Faith in Christ is not an exercise of the understanding merely; it is an affection of the heart. With the heart man believeth. If thou believest WITH ALL THY HEART, said Philip to the Eunuch, thou mayest be baptised. To those who believe, Christ is precious. The excellence which they see both in His person and in His work, they love. All that they know of Christ, they love. All the truth which is connected with the character and work of Christ, they love. They possess spiritual discernment of His divine excellence. They have the single eye that discovers His moral beauty. They see a loveliness in Christ and His gospel, that captivates their hearts. When the wander

ing Spouse was met by the watchmen that went about the city, and accosted with the unexpected inquiry, "What is thy beloved more than another beloved?" the reply was at hand: "My beloved is the chief among ten thousands, He is altogether lovely." Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day, and he saw it, and was glad. The pious Psalmist was enraptured with a view of His loveliness. "Thou art fairer," says he, "than the chil dren of men; grace is poured into thy lips, therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever.”

The spirit of this language is not peculiar to David or Abraham. In the dignity, purity, and amiableness of Christ's character, in the design of His mission, and in the way of salvation by His cross: every believer

sees enough to engage his sweetest and most exalted affections.

With this acquaintance with the character, and this attachment to the person of the Redeemer, the believer "receives and rests upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the gospel." He makes an implicit surrender of his immortal soul into His hands, as to One who is both able and faithful to save. The yielding up of the soul to the disposal of Christ, is an act of the mind which cannot be separated from living faith.

It is of some importance to bear in mind, that faith is the act of a lost sinner, seeking deliverance from the power and punishment of sin, toward a Being who is exhibited in the character of a Deliverer. It cannot, therefore, imply less than an application of the soul to Him who is the delivering character; the actual adventuring of this vast concern with Him; together with the hope, that with him it will be secure. Faith receives Christ; it rests upon Christ for salvation; it rests upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered in the gospel. Sensible of his ill-desert and helplessness, persuaded of the all-sufficiency of the Redeemer, the believer therefore makes a voluntary surrender of himself into the hands of Christ, to be saved upon his own terms. He is convinced of the necessity of committing his cause to better hands than his own. He relinquishes his vain confidences, and places all his hopes on

Christ. He casts himself into His arms. Lord, to whom shall I go, but to thee!

In the act of surrendering the soul into the hands of Christ, the believer takes a view of the Great Deliverer, which is as deep as his own wants, and as large as the provision that is made to supply them. He receives Christ as his Prophet, his Priest, and his King.

Is he ignorant? exposed to wander from the path? The Great Prophet is his Teacher and his guide. "The meek He will guide in judgment, the meck will He teach His way.'

Is he polluted with sin? He looks to the blood of the spotless sacrifice to be cleansed from all sin. Jesus Christ he knows gave Himself for his Church, that He might wash and cleanse it. He rests on Him; and looks for the sanctification of the spirit unto obedience only through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.

Is he guilty and condemned? No longer does he trust to his own righteousness, but looks to Jesus as the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. He yields. a condemned soul to him to be arrayed with a righteousness with which a just God. has declared himself to be ever well pleased. Ile rests upon him as the sole ground of acceptance. With all his natural attachment to his own goodness, "he counts it loss for Christ. He counts it but dung, that he. may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having his own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of. Christ, the righteousuess which is of God

by faith." This is his refuge, his crown of rejoicing. He looks to Jesus, recognizing the high relation in which He stands to His people, and the endearing name by which He is called, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Is he weak and helpless? He engages the grace of the Redeemer as his consolation and strength. To Jesus does he surrender himself as the head of all divine influences. I live, yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me. This is the language of faith. The act of the soul in surrendering itself into the hands of Christ, forms a connecting bond between him as the Vine, and the soul as the branches, which communicates life, strength, nourishment, and beauty. In a word, with a just view of the character, and a supreme attachment to the person of Christ, the believer yields himself into His hands, as a full and complete Savior. Him he receives; upon Him he rests, and rests for time and eternity. With humble joy will he tell you, "Christ is my all. I want no more. To Him do I look to be sanctified by His Spirit; to be governed by His laws; to be protected by His power; to be saved by His death; to be disposed of at His pleasure, and to be the means of promoting His glory.”

This is "to receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel." This is confidence in Jesus Christ, as a Divine Savior. You cannot possess these feelings without possessing

saving faith. This is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. This is the grace which renders invisible things visible; future things present; and enstamps the permanent idea of reality upon every thing that rests upon the testimony of God. This was the faith of Old Testament saints and New Testament saints. It is that trust in the Lord, of which we read so often in the Old Testament, which is nothing more nor less than the confidence of the new born, soul in God, as reconcileuble through the Mediator.

Thus have we seen, that faith has properties peculiar to itself. Its character is perfectly distinct from every other grace. There is no exercise of the renewed heart that views the whole gospel plan as it is, except this. Faith, from its essential nature, implies the fallen state of man, while it recognizes the principles of the covenant of grace. It is itself the condition of that covenant.* It is a grace which is alike

* When the author styles" faith a condition of the New Covenant, he does not mean, that it is the meritorious ground of acceptance with God. The covenant of grace bears no resemblance to a contract, in which the part to be performed by the believer is a niere quantum meruit. Every principle of that covenant rests upon the fact, that man is unworthy, and that salvation is all of grace. When we say, therefore, that faith is the condition the New Covenant, we mean, that faith is that act of the creature, wrought in him by the agency of the Holy Ghost, with--, out which, according to the tenor of the New Covenant, there is no salvation-It is a sine qua non.