MEDITATION X.

LUKE Xvii. 5.

Lord! Increase our Faith.

IF, by the mercy and tender compas- MED. sion of God, the eye of our understand- x. ing has begun to be opened that it may discern spiritual things, does it not excite in our hearts a warm affection to be introduced to a further revelation of the divine will, and a more ardent desire not to stop short in the great work of our salvation? Something, we trust, by the divine grace, has been accomplished; but we must not run rashly into a blaze of light, or puff ourselves up with presumptuous expectations. I do not mean by this expression to check the hand of him that knocks, or

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MED. to think that any man can be overwhelmed by the glory of the Almighty. The Lord fashions the heart to his own purposes; but the influence and operation of God's reviving dispensation are manifested in general by a gradual disclosure of his divine principles. I would not absolutely infer that there are sudden transformations of the mind, no instantaneous impulse when conviction seems to flash upon the understanding, and to arrest the sinner in the midst of his pollutions. But in ordinary cases God tempers the eye to its own light. It is a Paul only who is struck to the ground by an effulgence beyond the natural brightness of the sun, and by an immediate revelation of the presence of the Saviour. Divine Providence for the most part operates to perfection by progressive steps, and that for the most wise and conclusive reasons-to reject or controul the presumptuous and the bold, to cherish and to encourage the humble and the contrite. He, who

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scattereth the proud in the imagination MED. of their hearts, hath declared that "he "will dwell with him that is of a con"trite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive "the heart of the contrites ones*."

This argument will be a cordial to your hearts, ye sorrowful and distressed! who are now suffering for your sins, and have begun to feel the impression of the grace of God. While ye were pursuing the mad career of vanity, and indulging in the excess of folly and sin, ye felt no remorse, ye experienced no friendly reproof of conscience, ye saw no God, ye desired no Saviour. But since ye have now come to yourselves, like the penitent prodigal in the Gospel, a ray of chearful hope darts upon your minds; and I am called upon to admonish you in the words of an apostle to grow in grace, and in the know"ledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus

*Isaiah lvii. 15.

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"Christ*." It is a symptom of a returning spirit and an opening faith, that ye can now distinguish your own sins, and feel encouraged to apply to the fountain of all wisdom for that purifying water which can wash you clean. It is a proof that you are in the way of salvation, when you perceive in yourselves the smallest degree of growth in christian righteousness, a readiness to accept, and a sensible pleasure in receiving, the kindly and refreshing dews of Divine grace. Nourish this spiritual perception with all your care. It is the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and wafts you forward to higher, and still more eminent, degrees of perfection. "Paul planteth, Apollos watereth, but "God giveth the increase."

The kingdom of heaven, the gospelstate, has been compared to the gradual progress, and increase, of a grain of mustard-seed. The pure seed, first en

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trusted to a favorable soil, begins to ve- MED. getate; the plant soon appears; and, being watered by the vernal shower, expands itself into stalk and leaves, and at length becomes a fruitful tree. This is a correct and beautiful delineation of a Christian's growth in grace; and, being deduced from the words of Christ himself, affords a reviving encouragement to the returning sinner. If it check a presuming mind or mitigate the rapture of enthusiasm, it promotes those feelings, which, though they may be slow in their first approaches, are more sure in their progress, and more confirmed in their consequences. The seed sown would perish without nurture, the plant springing would be blighted by a severe and inclement sky, the tree far advanced towards perfection would wither and decay without a genial climate and a fostering moisture, the natural principles of vegetative life, The moral analogy of this allusion is too