inheritance received from their ancestors. They were born in a christian land. They drank in its truths with their first nutriment. Their parents led them to God's altar when they were too young to have gone by themselves. And, ever since, they have gone as a matter of habit and hereditary prejudice. They have no doubts of the truth of their religion. They ever hold it fast, and would feel wounded by the suggestion, that they could ever let go their hold on what their fathers before them have cleaved to so firmly. It is not to be denied that this sort of faith answers very valuable purposes, even when it is alone, unfortified by the deductions of our own reason, and operating in its narrowest sphere. It keeps a man in many good habits which infidelity would destroy. It saves him from the fatal consequences which attend a withdrawing from christian society and the contempt of christian institutions. It carries him to the church where his fathers worshipped, and his appearance in the accustomed pew is a weekly support to truth, because it countenances those who come there from more earnest motives. In a word, if hereditary faith does not always make a man a good Christian, it may hinder him from being a bitter enemy to the gospel; if it does not make him an intelligent advocate and hearty disciple, it keeps him in the way to become both. Such a faith implies more or less of a religious education, and may be supposed to carry with it some of the fruits of such a culture, and, so far as morals are concerned, almost always does produce effects not seen among such as reject Christianity.

Stil we are not to appropriate the promises of the Gospel to such a birth belief. It must be followed by a personal acknowledgment of the claims of christian truth

in maturer years, to possess the qualities of christian faith, and be entitled to its rewards. One must not only believe because he was brought up to believe, but from a conviction in his own mind, produced by means used by himself. To rest in a mere hereditary knowledge of religion, is to show no better a disposition than did those Jews who opposed Christ, from a similar motive. It is not to believe, as did the early disciples who renounced their birth faith, to embrace that which Jesus taught them. It is not to believe like Paul, who gave up all the fruits of education, and all the friends of his youth, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord.

Again, there is a belief of custom and fashion. The christian cause has the outward respect and the pecuniary aid of many, who know almost nothing about its real claims. They follow the multitude. It is what every one approves. Governments countenance it. Society cherishes it. To be a Christian is popular. To deny Christianity would be to swim against the tide. They are content with what satisfies the rest of the world. For such an adherence to our religion we can feel no great respect, although it is certainly better than no adherence at all. But when we recollect that once Christianity was not the favored faith, that they who sought popularity had no readier method to attain it than by persecuting the Christians, we can imagine what might have been the character of those, who now from a similar motive call themselves believers, had they lived in that earlier age. If it was fashionable and customary to abjure the Saviour now, we could hope to detain none of these at his cross.

Again there is a Faith of Reason, which is not to be

confounded with that to which these promises apply. This kind of belief consists in the assent of the understanding to truth, after investigating the evidences of it. The inquiry which leads to it is of the same sort exactly, as that instituted on any other subject of general knowledge. It is a mere scientific concern. Christianity lies among a host of other opinions in the mind, and reaches no farther than the judgment. In this manner a mathematical is placed on a par with a christian theorem, and the one exerts little less influence on practice than the other. This species of belief is however in one view, of great worth. It lays a solid foundation for something more efficient. It gives the preacher of duty a hold on the conscience of him who possesses it. The subject of religion will oftener be brought into the mind where this speculative assent exists. It will exclude those licentious opinions which do so much injury to the morals. It is highly important as a part of that great mass of testimony, on which the public rely as corroborative of the truth of religion. It can hardly exist in any ingenuous mind without leading to such occasional reflections as may produce at length a saving faith. But so long as this remains alone, it entitles the individual possessing it to expect nothing which is promised as the reward of belief in Christ; for, standing by itself, what merit has it? There is no fair mind which could easily refuse its assent now to the truth of Christianity. How different the situation of a man in the quiet of unmolested, safe study, assenting to the gospel, giving up nothing for the sake of it, losing, not the smallest comfort, making not the least effort in its behalf, and living just as if he believed it not, from that of the early disciples !

Saving Faith is that which arises from a conviction of spiritual wants, and the power of the gospel to supply those wants. It is not merely yielding to the force of evidence, but heartily embracing the truth which is proved by it. Christ dwells in the heart by faith. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. He who possesses such a belief, goes to the New Testament, not as to a repository of facts, an interesting history, or a well-written book, not to store his memory, to please his imagination, to exercise his judgment, to gratify his taste-but as the thirsty traveller to the pure fountain, as a sick man to the physician, as a dying man to death's destroyer. The attractions of the sacred scriptures for him, are their instructions, hopes, and promises. He feels that there is a correspondence between the desires of his soul and the doctrine of Jesus. He perceives in the character of his Lord, that beauty of holiness which delights him, that celestial purity which it makes him better to contemplate. He finds that there is salvation in that blessed volume -pardon-peace-undying hope-eternal joy. He feels within himself that he needs all these: that he is a sinner —a sufferer—a mortal-unto whom shall he go then if not to Christ? He believes that this Saviour came from God, for he has a witness in his own soul, of the truth of what he says, and the worth of what he promises. He gradually strengthens his faith by experiencing the blessed effects of it upon his heart and life. He draws from the scriptures his spiritual nourishment and comfort. He finds that the more closely he follows their directions the better he is, and the happier. He sits at Jesus' feet, and all his cares are soothed, his inward strife is hushed, his fears are quelled, his doubts are scattered, his thoughts

are tranquil; his heart melts with tenderness; he resolves to do good; he ceases to desire a guilty pleasure. Heaven opens above him, and the love of God is shed abroad within him. All that is excellent in his nature is awakened. All that is evil dies away. He yields up himself to God through Christ-he trusts-he submitshe obeys. And think you he can be torn from such a Saviour, without a struggle? Or is there aught which would tempt him to exchange such a faith for any other? His understanding was convinced by evidence; his heart turns that conviction into faith-and that faith becomes a principle continually operating to make him devout, benevolent, upright, zealous in good works.

It will be seen from this description that the belief it represents is of the nature of a sentiment or affection. It widely differs from belief abstractedly considered, as an intellectual principle. We believe a multitude of truths in which we have no concern whatever-from which we can derive no benefit, and which inspire no hope or confidence. We have a thousand notions, opinions, conjectures, which may be true or may be false, but which in no way touch our feelings or influence our conduct. Christian faith implies a particular interest in the object of it, reliance upon the character of that object, and certain expectations founded upon that reliMany have such a faith and hold it with a firmness which nothing can shake, who are unacquainted with the course of reasoning, by which the truth of Christianity is proved to the understanding. They are as perfectly convinced of its truth, as if they had gone through the most laborious investigation of arguments, and yet never argued on the subject in their lives. Their belief

ance.