do you earnestly seek to believe and to apprehend those truths, which are the elements of Christian perfectness:-that knowledge which alone can make you "wise unto salvation"? Do you not only pray that the “good seed" may be sown in your hearts, but do you likewise prepare them as "good ground" to receive it! Is your faith inherent, full and perfect! To disbelieve a part of Christ's gospel, is in effect to discredit the whole; and the sure end of infidelity is death.

Hear the Apostle. "He that believeth in the Son of God, hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son: he that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life." Let us not delude ourselves with the idea, that any faith is a justifying faith. It must bear its fruits, or it will become, like the fig-tree, a barren stock; and the curse will go forth against it "cut it down,-why cumbereth it the ground?"

When we are told that faith alone is necessary to salvation, we should consider what a comprehensive term the word faith is, under its true scriptural definition. It comprehends not only the belief of all things relating to God in his recorded word, but likewise of the necessity of performing all the practical as well as spiritual duties which are there enjoined. Faith, invariably and necessarily, leads to practical holiness; and thus "by grace are ye saved, through faith”—

Secondly-"And that not of yourselves.” “I can do all things," says the Apostle," through Christ, which strengtheneth me;" but, without him, "we can do nothing," because, "in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with us, but how to perform that which is good, we find not." This is but too faithful a picture of

man's general tendency to evil. By nature, the heart of man is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" and yet "through Christ, which strengtheneth them," the faithful in him have ever "gotten them the victory," and triumphed in his name. "It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure:" that is, he suggests good thoughts and holy resolutions, which would never arise within us but for the intervention of his spiritual agency. We may, indeed, reject these merciful interpositions of his grace; we may still the voice that suggests to us the practice of good; we may crush all incitements to holiness, under those predominating affections which so often make our souls gravitate, as it were, to the very centre of vicious attraction;and then the deeds of evil which we perform will be all our own:-but we are not, therefore, to infer that the good also which we do, originates with ourselves. For, where we listen to those sacred whispers of the divine monitor within us, which are so fully calculated " to lead us into all truth," and frame our conduct upon their incitements" ours is not the praise, but the Lord's." Our very faith we must seek from Him, " without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy;" if he

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help not our unbelief," we shall never be able of ourselves to pierce through the dense obstructions of infidelity to the light of truth. But this help will never be denied, where we long for spiritual

knowledge. If we come humbly and earnestly to God to seek instruction, we shall never fail to receive it. It is only the disposition to think and act devoutly, that we have to form in ourselves; and the grace of God will sanctify such a disposition with the spirit of holiness.

To have the power of doing both good and evil at our own pleasure, would be to suppose an utter incompatibility in nature. Because, a sole and inherent power of doing good, independent of divine influence, would preclude the moral possibility of doing evil. Good and evil are principles perfectly independent of each other. They cannot of themselves subsist in union. Where the one abides, entire and self-actuating, the other can have no existence. As there neither is, nor can be, any evil in God, so is there not, neither can there be, any good in Satan. A sole and inherent power, of doing good, is the character only of perfection; and perfection belongs alone to Deity. If then we obviously do evil through the machinations of the Devil, which I imagine no believer in his Bible will deny, it must be evident that we can only do good through the assisting grace of God. Such is our natural tendency to ill, in consequence of Adam's transgression, that, in the words of the tenth article of our holy religion, “man cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God; wherefore, we have