confider them, whether renewed or otherwife; for that is the man himself who waits. If it be faid, that it is the gospel of Christ, and the light which that brings into the mind; the gofpel is indeed the ministration and the minister of the Spirit; it is by it that the gift of the Spirit is made, notified, and conveyed; and by it, as the powerful creating word of God, the Spirit conveys life, and all the powers of life, to the dead finner; fupports, maintains, and carries it on to perfection; being indeed the principle and fpring of all vital actings, that is, of all that are really and fpiritually good: and when this Spirit is either with-held or withdrawn from the word of the gofpel, it is really as dead a letter, and as weak and ineffectual, as the law itfelf; but the Chriftian, through the influence of, this Spirit, is kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto falvation.

On this plan the Apoftle gives us a complete fyftem of the Chriftian religion in one fentence, confifting only of two articles, and which he gives in two words, viz. faith and love: for thus, he fays, that as things fland in Christ Jefus, these are

all;

all; and nothing else can answer any purpofe. He mentions indeed only circumcifion and uncircumcifion but as he had faid, that those who were circumcifed ftood bound to all the duties and obfervations injoined by the law; all that man can do in obedience to any or all the commands of God are taken in under it. The exception the Apoftle makes of faith working by love, as the only thing that can be of any use, confirms this conftruction as strongly as if he had said in exprefs terms, that in Christ Jefus nothing can avail any man but that faith which worketh by love.

Here again we are led away by a set of teachers very near of kin to thofe the Apostle and his Galatians had to do with, from the perfon of Chrift, and union with him in one Spirit, to the word of the goSpel, and the ftate of those who live under it. Be it fo: What will be the confequence? The gospel is the teftimony which God hath given concerning his Son Jefus Christ; and therefore Christ in the gospel must be the fame Chrift who suffered at Jerufalem, and now fits on the right hand of the majesty on high, with all power and authority in heaven and earth. The gospel

ftate, then, where-ever it is believed and acquiefced in, must be the fame with what our Lord calls being in, and abiding in himself; and which he affures us is abfolutely neceffary; because without him, or feparated and apart from him, we can (even the apoftles themselves could) no more do any thing, than the branches can bring forth fruit, unless they abide in the vine."

Hence then arifes the abfolute neceffity and ufe of faith in the Christian life; which, if it was but tolerably understood, the world would ceafe wondering why the minifters of Chrift, inftead of giving lectures of morality, and inculcating focial duties, infift fo much on faith or belie ying the teftimony of God about his Son. It might be a fufficient apology for them, that the Apostle Paul fet the example; for he determined to know nothing among the Corinthians but Jefus Chrift, and him crucified: and he had great good reason; for he is the way, the truth, and the life. So that no man can come unto the Father but by him. And if there is any truth in him that can be depended on, no man can much as know the Father, but fuch as manifefts him to. But he who hath feen

fo

he

him

him hath feen the Father; for he is the perfect image of the invifible God: and, which is more, the Father is in him, and he in the Father, in fuch a manner, that one cannot be feen without the other: and, which is yet more to us, by fending him to be the Saviour of the world, God has difplayed his true character, and what we have either to hope or fear from the great creator and proprietor of the universe. As therefore it is only by the teftimony and record which he has made concerning his Son that we can know any thing of him, the neceffity of faith can never be too ftrongly inculcated: for if the teftimony is not believed and acquiefced in, it can be of no more ufe to us than if it had never been given, unless it is to increase our condemnation: For thus we find it stated by the very truth itfelf: This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darknefs rather than light.

But the neceffity, and what is more, the incomparable worth and excellency of faith will further appear from its ufe, and the great purposes which it is defigned to anfwer, and most certainly does answer, where-ever it is real and unfeigned;

which, in one word, is to produce univerfal holiness in heart and life: For the Apoftle fays, it works, and works by love; and love, we are well affured, is the fulfilling of the whole law. So much as there is love, fo much hóliness, and no more: and perfect love is perfect holiness; for he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God. And if we can perceive how faith works love, and works by it, we will perceive the whole mystery of Christianity, that hidden wifdom, which God hath ordained before the world for our glory.

ef

When the Apostle fays faith works, his intention, in this place, is not fo much to diftinguish it from what James calls a dead faith, which indeed is no faith at all, as to describe the true nature, and what very may very properly be called the fence of it; that it is an active principle, which cannot be idle fo much as a moment, unless it is marred and hindered by fome counterbalance, as he tells us downward, that the flesh lufteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

No body needs be told what believing is: but it will be very neceffary to be told what it is we are to believe; and it will

readily