is a faith which applies wholly to the MED. righteousness of Christ, which cleanses XI. us from all sin, and renders us acceptable to God, through the great and sufficient, propitiatory sacrifice of his beloved Son.

What refuge then can the sinner find in this exposition? He rests merely in words, and deceives himself to his own destruction. Fatal are the examples which our memories can suggest, of those who, in the midst of a variety of wickedness, have imagined themselves in a state of religious safety. Some conceive that they cannot fall from a state of grace; others that the grace of God cannot be resisted. Some, that because faith is all in all in the salvation of man, works are nothing; others, that because works are indispensably neces sary, faith is nothing. How extrayagant are the opinions of men, when not restrained by rational conclu

MED. sions! Under the impression of a wild enthusiastic faith, great enormities have been committed. The blessed name of religion, nay the cross of Christ himself, has been made the banner of cruelty and signal of destruction. Murder and assassination, plunder and persecution, have often attended her steps. A false imagination that a merciful God can require, on religious motives, the blood of mortal man, has, in almost every age, called forth the tear of pity, aud the execration of the indignant. But this is not the Gospel. This is no true picture of the faithful Christian, the meek worshipper of an humble Saviour, the patient sufferer, the devoted penitent, or the resigned martyr. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle

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σε

ness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem"perance*.". *"" By their fruits ye

* Gal. v. 22.

"shall know them*.” There is a MED. consistency in pure christianity, to- XI. tally incompatible with every degree of evil, even with the appearance of evil, which marks the value of faith, in the true unadulterated sense of the expression, and sets an eternal stigma on infidelity.

O blessed Lord! when Thou comest in thy glory, shalt thou find faith on earth? Yes; however obscured her fair face may be by the machinations of wicked men, she will still be found maintaining the consistency of her celestial character. May I remain with her till that blessed hour, when all the faithful shall meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, "that we may obtain that which Thou "dost promise. Make us heartily to

*Matt. vii. 16.

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XI.

"believe what thou hast revealed,

" and to love that which thou dost "command, through Jesus Christ our "Lord."

MEDITATION XII.

IF

ROMANS X. 17.

Faith cometh by hearing:

"Christ be the end of the law to every one that believeth," as St. Paul acquaints us in words of truth and soberness, it becomes a duty equal to the attainment of our salvation, to aim at those means of perfection, which are intended by the divine will to assist us in accomplishing so invaluable a purpose. There is no royal road to knowledge. We are not to sit expecting, but to rise and meet the communica

* Rom. x. 3.

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XII.