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except it be that I myself was" with your consent, "burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong." "For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere, and without offence, till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righte ousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God."

Philadelphia, August 15th, 1816.

Sermons on Faith.

SERMON I.

THE SPIRIT OF FAITH.

"We having the same Spirit of Faith-also believe." 2 Cor. iv. 13.

PAUL frequently speaks of the Holy Ghost under the appellation of THE SAME SPIRIT. "Now there are diversities of gifts," saith he, "but the same Spirit." "For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit." 1 Cor. xii. 4, 8, 9. By the same Spirit, therefore, in the language of the text, is to be understood the Holy Ghost, for the Apostolical writings apply these terms to no other personage. "We also believe," saith the great Apostle, referring to a passage in the Psalms, and therefore speak," even as others have believed and therefore spoken; and our faith we ascribe to our "having the

*Psalm cvi. 10.

A

same Spirit of Faith," which wrought in the pious of ancient times. Now in Paul and every other child of God "worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will:" wherefore we affirm, what we conceive to be the doctrines implied in the text,

I. That the Holy Ghost actually dwells in every believer :`and

II. That every act of saving faith must be ultimately ascribed to this inhabitation.

In entering on a series of discourses on the subject of faith, it is important, in the commencement, to prove a fact to which we must make frequent reference, and by which we account for the very existence of that mental operation which "gathereth fruit unto life. eternal." Indulge me then, if I spend some time in evincing the truth of THE FIRST

PROPOSITION,

That the Holy Ghost actually dwells in every believer. The truth on this subject must be ascertained, from the word of God, and from the consciousness of the believer himself; for the operations of the Spirit on the human mind correspond with "the testimony of Jesus."

Never did our Saviour speak more explicitly, than when he said, "the COMFORTER which is the Holy Ghost," (John xiv. 26.)

dwelleth with you, and shall be in you:" never in a more literal manner, than when he

promised to send from the Father "the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father," and the Son. John xv. 26. If, therefore, the declarations and promises of Christ are true, there is an actual indwelling of God the Spirit, in the mind of a Christian. HE dwelt in the primitive disciples and abides in all who have believed through their word.

The inspired writer of the Acts of the Apostles declares, (Acts xiii. 48, and 52.) that "as many as were ordained to eternal life believed;"" and the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost." When Ananias addressed Saul of Tarsus, he said, "the Lord hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." Acts ix. 17.

"As I began to speak," said Peter, concerning his interview with Cornelius and his friends, "the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost." Acts xi. 15, 16. The apostle now perceived, that every disciple of Jesus must be baptized by the reception of the Spirit of God.

To the Corinthian Christians Paul said, "your body is the temple of THE HOLY GHOST WHICH IS IN YOU, which ye have of God." 1 Cor. vi. 19. "Know ye not that are the temple of God, and that the Spirit

ye

of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." 1 Cor. iii. 16. "What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them." 2 Cor. vi. 16. The same apostle writes to the Romans, (ch. viii. ver. 9.) "ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that DWELLETH in you." From these passages it is evident, that the Holy Ghost does actually reside in the body and spirit of a genuine Christian, so that we become in some sense one with him, for "he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." 1 Cor. vi. 17.

The word of God assures us that Jesus Christ dwells in every believer, and that this inhabitation is acccomplished by the union of the Spirit to our spirits. Christ dwells in our hearts, (Ephes. iii. 17.) through the Holy Ghost given to us, and it is by the Spirit that we are made complete in the Mediator. "Christ liveth in me," said Paul, and so did the renewing Spirit, whose office it is to apply

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