thus much of God, and of his gracious and righteous dealings with mankind; and I pray that He will open my eyes to know Him better, and to understand his ways more perfectly. I believe all this; but I would fain believe it with faith more lively. I hold that every one of these words is true; but oh that God would help me to feel their truth more sensibly, and to lay them to heart more deeply for the improvement of my life! I can answer, "Yes," when I hear the question of the text, "Believest thou this?" but still I own that my faith is not yet all that I know it ought to be; and whilst I say, "Amen," I at once profess the faith I have, and pray for that to which I would aspire.

How, then, let us in conclusion enquire, how is unbelief to be removed? how is faith to be strengthened and established? "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10. 17.) This is the apostle's rule. Hear the word of God, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it. Pray that God may enlighten your minds to understand his ways, and may open your

hearts to receive with love those good tidings, which are in his word revealed. Study the record which God has given you of his Son. If you can read, never fail to read some portion of the Scriptures daily. If you cannot read, get some one to read them to you. Whether you can read or not, resort to church as often as possible, to hear God's word read and preached. Consult your ministers about any difficulties you meet with; and seek their help to explain what is hard to understand, and to impress on your hearts what is difficult to receive. And above all seek the help of God in prayer. Pray very frequently, and very earnestly, that God would be pleased to fill you with all joy and peace in believing. And thus you will believe, not only because you feel that you are bound to do so by the promises made for you at your baptism, but also because you find that it is good for you to believe, good for your present happiness, good for your continual progress in a holy and heavenly life, good for you, nay, absolutely necessary for your support, under the near approach of

death, and of that which comes after death, the judgment. These things are, whether we believe in them or not. But when they shall be fully manifest in their eternal reality, our having now believed in them will make all the difference, as far as we are concerned, between our finding that they are real, in the joys of heaven, or in the endless burnings of hell.

Oh think then, if there be any here whose hearts are not yet animated by lively faith, think what a dreadful thing this will be, to have your portion in the end with unbelievers! (See Rev. 21. 8.) And think how much the sin of your unbelief will be heightened, by your having repeated all your life the words of this creed, and your having been bound from the very beginning of your life to believe them. You will stand convicted, out of your own mouths, that there is a God, and that you knew of Him; a Father in heaven, to whom you have been undutiful; a Saviour, whom you, as far as in you lay, have crucified afresh; a Holy Spirit, whom you have done all you could to grieve, resist,

and cast away from you for ever. Think what dreadful punishment you brave; and think also what great joy and glory you reject. Whilst torment is the portion of unbelievers, the end of faith is the salvation of the soul. To be justified, to be sanctified, to be glorified, these are the believer's portion. To be resigned in affliction, contented in want, soberminded in abundance and prosperity; and alike whether the world smiles or frowns, still to live in the light of God's countenance, still to be filled with all the fulness of Christ, still to die in the full assurance of a glorious resurrection; this is the blessedness of those, who when asked of the articles of the Christian faith, "Believest thou this?" can answer at once truly, humbly, and unreservedly, "All this I stedfastly believe."

SERMON III.

THE FIRST FOUR COMMANDMENTS, AND

DUTY TO GOD.

MATTHEW 22. 37, 38.

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment."

IN the Catechism, we are taught to refer the duty of keeping God's commandments to our baptismal promise: "You said that your godfathers and godmothers did promise for you, that you should keep God's commandments." And we are also taught to say that these commandments are in number ten; meaning, that these ten are the chief, though there are many more, these "ten which God spake in the twentieth chapter of Exodus." And it is evident that our blessed Lord in the text, and in the words which follow it, refers to these