fect stranger. But the writings of St. Paul, whose definition of faith you have just cited, are generally looked upon as remarkably dark and mysterious: I wish you had rather quoted St. John.

Believer. I doubt, sir, whether you will gain any thing by such an appeal. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ," saith St. John, " is born of God. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John v. 1, 4, 5. You perceive, sir, that, according to this apostle, faith is a principle of grace and power sufficiently forcible and victorious to regenerate and make us partakers of the divine nature, enabling us to triumph equally over the most seducing, as well as the most afflicting, occurrences in the world. Have you obtained, or have you even sought, the faith of which such excellent things are spoken?

Neighbour.-You embarrass me. I never heard the least intimation of such a faith in this country.

Believer.-Indeed, sir, you are in an error; since this very faith is plainly set forth in the Helvetic Confession, chapter xvi. "The Christian faith," say the pious ministers who composed that work, "is not a mere human opinion or persuasion, but a state of full assurance; it not only gives a constant and clear assent to, but also comprehends and embraces, the truths of God, as proposed to us in the apostles' creed. The soul by this act unites itself to God as to its only, eternal, and sovereign good, and to Jesus Christ as the centre of all the promises." Have you, then, this divine persuasion, this full assurance, of the truths of our holy religion? And have you experienced this act, by which the soul is united to God, through Christ, as to its sovereign good?

Neighbour. I have, undoubtedly, a persuasion that the word of God is true; but how may I absolutely determine whether or no I am a possessor of the faith of which you speak?

Believer.-If you are possessed of faith, you have some experimental knowledge of those happy effects of that grace which are thus enumerated in the same Confession :

"True faith restores peace to the conscience. It procures a free access to God, enabling us both to approach him with confidence, and to obtain from him the things we need. It retains us in the path of obedience, enduing us with power to fulfil our several duties both to God and to our neighbour. It maintains our patience in adversity; and disposes us, at all times, to a sincere confession of our confidence. To sum up all in a single word, it produces every good work. Let it be observed," says the same Confession, "that we do not here speak of a pretended faith, which is vain, ineffectual, and dead; but of a living, effectual, and vivifying faith. This is a doctrine which St. James cannot be understood to combat, seeing he speaks of a vain and presumptuous confidence, of which some were known to boast, while they had not Christ living in them by means of faith."

expres

Neighbour. "Christ living in them by means of faith!" I pray, sir, what is to be understood by this sion? I do not comprehend the thing. But, if I recollect, I shall have an opportunity, in a few hours, of mentioning the matter to our pastor, whom I expect here this evening, to make up a party at cards.

The true believer, after thanking his worldly neighbour for the patience with which he had listened to his conversation, took his leave and withdrew, apprehending every evil consequence from the decision of a pastor who was known to indulge a taste for play and vain amusement. His fears were too well founded. The minister, true to his engagement, arrived at the appointed hour, and the gentleman thus eagerly addressed him: "I have been receiving some singular advice from a person of a very unaccountable turn, who appears to agree either with the mystics or the pietists. He spoke much of faith; asserting that all true Christians are really regenerate, and that they have Christ living in them by faith. What think you, sir, of such assertions as these?" "I will tell you freely," replied the minister, "that these abstruse points of doctrine are among those profound mysteries which neither you nor I are appointed to fathom. It is usual with enthusiasts to speak in this manner; but such

mystic jargon is now out of season. There have been ages in which divines were accustomed to speculate concerning this faith, and publicly to insist upon it in their sermons. But in an age like this, enlightened by sound philosophy and learned discoveries, we no longer admit what we cannot comprehend. I advise you, as a friend, to leave these idle subtilties close shut up in the unintelligible volumes of our ancient theologists. The only material thing is, to conduct ourselves as honest men. If we receive revelation in a general sense, and have good works to produce, there can be no doubt but that our faith is of the proper kind, and highly acceptable before God." To this short discourse the card-table succeeded, which served to strengthen the bands of intimacy between the careless clergyman and his deluded neighbour; so perfectly alike were their faith and their manners.

The circumstances alluded to in the above relation are not imaginary; and there is every reason to fear, that circumstances of the same nature are no less common in other Christian countries, than in that which gave birth to the writer of these pages.

Thus the worldly minister, instead of preaching this important doctrine in its purity, seeks to destroy even the curiosity which would engage an irreligious man to inquire into the necessity, the nature, the origin, and the effects of evangelical faith. And while the generality of those who are required to publish this victorious grace are seen to reject it with contempt, no wonder that the true minister esteems himself obliged to contend for it with increasing earnestness, both in public and in private. Jude 3.

To close this section: when the Christian minister proclaims salvation by faith, he adheres not only to the holy scriptures, but also to those public confessions of faith which are in common use among the churches of Christ. "We believe," say the churches of France, "that everything necessary to our salvation was revealed and offered to us in Christ, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption."" Article

xiii.

"We believe that we are made partakers of righ

teousness by faith alone; since it is said, that he," Christ, “suffered in order to procure salvation for us, and that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish." Article xx. "We believe that we are illuminated by faith, through the secret grace of the Holy Spirit." Article xxi. "We believe that, by this faith, we are regenerated to newness of life, being by nature in bondage to sin. So that faith, instead of cooling in us the desire of living righteously and godly, naturally tends to excite such desire, and necessarily produces every good work." Article xxii.

Such also is the doctrine of the Helvetic Confession : "We believe, with St. Paul, that sinful man is justified by faith alone in Jesus Christ, and not by the law. Faith receives Jesus, who is our righteousness; and on this account justification is attributed to faith. That by

means of faith we receive Jesus Christ, he himself has taught us in the gospel, where he significantly uses the terms applied to eating for believing; for, as by eating we receive bodily nourishment, so by believing we are made partakers of Christ." Chapter xv. "Man is not regenerated by faith, that he should continue in a state of indolence, but rather that he should apply himself without ceasing to the performance of those things which are useful and good; since the Lord hath said, ' Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit.' Matt. vii. 19. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.' John xv. 5."

The church of England expresses herself in the following terms upon salvation by faith, and the good works produced by that faith: "We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works and deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort." Article xi. "Good works do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit." Article xii.

THE TRUE MINISTER GOES ON TO ANNOUNCE A LIVELY HOPE.

"GODLINESS with contentment is great gain ;" 1 Tim. vi. 6; and the pastor who is possessed of so invaluable a blessing cannot be backward in soliciting all within the circle of his acquaintance to share it with him. Happy in the enjoyment of that precious secret which enables him to rejoice without ceasing, he readily communicates it to the afflicted by leading them to that lively hope which consoles and sustains the heart of every believer.

In a world where the bitterness of evil is continually increasing, where we discover the scourges of a God who will not fail to chastise his rebellious creatures; where disappointment and death successively deprive us of our dearest comforts; and where the forerunners of death are continually weakening all our imperfect enjoyments;—in such a world it is evident that the most exalted pleasure we are capable of must spring from a well-grounded hope of those immortal joys which are reserved for the righteous. The language of mortality is too feeble to describe either the power or the sweetness of such an hope. Here we can only cry out, with the Psalmist, "O taste and see how gracious the Lord is," Psalm xxxiv. 8, in providing so potent a cordial for those who are travelling through a vale of tears.

The lively hope which gives birth to a believer's felicity is one of the most exhilarating fruits of his faith, and is inseparably connected with it; since true "faith is the substance of things hoped for." In proportion as the truths and promises upon which faith is founded are evidenced and apprehended, such will be the hope with which that faith is accompanied. If Moses then, by the faith which he professed, was enabled to renounce the prospect of an earthly crown, with the hope of obtaining a more glorious inheritance; if he esteemed "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, having respect unto the recompence of reward;" Heb. xi. 26; what may not be expected from an hope founded upon those precious promises which have been