surance in the divine word. The faith which honors God. most, and brings peace on its swiftest wing, is that which "staggers not at the promise of God through unbelief." Know this, weak believer, that while Christ "will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax," he delights to know them most, who most honor him. "According to your faith," whether it be weak or strong, so it shall be done unto you.

To conclude-O! ye who labor under a sense of sin, who feel the malady of your souls, and yet fear to go to Christ, our subject speaks to you. It seems to say, come, poor sinner, come to Jesus; he stands ready to save to the very uttermost, and all that he demands is thy faith; and how reasonable that thou shouldest commit thy soul into the hands of thy Creator, Preserver, and Redeemer, a being of matchless wisdom, truth, power, and love. Sinner, art thou still fearful, still unbelieving? "Wherefore do ye doubt, O ye of little faith?" What could the Lord Jesus have done more for your encouragement that he has not done? Are you polluted? He withholds not his touch from the foulest disease. Is your case inveterate, does it defy all earthly skill? Winds, and storms, and unclean spirits obey his voice. Do you deem yourself unworthy? Even publicans and harlots share in his mercy. But, you say that there is an infinite disparity between the diseases of the body and the soul. The Son of man, when on earth, forgave sins also. And is he less condescending, less compassionate, less kind, now he is in Heaven, than when on earth? No, he is "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." And all that he demands from thee, is thy faith. Only believe, and "according to your faith shall it be unto you."

Unbelievers, our subject speaks to you. In this class

we rank all those who believe the Bible, as they believe the history of Greece or Rome, who know no other species: of faith, than that which they derive from the circumstance of being born in a Christian land, who never mourned over sin and corruption as their greatest curse, who never felt the leprosy lie deep within, who never panted for the healing power of the balm of Gilead, more than for restoration" to health; and who never desire to be saved from the love and power of sin, with the same intensity that they desire deliverance from its curse. You dishonor God in the highest degree: you deny his veracity, and dispute his power; you place more confidence in the word of a fallible creature, than in the word of your infallible Creator. Were some fellow-mortal, upon whose integrity you had the least reliance, to tell you that a pestilence raged in such a place, or that such a man was unworthy of your confidence, you would avoid both the one and the other. But God, who cannot lie, tells you, that the way of the world is the way of death, and yet you love the world, and the things that are in the world. He tells you that your "heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," but you think and say that whatever your foibles may be, your hearts are good. He tells you that no man can be saved but by grace alone though faith, and yet you will place your hopes on your good works.

Why do you thus reject the counsel of God? Is it for want of testimony? Was it for want of testimony that the Antediluvians perished by the flood; or the Sodomites by fire; or the Egyptians by the judgments of Heaven? Nay, but because their hearts were fully set in them to do evil. And if you believe not, it is because you love sin, and hate holiness, and because your "carnal mind is enmity against God," so that you are without excuse; and our subject

speaks to you in language which may unclose the joints of the loins, and make the knees tremble, and every face gather blackness, and every heart faint for fear. "According to your unbelief be it unto you." That is, in the plain language of the Gospel, "your "damnation slumbereth not." "He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shalt be damned."

SERMON V.

"But the righteousness which is of faith, speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.-ROMANS x. 6—9.

The "righteousness of the law," of which we sometimes read, is the obedience which the law requires, "by which no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God." The "righteousness which is of faith," is that which we derive from Christ by inspiration, through faith in Him. The Apostle personifies, and represents the latter, as reasoning with, or answering the objections of a convinced sinner against the general method of salvation. The character supposed, seems to lie under a terrible apprehension of his own guilt and danger; and, so far to have escaped from error, as to be on the very confines of truth; yet certain cavils are secretly working in his heart. He is conscious of his guilt, and yet cannot give a cordial reception to the righteousness of faith. This prejudice against the way of salvation by faith, is not peculiar to any age or nation; it

is unlimited and universal as the depravity of man, or the dominion of the evil one. To the Jews, long wedded to the ceremonial law, it was a grievous stumbling block. "The righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ," dissolved their long enjoyed privilege as a peculiar people, God's only Church; for, "His righteousness is unto all, and upon all them that believe." It abolishes the priesthood, which they knew to be of divine origin; for, there is "no need of priests to offer oftentimes the blood of beasts, seeing Christ has, by his own blood, taken away sin," and is now the only intercessor between God and man. It made void their ceremonies and carnal ordinances, "in that they are weak and could not make the comers thereunto perfect." And, that which is most humbling to the pride of human nature, it makes self-righteousness of no effect in the great matter of justification; for, "by Christ alone, all that believe are justified."

Though we are not entangled with the trammels of Judaism, let us not suppose that we are entirely escaped from the same snares of unbelief. No: as "all men are of one blood," so they are partakers of one nature. Circumstances are changed, but Satan has a device for every age, for every people, and for Christians in every stage of their experience. Self-righteousness is the idol of every unrenewed heart; it is the strong man armed; it is the barrier to reconciliation between God and man; it is, in all its modifications, a deadly bane to holiness, happiness and salva

tion.

It is natural to a mind just roused to a sense of its danger, just emerging from darkness, to start many objections, and to raise many doubts and difficulties; but the righteousness of faith answers them all. Mark-it is faith, not reason that answers them. Reason cannot, for there are