explored. In heaven, thou wilt see, as much as thou canst bear and enjoy ; but thou wilt not see all: Thy God will comprehend thee, and all the blest, with happiness and splendor; while he himself can be comprehended of none.

And while thou art a prisoner in the body, remember, dear Christian, that thou art an heir of God by adoption, and a cobeir with Christ Jesus in love. Walk worthy of this bigh vocation, with which thou art called: Walk, like the king's son, and not like a slave of the devil. The eyes of all, are upon thee: The eye of the world, to censure thee; the eye of Satan, to distress thee; the eye of the church, to be edified by thee; the eye of angels, to glorify God for thee; the eye of Christ, to intercede in thy behalf; and the all-seeing eye of JEHOVAH, to whom thou criest, Abba, Father, to protect and bless thee. Walk and speak among men, as in the presence of God; and the presence of God will be known in thy closet, and in thy soul. Say to thyself; "I am adopt"ed into God's family, and from being an execrable slave, "am made his freeman, his son, and his heir. I am entitled, "through my redeeming Lord, my Friend and my Brother, to "all the privileges of grace, set forth in his declared will; "I have tasted some of these privileges, as an unperishing "earnest of an unperishable inheritance; and I am assured, "that I shall have full possession in the best time, and for evermore. What then becomes me? What ought such a "person to do? How ought he to think, and speak, and live? "LORD! I am ashamed of myself; I am covered with con"fusion and abasement, that I, for whom thou hast done so "much, am living and doing so little for thee! I bow my soul "before thee, in deep contrition, and acknowledge, with all "compunction of spirit, that I am vile and ungrateful, and "that, if thy mercy did not endure for ever, it could not "have endured to put up with so base a worm as me, with "such long-suffering and grace. I own, that if thy good"ness had lasted no longer than my deserts; I should "have lost thy goodness, in the moment thou didst be"stow it upon me! O pity my weakness, which Thou "knewest from my birth, and which thou understandest "better than I do myself; and suit all the mercies of "thy holy adoption, to my various occasions and thine own glory. I only know and feel, that I would be thine "and none but thine for ever: And this sense and knowlege "thy grace alone conveyed to my heart; for by nature I ne"ver found them there. Cause me, therefore, to live as be

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An heathen could say, Sic loquendum est cum hominibus tanquam Dii audiant. "Men ought to speak with men, as though God were to hear. MACROB. Sat. 1. i. c. 7.

"cometh thy gospel, my own happiness, and my everlasting, my unchangeable relation to thee. Cause me to live more " and more like one, who hath a title and a hope to live, with an innumerable company of holy beings, with an holy JEsus, and with thee my holy and my heavenly Father, for 66 ever and ever. O let it never be said, that my tongue and

my life are at variance; lest I conclude against myself, "that thou and I never were agreed, that I am not thine a"dopted child, but only a presumptuous pretender to an in"heritance entirely unmeet for me.-I fall down before thy "throne: O make me to be, what thou wouldest have me to "be; and let me be that to all eternity!"

Whoever thou art, that canst utter this cry, take courage and peace: It is the voice of the SPIRIT of adoption within thee. O go on, and prosper: The LORD enlighten thee, and give thee peace; give thee every earnest of his blessing, every first-fruit of his glory below, and, in his own time which is the best time for thee, an abundant entrance into bis everlasting kingdom! Amen.

That GOD should lift an boly creature
From earth to reign with him above,
Would shew, were such in human nature,
A vast transcendency of love.

But when his grace a traitor blesses,
With the full title of an heir,
To his own kingdom and caresses,-
O who can tell, what love is there!

*

SPIRIT OF FAITH.

FAITH is supposed to have various acceptations in the

word of God, which may easily be reduced to one plain definition. But faith, emphatically so called, or saving faith, wrought in the heart by the regeneration of the Spirit of God, is what we mean to treat of in this Essay, and what we understand to be particularly designed for the character of its divine agent, in this title of SPIRIT OF FAITH.

To understand with precision the terms used in Scripture, we must recur to that sacred language, in which they were originally delivered. It is held fair and just in all other books

to take the author's own words; but it is of the greatest importance in reading the Book of God, to see the exactness and force with which all things are expressed. The word faith is derived from the root amen, which signifies, to fix, or rest, as upon a foundation, to confide that a thing is according to a representetion given, firmly to trust and desire, that a matter is and shall be agreeable to the promise and assurance proposed concerning it. When the prayers were ended to God, or the promises given from God, the antient church used to say Amen to them; that is, we believe that these things are gracious and true, and we desire their fulfillment. The Christian church, in all countries, has retained this Hebrew word for the same use: And the primitive Christian church, who spoke the Greek language, employed the nearest word they had to express the same idea. Tsis, faith, infers the persuasion and agreement of the mind and will, that a thing is to be received and desired as true: And the Latin fides is taken from two words, which nearly express the sense of Amen, fiat dictum, i. e. “Be it so, according as it is spoken."

We see then that faith regards truth, and cannot exist without it, any more than a house can stand without a foundation. And truth is that existing substance which agrees or is correlative with the idea or persuasion of its existence, named faith. When we say, a thing is; we mean the truth of its being: The belief, that it is, arises from the agreement of the mind with that truth, when the mind is exercised upon it. Thus, be that cometh to God, must believe that He is. That God exists, is the truth; and the agreement or persuasion of the mind is the faith, which influences the man to come unto God.

Truth, then, is the proper foundation for all credibility; and God's truth the only foundation of Christian credibility, or faith. There can be no foundation without truth; and, consequently, no faith without this foundation.

But the foundation must be laid; that is, the truth must be published, or faith cannot rest upon it. God, therefore, hath revealed and published his truth, which, before his revelation of it, must have been bid in himself as its proper essence.

When this truth is published, it is not absolutely essential to the agreement of the mind or to the concurrence of faith, that the truth should be fully comprehended, either in the extent or in the manner of its existence; because, in such a case, the mind of a man could properly believe little or nothing. We know not the mode of being in any natural substances; and if full comprehension were essential to faith, we could not receive much of the revelation of God, because we cannot explain some of its mysteries; such, for instance

as the revealed account of God's existence, the doctrine of the incarnation, and some other points which, at least in this world, will ever be the mysteries of faith. Nay, we could not believe much concerning our own nature, and very little indeed, or rather nothing, concerning the state of our future being.t

As all truth proceeds from God: he is, and he calls him, self, THE TRUTH emphatically: He is the source of all reality. What therefore proceeds from him, must be true; and thus the matters, which he hath declared or done, are manifestations or revelations of his truth ad extra, or to his people, and as such are to be received by them. What is communicable (even though it be not fully comprehensible) of this truth, belongs to them to whom he extends it. This extension, in spiritual things, is now given through his written word; as formerly (in the wisest arrangement) it was by vocal prophecy, or other sensible communication. In both, however, it was only understood, as well in order as degree, according to the will of the giver. John xvi. 12. Mark iv. 33. Prov. iv. 18.

Hence, these manifestations or revelations, in the word, are real and immoveable TRUTHS necessary and credible, for us, with us, and in us.

They proceed from Him, as their cause; are effected by Him as their agent; and tend to Him as their end.

They descend for us, as grounds of our faith; are with us, for strengthening our hope; and remain experimentally in us, as the means or earnest used for our salvation.

When we say us, we mean all the elect people of God." In this view, the apostle says, that the house of God is the church of the living God, συλος και έδρωμα which some translate, pillar and ground, others better, the station and seat of the truth.§ 1 Tim. iii. 15. God is the truth; and so subordi

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† Dr. JONATHAN EDWARDS, in his valuable Preservative against Socinianism, justly observes, "That in matters of faith, we must be content with God's affirmation, whether we do or do not compre"hend those divine truths, which he hath revealed. Which com66 prehension ought to be of no regard in these matters; it being "extrinsical to the true and formal reason of believing; which is "not resolved into the evidence of the thing [i. e. as it exists in "itself,] but into the authority of God, and the truth and certainty of "his revelations." Part iii. p. 56.

DR. GUYSE, upon the place, takes the pillar and ground of the truth here to mean the truth of the gospel, or Christ in it. But this supposition seems to destroy the present allusion of the apostle, and is not warranted by the construction of the language. 'Tis probable, if the apostle had written in Hebrew, he would have used, for Vol. II.

C c

nately are the revelations from him: The church is the column raised upon this truth as upon its its proper foundation, and is also the seat or place where all these revelations concentrate, and where only, as to application, they will ever be found. There is no column or pillar which will be acknowledged out of the temple of the living God; because this temple is the only edifice upon earth which is founded upon the truth of God. His testimonies are now, and always were, within the sanctuary, and in the tabernacle, which God pitched and not man. The apostle alluded to the structure of the outward temple, and of those columns in it, which bear the very name of faith in the original language, and are no unapt symbols of it. For, as the material columns rested upon the rock Moriah, or boly mountain; so the faith of the church collectively, and of every individual in it, stands upon that truth, which God hath revealed in Christ, who hath framed them as a spiritual temple for his glory. Eph. ii. 22. Rev. iii. 12.

From this ground of faith, and from its name, both imparted by God; we may be able to form a just idea of faith itself, and to consider it, as that gift of grace to the soul, by which it stands upon the truth of God, for the attainment of those blessings, which that truth promises and reveals.

If God hath threatened; faith believes, that the threat shall be accomplished: If he hath promised; it is persuaded also, that the promise shall be fulfilled. Hence it turns away from the evil which is the ground of the threat, and appropriates the good which the promise discovers. Faith credits the blessings upon the foundation of God's word and promise, and claims those blessings for its own, only because God hath engaged to bestow them. As this grace of faith cannot build upon mere notions, or upon any thing imperfect as to its certainty, but requires a sure foundation; so God hath provided this foundation in himself. He hath given his word, as so much communicable truth from himself, on which faith may ground itself; and thus ultimately it reaches to and rests upon up God himself. The word reveals Christ, declares the grace of the spirit and the love of the Father, and discovers so much of their covenant-engagements for sinners, as is necessary for the knowledge of their salvation. Accordingly, the word contains the promises of an hap

the Greek words abovementioned, Opp nxn the column [viewing the mental sense] and place of all God's truth among men. For this reason, the psalmist desired, as the one thing needful, to dwell in the house of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. Ps. xxvii. 4. Christ is certainly the foundation; but these words appear te mean something upon it.