to a holy and religious life; there is the hope of future blessedness in heaven; there is the fear of a miserable eternity in hell; there is the positive command of God; there is the excellent and lovely nature of Christian piety and morality; there is the consideration of God's all-seeing eye; there is the general goodness and kindness of God towards us; there is the imitation of God's divine nature; there is the perfect pattern and example of Christ; there is peace and tranquility of conscience; there is even our temporal interest and welfare, which are best and most effectually secured by virtuous conduct; all these are by turns proposed as motives that should influence us to the performance of the practical duties of Christianity; and all ought to have their proper places assigned to them, and their due weight attached to them, both by the preacher in enforcing these doctrines, and by Christians in general, in applying to the practice of them. But these alone are comparatively of inferior force and obligation, and are certainly quite defective, as viewed in connection with the Christian scheme. There remains to be mentioned one motive more powerful than all, more peculiarly Christian than all, and therefore more important than all, and that is Faith in the Incarnation and Atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You require not now to be informed, (at least on the present occasion, I shall suppose none of you to be ignorant of those two prime doctrines of our holy religion,) that our acceptance with God is due solely to the meritorious obedience, and death of our blessed Redeemer, and that faith is the mean, through which this great mercy is communicated to each of us individually, and made our own. This latter doctrine is no less important than the former; for in vain has Christ died for us, or opened the door of salvation to us, if we are not in real fact ultimately saved.

What then is required of us in order to this great end? God has done His part in the free dispensation of His grace; what remains on ours, to render that grace personally available and effectual? only to give it a hearty and sincere reception. And how is this to be done? Through faith by firmly believing that it has really been bestowed. So the Scriptures plainly and constantly assert; "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." " By grace ye are saved, through faith." "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through

our Lord Jesus Christ." "Ye are all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Here is sufficient authority for the fact that it is through faith (not on account of faith, as the meritorious cause, but through faith, as the mean) that justification and salvation are conveyed to us, and received by us. Why not through obedience to God's commandments? For two reasons; one, because in that case we should be inclined to think that we were to be saved by our own goodness, than which nothing can be farther from the truth; the other, because faith is the most powerful motive to obedience, the very fountain and origin of all other Christian principles and virtues. It includes all other motives within itself; in fact, it produces them, and gives them an activity and efficacy which they would not otherwise possess. It serves, moreover, as a bond of union to them all, combining them together, so that they shall not act in an irregular, unconnected way, as so many separate and distinct impulses, but that their whole collected force shall bear upon the heart at once, and subdue it by an irresistible power. These are the reasons why faith is so highly spoken of, why it is made the grand instrument and mean of our salvation? But what faith? Surely not the mere belief that a certain man, like ourselves,

was commissioned to reveal a new religion to the world; it would be exaggeration so to describe such a faith, or to attribute so great a power to it; but faith in the truth of that doctrine which I set before you in my former discourse, that He who came upon earth to make known the will of God, and to suffer death in our behalf, was not a mere man like ourselves, but the eternal, wellbeloved, and only-begotten Son of God himself, "in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." This is the faith to which such mighty efficacy is ascribed; and I will endeavour now to make you see, with how good reason it is so commended, and exalted above all other principles and motives.

I will consider this subject in the order, in which it appears to me that ideas would arise in the mind of a man, who should suddenly and without any previous preparation, be convinced of the truth of the doctrine.

He would naturally enquire first, what was the cause of this wonderful undertaking? There must have been some most important object proposed, which could persuade the Son of God to leave the glory that he had with the Father before the foundation of the world, and take upon him the form of a man, nay of a servant, and in that form to become obedient unto death,

even the death of the cross! The cause, he would be told, was the sinfulness of mankind, "your own sins individually." God so abhors sin, that this was the only way in which he would receive satisfaction for it. Since no human being was able to expiate simply his own offences, much less those of any other man, least of all, those of the whole world, God exacted the whole penalty of his own Son, who for that purpose assumed human nature, and was made in the likeness of sinful man, that at least the same nature which had transgressed, might also suffer for the transgression. "Alas then, the man might exclaim, what grievous sinners we must be! and myself no less than the rest! I had before been under a wrong impression on this subject; I had before thought myself upon the whole a person of very fair and respectable character, possessed of many good feelings and praiseworthy qualities, infirm indeed, and irresolute, and inconsistent, and often acting in opposition to my better knowledge, but still such an one as God might look upon with favour, and make great allowances for, in consideration of the frail and imperfect nature which I inherited at my birth. But now I behold myself in quite another light; I perceive that God must be of purer eyes than to regard my sinfulness with indifference; I must in my