repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to day, and for ever," in the truth of his promise, as well as the immutability of his nature. Sooner shall heaven and earth pass away, than one jot or tittle of his word shall fail of its accomplishment.

you

8. Let these truths be impressed on your mind, and, as a perishing sinner, flee to Christ, and believe in him, and shall be saved. With this part of my address, at first view you may be somewhat startled. It may appear to you like a command to perform an impossibility. Had you been called simply to observe the use of means, and to leave the issue to God; you would have deemed this perfectly reasonable. But to require you to believe in Christ, you may account a hard saying,-a charge altogether unreasonable. And, like many, you may be disposed to treat it with neglect, and to assign as your reason for such conduct," I cannot believe in Christ."

Let me caution you, my dear reader, to beware of satisfying yourself with such an argument for disobeying a divine commandment. Look to your Bible. What saith the scriptures on this subject? When the awakened and trembling keeper of the prison at Philippi cried to Paul and Silas, "What shall I do to be saved?" what was their answer? They addressed to him the very same charge which I have given to you, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved."+ And in similar terms our glorious

Redeemer expressed himself to the blind and unbelieving Jews,-"While ye have the light, (plainly meaning himself, the light of the world) believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light."* It is, therefore, the duty of every sinner who hears the gospel, to believe in Christ; and the neglect of it, by wilfully continuing in unbelief, subjects to condemnation. "He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."+ Your plainly commanded duty is to believe God's record concerning eternal life through his Son; and nothing short of this is required of you. The use of means, it is true, is also your duty; and, without these, you cannot at all believe in Christ. You must first have read, or heard, the record which you are to believe, and must understand its meaning. "How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher ?" But you are not to sit down satisfied with the use of means; and, after you have carefully studied what you are called to believe, to say, in language which is too common,-" I can do no more: I must wait till the Spirit of God enable me to believe." With such a sentiment as this you are not to satisfy your conscience, and quietly to remain at ease, as if no blame attached to you, after you have used means, notwithstanding you are still in unbelief. Nay, verily, while this is your condition, you are chargeable with the most aggravated

* John xii. 36.

+ Mark xvi. 16.

+ Rom. x. 14.

your

sin, the sin of discrediting God's testimony, and that in a matter which involves all for eternity. While you continue in unbelief, that very unbelief is your greatest sin.—What is it, I ask you, that hinders you from believing in Christ? You dare not say that it is any physical or natural inability, for in this case unbelief could not be your sin. An infant, or an idiot, is naturally unable to believe, and therefore cannot be charged with unbelief. But your inability is of a moral kind. It is neither less nor more than your unwillingness to believe, the aversion of your heart to the truth. You love the darkness, and you hate the light. You will not truly admit the soul-humbling conviction that you are undone for eternity, unless you be saved by Christ.You yourself being judge, I ask therefore, Is not this criminal! Is it not opposition of heart to God's matchless love in the gift of his Son, and indifference to your own spiritual and eternal interests?

That the agency of the Holy Spirit is necessary to remove this opposition and enmity of heart to divine truth, I readily admit. His work it is to enlighten the understanding to see the mighty, the infinite importance of God's testimony in the gospel; and in connection with this, to remove the opposition of the will, and to excite to a prompt and cordial compliance with the call of Christ. And it were well if you were deeply convinced that you are eternally undone, unless you experience his illuminating and renewing operations in your soul. It would be a hopeful symptom that you are not far from deliver

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ance. But what I wish here to impress on your mind is, that the want of these does not exempt you from blame. Your unbelief is your sin, while you continue under it, and a sin of the most deeply aggravated nature; and your imperative duty is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

To prevent, or to remove misapprehensions respecting the nature of faith, it may be proper to state here, that it means simply, the belief of the truth. The terms faith and believing are used by the writers of the sacred Scriptures, in the very same acceptation, when applied to divine things, as when they refer to the things of this world. The difference arises from the things which are to be believed, and not from the act of the mind in believing them. In the one case it is the things of God,-divine truth, supported by a divine and infallible testimony. And in the other, it is the things of men, attested by evidence which is merely human. The act of the mind in believing both the one and the other, is the same : it is crediting a testimony which we account true.— Nor is it any objection to this simple view of faith, that the inspired penmen sometimes speak of "believing with the heart," and "with all the heart." These phrases mean nothing more than sincere, unfeigned, and cordial believing; in opposition to insincere, feigned, and hypocritical pretensions to believing.

According to this plain statement, to believe in Christ,

means unfeignedly to credit God's testimony concerning him, as the Saviour of sinners. This

I

lear

includes the belief of your own guilty and perishing
condition, of God's compassion and love to our race,
manifested in the gift of his Son,-of Christ's su-
preme Deity, and his assumption of human nature,
that he might be fitted to obey and suffer for our
redemption, of the infinite value of his sacrifice,
and God's acceptance of it as the ground of pardon
and eternal life,-and of his ability and willingness
freely to bestow these blessings, on every one who
trusts in him for their attainment.-Now, what can
be more reasonable than that you should believe all
this, on the testimony of the God of truth, who can-
not lie? And what can be more unreasonable and
criminal than to refuse to believe it? Is not this to
treat the manifold wisdom of God in the scheme of
redemption, as if it were foolishness?
impeach his veracity, as if it were unworthy of your
credit? Is it not to trifle with your dearest interests
for eternity, and to reject the only way of salvation?

Is it not to

Here, however, I wish it to be distinctly understood and carefully remembered, that though faith in Christ consists in unfeignedly crediting God's testimony concerning him as the Saviour of sinners; yet it is not simply a cold, and passive, and barren assent to this truth, as when we believe a common historical fact. On the contrary, faith in Christ is accompanied with the deepest and most lively interest. The whole soul is aroused to activity. All the powers of the mind are awakened, and their energies directed to, and concentrated in, the attainment of salvation. Nor can it be otherwise. It arises out