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could we ever feel sure that we had done enough to propitiate an angry God, and to secure eternal life? But "the God of love and peace," a promises eternal life to simple faith, in order that, as soon as we "repent" and "believe the gospel," we may, like the Ethiopian eunuch, go on our "way rejoicing," and perform the service of filial love and gratitude, not that of slavish fear and dread. For true faith necessarily implies a cordial belief and hearty reception of this brief epitome of the gospel, "Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price" (even "with the precious blood of Christ "d); "therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." And if this evidence be wanting, no mere profession of faith will save you ; "for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God;"ƒ and, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." g Thus our twelfth article states that "good works" are "the fruits of faith," and "do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith; insomuch that by them a true and lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit." So that to whomsoever the righteousness of justification is imputed, to him the righteousness of sanctification is also imparted in some measure and degree, however small (in some cases) that may be. Our right and title to eternal life rest entirely on what Christ

a 2 Cor. xiii. 11.

b Mark i. 15. c Acts viii. 39. e 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. f Rom. viii. 14.

d1 Peter i. 19. g Ver. 9.

rather is identical with, a general susceptibility of all the appliances God uses for our improvement. Faith is the evidence of things not seen,' because, when it comes, the power of things not seen is fitly felt; as when, upon the dawn of a spring day, the earth throws off the mask of darkness, and responds to all the vivifying agencies of light and warmth and air and dew. Faith, then, the grand means by which the glorious God becomes our God, is a good and intimately sanctifying means; and that it is also an intimately consoling means, must be evident from its simplicity. Had it been said, 'God shall be your God upon your repentance and renewed obedience,' then the very dispositions which were most anxious to enjoy his rest would have been cast the farthest from it; for the quality and number of their sorrows and works would have been more fully seen by them to be insufficient, the more they laboured to please God, by extracting clean things from unclean. But, in believing there is a joy and peace' from which none are excluded, there is hope even for the vilest outcast that, from the dark tempest of his own misdoings, he may thus enter into the rest of God; there is liberty for the poorest peasant's youngest child to look above, and, with the first lispings of its voice, to call God, 'Father.'"

out tear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of" their "life."a Were a legal obedience the ground of our acceptance, it would cause, through our continual short-comings, such fear and bondage as would completely paralyze all love and zeal toward God (see Rom. vii. 7-13; 1 Jno. iv. 17, 18). For how

a Luke i. 74, 75.

Faith is the very first act of Evangelical obedience (John vi. 28, 29) which man can perform; and it is precious in the sight of God inasmuch as "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 hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (1 John v. 10, 11). Now as "the Lord looketh on the heart," (1 Sam. xvi. 7,) he knoweth whether a man thus believes or not. The "peaceable fruits" of such faith are thus described by the Apostle, "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear : because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us." (1 John iii. 16-19.) The following passage from a beautifully written work, "Beulah ; or the Rest of Man in the Rest of God," by the Rev. C. I. Yorke, (published by Hatchard; and also by the Religious Tract Society,) will help to illustrate this subject: "The love of God is the eternal chain which alone binds together in happiness all intellectual creatures: the knowledge of God is the knowledge of that essential goodness in which the human spirit was constituted to delight. In a word, God is both its author and its end; and it is out of its native element, lone, fatherless, and forsaken, until it is reunited unto him. But how is this re-union to be effected? By means which God has himself devised, and which are of such a nature, that they most effectually anchor the soul in that resting-place which, veiled from the world by the mists of folly, is nevertheless the only one for angels or for men. Faith in Christ is the general means for accomplishing this re-union: Ye believe in God:' said Christ, believe also in me.' Without faith in Christ there is no connection between a glorious God and a miserable sinner; or rather the connection is like that between a debtor and his creditor, a criminal and his judge, a rebel and his king. But Christ, infinitely glorifying the just sovereignty of God by the vastness of his propitiation, unites to God all those who are spiritually united with himself. And this spiritual union-the union of the conscience, the affection, and the judgment, the union of the whole inner man-is faith. Faith and the profession of a creed have, indeed, by some men been confounded; and thus they have expressed apprehensions lest the bonds of moral obligation should be loosened. No mistake can be more enormous. True faith and this profession are precisely the opposites to each other. The latter is nothing but a shadow and a name, empty and superficial: it may make men formalists or bigots, but can never make them children of God. But the former being a spiritual union with Christ, perfect in kind though varying in degree, must of necessity produce, or

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could we ever feel sure that we had done enough to propitiate an angry God, and to secure eternal life? But "the God of love and peace," a promises eternal life to simple faith, in order that, as soon as we "repent" and "believe the gospel," we may, like the Ethiopian eunuch, go on our "way rejoicing," and perform the service of filial love and gratitude, not that of slavish fear and dread. For true faith necessarily implies a cordial belief and hearty reception of this brief epitome of the gospel, "Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price" (even "with the precious blood of Christ "d); "therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." And if this evidence be wanting, no mere profession of faith will save you; "for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God;"ƒ and, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." g Thus our twelfth article states that "good works" are "the fruits of faith," and "do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith; insomuch that by them a true and lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit." So that to whomsoever the righteousness of justification is imputed, to him the righteousness of sanctification is also imparted in some measure and degree, however small (in some cases) that may be. Our right and title to eternal life rest entirely on what Christ

a 2 Cor. xiii. 11. b Mark i. 15. c Acts viii. 39. e 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. f Rom. viii. 14.

d1 Peter i. 19. g Ver. 9.

rather is identical with, a general susceptibility of all the appliances God uses for our improvement. 'Faith is the evidence of things not seen,' because, when it comes, the power of things not seen is fitly felt; as when, upon the dawn of a spring day, the earth throws off the mask of darkness, and responds to all the vivifying agencies of light and warmth and air and dew. Faith, then, the grand means by which the glorious God becomes our God, is a good and intimately sanctifying means; and that it is also an intimately consoling means, must be evident from its simplicity. Had it been said, 'God shall be your God upon your repentance and renewed obedience,' then the very dispositions which were most anxious to enjoy his rest would have been cast the farthest from it; for the quality and number of their sorrows and works would have been more fully seen by them to be insufficient, the more they laboured to please God, by extracting clean things from unclean. But, in believing there is a joy and peace' from which none are excluded, there is hope even for the vilest outcast that, from the dark tempest of his own misdoings, he may thus enter into the rest of God; there is liberty for the poorest peasant's youngest child to look above, and, with the first lispings of its voice, to call God, 'Father.'"

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has done for us. But the works of the penitent believer in Christ, flowing from faith, and wrought "through the power of the Holy Ghost,"a from love to his Saviour, are evidences of his faith, and prove his title. Those who are "justified from sin " are always sanctified, or made holy also, "through the power of the Holy Ghost," in order to make them capable of enjoying that eternal life which has been purchased for them by Christ. Our future happiness will be proportionate to our present holiness (see Luke xix. 11–27): though the reward will be not of merit, but of grace; "for we are" God's "workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."d And "therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." But remember daily to contemplate Christ crucified, and diligently to seek the Holy Spirit's aid, or you cannot advance a single step in the path of holiness; "Now, the just shall live by faith: but, if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him," saith the Lord. We may briefly, then, sum up the subject in one sentence: Christ is the meritorious cause; faith the appointed instrument; and works are the declarative evidence of our justification.

In conclusion, let me observe that it is a solemn truth, brethren, that every one of you must contribute to God's glory in one of two ways-either by a willing submission to God by faith in Christ leading to a service of filial love, or by the enactments of a violated law and the sentence of an offended judge. "O taste, and see that the Lord is good ;" and, when the terrors of a guilty conscience alarm you, look "unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."h But lose no time, lest tomorrow may be too late. Take the advice of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury in the eleventh century, which is as follows:*

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The writer begs to acknowledge that for this quotation from Anselm he is indebted to the concluding portion of a sermon on Heb. xiii, 10, by the Rev. Dr. Jeune, in the Church of England Magazine for 1845, vol. xix. No 534. The

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"Thou believest that thou canst be saved only by the death of Christ. Come, then, while thou hast breath, place thy trust in this death; place confidence in nothing else; to this death commit thyself wholly; in this death array thyself all over; mingle thy whole self in this death; nail thy whole self to it; wrap thy whole self in it. And, if the Lord shall seek to judge thee, say, Lord, I interpose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy judgment: on other terms I contend not with thee.' And if he shall say, 'I will judge thee because thou art a sinner,' reply, Lord, I interpose between thee and my sins the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.' If he shall say, 'Thou hast deserved damnation,' reply, 'Lord, I hold out the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my ill-deserts. I offer his merits in lieu of the merits which I ought to have, and have not.' If he shall say that he is wrath with thee, reply, 'Lord, I hold between me and thy wrath the death of my Lord Jesus Christ.'" May God of his infinite mercy grant, beloved brethren, that every one of us may be partakers of such faith! May we all live in the constant and habitual exercise of faith in Christ, so that we may be able to say and to feel with the Apostle, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."

a Rom. v. 1, 2.

quotation will be found at p. 45 of that number. It seems such a suitable and practical illustration of justifying faith, that its repetition will, it is hoped, be excused. Anselm was consecrated to the See of Canterbury Dec. 4, 1093, and died April 11, 1109. (See Bishop Godwin's "De Præsulibus," pp. 62 and 67, Edit. 1743.)

*It may not be out of place here to observe, that there is a consoling doctrine, which, (it is to be feared) is too often overlooked and forgotten by many Christians. It is this, that the future "judge of quick and dead" is none other than the same merciful Saviour who once died upon the cross for sinful man, and who now appears in the presence of God for his people; a subject to which pointed reference is made in the preaching of St. Peter at Cesarea. (See Acts x. 42, 43.) The penitent Christian derives great comfort from the thought that in the coming Judge, he will find the same Divine Saviour who has already been his comfort, his guide, and his support, during the course of his earthly pilgrimage. (Heb. iv. 14-16). And how great must be the consolation in life's

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