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Many of you have been, for a number of years, on the way; but ye have made little progrefs, becaufe ye are for ever doubting of your ftate, and continually faying, "We are afraid it is not yet right "with us." Ye will live by fenfe, but not by faith, and therefore ye keep almoft conftantly in the fame condition. How improper fuch a conduct! ye ought to reft upon the divine teftimony. Have ye ever been enabled to determine favorably of yourfelves? it behoves you to hold faft the foundation on which ye have been made to hope, and thus oppose all the fuggeftions of unbelief. For want of this, your faith is only exercised in its weakeft acts, of defiring, hungering, thirsting, and running after Jefus, whilft that holy and firm confidence that lays hold of the eternal rock of falvation, and of the promises, is an exercise of which ye know but little in your own experience. And, though it be true, that a weak faith is fufficient for falvation, yet it is not enough to afford you that comfort and encouragement ye need upon the way.

Seek then to obtain a well-grounded affurance of your state. Let not little things alarm and disturb your peace: ye have to do with a faithful God, who will preserve alive the smallest spark of grace, and can encrease it into a flame.

But there may be fome among you, who, though ye may be CONFIDENT of your good eftate, yet LIVE NOT by faith, as ye ought to do. Ye are not fufficiently impreffed with a fenfe of your guilt and pollution, of your inability, and unworthinefs; for, though ye have received grace, yet ye are daily chargeable before God, of innumerable failures in duty; which however do not fuitably affect your minds; and therefore it is that ye do not more earneftly apply to the blood of Jefus, for pardon. Ye

do indeed confefs, that without Chrift ye can do nothing; but conftantly by faith to look to him for wisdom and ftrength in every tranfaction, fpiritual and temporal, is a thing with which ye are but little acquainted. When, depending on yourselves, ye have ventured to engage in bufinefs, or duty, without looking for direction and influence from above, how often have ye been put to fhame? whilft, on the other hand, when deeply impreffed with a fenfe of your own infufficiency, ye could only lift your eye to God for help, ye have found his grace fufficient for you, and his ftrength made perfect in your weakness.— All this is defigned to teach you to look from fecond causes, and to live by faith. Yet where is that believing and CALM SUBMISSION to the will of God? Every thing goes well, when the fun of profperity beams upon you, when you can wash your steps in butter ; but when the clouds of adverfity gather thick around you, and horrid gloom darkens your way, how are your hearts difpofed to murmur! Does God call you to part with something that is dear to you? you are not, like Abraham, willing to offer up your Ifaac. It may indeed be your wifh to be in fuch a frame; but, O how hard is it for you to yield a tacit fubmiffion to the will of God!

In times of fpiritual or temporal distress, in what do you evidence the exercife of CONFIDENCE? Does God hide his face from you, do all things appear TO GO AGAINST YOU? ye are caft down, unbelief gains ftrength, ye are afraid to rely upon the promifes, or to confider God as your father. Does SATAN befet you with his fiery darts? ye take not the shield of faith, to ward them off; but are difmayed: fear gets hold of hold of you, and ye dare not oppofe him.However, remember your enemy is ever on the watch,

and attacks with unrelenting fury, when God's people are off their guard. When providences are adverse, and profpects fo dreary, that not a ray of light appears, your minds fink INTO DESPONDENCY, inftead of COMMITTING all your concerns into the hands of God. Such conduct difhonours God, and evidences a want of faith in his power, as being able to bring light out of darkness.

How little activity do you manifeft in exercising those Chriftian graces which have been defcribed! O which of us muft not be compelled, with fhame, to confefs his finful deficiences? but to see them, and to confess them, is not enough; it becomes us, in the ftrength of the Lord, to feek to amend our ways.

Be exhorted then, believers, to be more steadfast, immovable, and progreffive, in this walk of faith.

1. Ye cannot have a firm affurance of the SINCERITY of your faith, if it work not by love; and be not accompanied with endeavours, through grace, to discharge the duties of true religion; for if faith urge not the foul to these, it more resembles a dead, than a living and true faith. This the apoftle James teaches, Chap. 2. 17. Although it be certain, that thofe who have faith can never be deprived of that principle altogether; yet, when it is not conftantly in exercife, it is weakened; as one who has learned any liberal or mechanic art, by difufe, lofes much of his fkill, whilst conftant practice would yield him daily improvement; so it is with the believer: by negligence he suffers a visible declenfion, whereas, by a conftant and lively exercife of faith on the Lord Jefus, he gains much strength, his evidences are proportionably brightened; his doubts are removed, and his fears subside.

2. By exercifing faith, the Chriflian ADVANCES

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IN HOLINESS; for, as faith purifies the heart from the love of fin, so it makes the foul zealously engage in all the duties of religion.- Faith teaches its poffeffor conftantly to keep in mind his inability, and thus leads him fixedly to keep his eye upon Christ. Faith is the hand which lays hold of Chrift, and his ftrength. By faith the believer runs after Chrift, and brings the empty veffel of his heart to an all-sufficient God and Saviour, to be filled. Have ye then any defires of becoming more holy; let faith be much in exercise: it is the best mean which can be employed, in order to fatisfy those defires.

3. By exercifing faith, we shall be able, in the name and ftrength of the Lord, to make a noble, manly, and bold STAND against all that oppose us. By faith we are taught to expect oppofition; but by faith too we are enabled to lay our hands our hands upon the promises, the oath and the faithfulness of God, and humbly plead them before him. By faith, we look upon Christ as the captain of falvation, and strengthened by his power, in the midst of the combat, we may triumphantly exclaim, "In all thefe things, we "are more than conquerors, through him that hath "loved us."

4. Faith enables the Chriftian to go on his way, replete with joy and comfort; for

A. As the believing foul is not easily fhaken as to its state, so it can rejoice in having fellowship with God, and in all the bleffings which flow from it.Yes, believers, ye can rejoice in the hope of glory.

B. In PROSPERITY, faith makes the Chriftian truly grateful. He enjoys temporal bleffings, confeffing his unworthiness of the leaft favour, in the language of the venerable Patriarch, "I am lefs " than the leaft of all thy mercies." He is fenfible

that, by faith, he has a covenant right to all he poffeffes; for he fees that Chrift, to whom faith unites his foul, hath purchased all these things for his people.

C. In ADVERSITY, when diftreffes and afflictions arife from every quarter, faith enables the foul to commit, with an holy unconcern,' its all into the hands of a faithful God, who always careth for his children, and to reft in the promises of him, who hath faid, “I will never leave thee, nor forfake thee."

5. The walk of faith, not only affords a comfortable and a pleasant life, but prepares the way for a JOYOUS AND BLESSED DEATH. In the lively exercife of faith, the foul with pleasure contemplates its diffolution from the body, as the appointed mean by which it shall be admitted to immediate communion with its God in heaven, where we fhall fee eye to eye, and face to face on a death-bed, the believer may fay with Jacob, "I have waited for thy falvation, "O Lord;" and with Paul, "I have kept the faith." It is true, God may in that hour withhold the light of his countenance; but it will only be to put faith to its laft trial; and, even in that cafe, there ftill remains a waiting upon the Lord; for the righteous hath hope in his death.

6. This ftable walk of faith is ftrongly recommended to you, by a confideration of that CALM SERENITY of mind which it affords, on the occurrence of SUDDEN AND ALARMING EVENTS, refpecting either yourselves, your families, or the land in which you live; when unconverted finners shall fear and tremble, and flee into their inner chamber; and when those who have but little faith, fhall with Peter, and the rest of the Apoftles, cry out, “Lord "fave us, we perish." Matt. viii. 25. then shall ye, who are accustomed to commit yourselves to God,

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