sat easily upon them,-its holy nature galled their sinful hearts, they wished for a system which would reconcile the practice of sin with a profession of piety, and the hope of escaping hell, and getting to heaven at last, and in this state they were prepared to receive any representation of the Gospel, however false, that met their desires. In this awful and hardened condition God permitted in righteous judgment the most erroneous doctrines to be taught, and to such delusions they gave themselves up, and so perished in their sins. But the apostle thanked God that his brethren had not thus continued to hear the truth without cordially embracing it, but had, on the contrary, through the grace of God, been chosen, or separated from the world, unto the sal vation of Christ; which is effected through sanctification of the spirit, and belief of the truth. The Spirit of God had opened their minds to perceive the glory of the Gospel, and had changed their hearts; and so separated them from the world, and called them into the holy and blessed kingdom of the Saviour.

Peter addresses his Christian brethren as "elect," or chosen, and called out of the world, and brought into the fellowship of the kingdom of Christ, by sanctification or regeneration of the Spirit, in order to obedience, and through the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, in order to a change of state; according to the foreknowledge of God. 1 Peter i. 2.

There are two great fellowships, or communities in the world :-At the head of the one is Christ, and at the head of the other Satan. All mankind naturally belong to the latter. The members of the former have been called out of the kingdom of the wicked one for the purpose of being conformed to the character of God; and hence are required to be holy, as he who hath called them is holy. As a pardoned people, through the blood of sprinkling, they are separated from the mass of

niteid te boold edt to guildninga ed deuordt bus PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE NECESSITY OF FAITH, 0119101 903 of 10093 State to sensio & of Tsh AND OF THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT

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God the instrument by which the Spirit acts His influences the 97ffuit of pure Grace The proper use of the doctrine, nolsd Tot eno booty odt to moboni 9ds to tuo bellso use MY DEAR FRIEND, of bones spried to sound with You must often have reflected on the necessity

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which faith is produced. These are subjects prominently exhibited in Scripture, and worthy of the most serious attention. With a view to aid your meditations, allow me to suggest to you some general reflections, bearing particularly on certain practical mistakes in regard to them.

Man fell through disbelieving the declarations of God, and believing the falsehoods of the tempter; and we are saved through the belief of a truth, confirmed by evidence from Heaven, and comprehending all that is necessary for us in our present situation. There is, therefore, in some respects a correspondence between the way in which sin was introduced and that in which we are delivered from its influence. baci

It is worthy, therefore, of particular attention, that though the death of Christ is the ground on which the blessing of forgiveness is bestowed, the faith of the Divine testimoný regarding it is the medium through which it is communicated. It is easy to see how for"giveness is connected with the death of Christ, because it has magnified and made honourable the law of God, and has made atonement for sin. But why connect it with faith in it? Had all intended been our forgiveness, there had been no great necessity for connecting it with faith, for as the atonement is perfectly finished without us, faith cannot add to it. But the great object in view is to deliver us from sin itself, and to bring us to love the true character of God, to delight in him, to enjoy what he enjoys, and to place our happiness in the enjoyment of his favour and fellowship; in doing his will, knowing and admiring his excellencies, and in being assimilated to him. Faith, then, is connected with forgiveness, because our spiritual health can be obtained in no other way. However important and glorious the Gospel is in itself it cannot change our views and principles unless it be believed. We can

not love God in his true character without knowing and believing what he has revealed himself to be. Obedience may, indeed, be yielded under the impulse of fear, or from a regard to character in the world, but this cannot be acceptable, it must spring from love.

It is not enough that we love a God of our own imagination, which is not to love God, but to love an idol of our own framing. We must be brought to love the character of God, as revealed by himself; and to this we cannot be brought without faith in the revelation he has given in the Gospel. We cannot believe in this exhibition of the Divine character till we know it,-we cannot know it in its real glory without loving and admiring it,—and we cannot love and admire it without imitating it; and thus it is that we become like to it. There is nothing mystical in this, it is quite analogous to what we see in other things every day. The influence of faith in Divine truth is agreeable to the influence of belief in common life. In every case faith is a principle producing some practical effect, and not something abstract, suspending activity. We are diligent because we believe that this is the way to success-we labour for knowledge, because we believe it will yield pleasure or profit-we use medicines when sick because we believe it will remove or alleviate our disorder-we are attached to a friend, because we believe in his excellencies, and that he is attached to us we esteem a person of worth, because we are persuaded of the excellencies of his character and deportment-we fear when we believe we are in danger; and in like manner we are grateful to God when we believe in his love to us; and we esteem and admire the wondrous and delightful excellencies of his character when the revelation of his kindness and glory, as exhibited in the Gospel, is believed.

True holiness in its principle, and in its result good

works, is the fruit and the token of faith in the Gospel. Its doctrines are in themselves practical, though such as are blind to their true glory may treat them as they do, as matters of mere speculation, There were men of old who said that they were fraught with the pernicious sentiment, that evil may be done that good may come; but this was opposed most decidedly, and the holy tendency of the truth most clearly evinced. Rom. iii. 9; and vi. 15-22. It is the power of God to salvation from the dominion of because therein is God's method of justification by faith revealed, in order to be believed. Rom. i. 16, 17. Acts xv. 9. Such is its nature, that when believed, a mighty influence is exerted on the heart, by which it triumphs over that rebellious principle which rules in our nature. He who believes it has his eyes opened to its unutterable loveliness; so that while his affections are captivated, corruption receives its death-blow, and sinks beneath the power of the cross,

It is evident from this, that in the very nature of things the blessings of salvation must be limited to such as believe in Christ; for in no other way can the mind be conformed to the character of God, and so fitted for the enjoyment of spiritual blessings. The limitation, then, is not an arbitrary one, so far as a change of mind is concerned: And even the connection between pardon and faith, though in certain respects arbitrary, is not so in all. This connection being admirably fitted to illustrate the important truth, that salvation is not of works of law, but of pure unmerited favour, Rom. iv. 16, and so to exhibit the nature of the plan of reconciliation, is of course calculated to bring us under the transforming influence of the great object of our belief. We say of a gift, you may have it by asking for it, or by taking it; and the Gospel says, God is already well pleased in Christ, so you may have

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