unto me, and be ye saved," &c. Charming sounds! what a Day-spring from on high herein visited our wretched world! what a blessed hope is inspired within us! "This is the promise that he hath promised us, eternal life.... and this life is in his Son." And this comprehends every blessing connected with it: pardon, renovation, sanctification, provision of temporal good, and a safe passage through death to glory. The promises were first given to Christ, and they are sealed and ratified by his death. Through him they are proposed indefinitely to sinners of mankind; and they are a firm ground of consolation to all who believe. Sometimes they are styled the Gospel; and "blessed is the people that know the joyful sound." Sometimes they are represented as legacies bequeathed in the testament of a deceased Friend. Sometimes they are spoken of as articles comprehended in a covenant or free grant of privileges, solemnly confirmed and ratified. The objects of this rich and everlasting mercy, while in their natural state, cannot be distinguished by mortal eye, though their names are all written in the Lamb's book of life. But they will be distinguished by the regards they pay to these overtures of mercy. Others may admit the veracity of the Scriptures, and be well skilled in religion as a science; they may give their assent to all important truths as matters of speculation; but the sheep of Christ alone hear and know the voice of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls in the Gospel. Their hearts crave the experience of the sal

vation revealed, as one perishing with hunger and thirst craves bread or water: they believe with the heart, and earnestly desire the blessing contained in the promises, as their chiefest good, willing to account all things but loss if they may but win Christ and be found in him. They follow Christ as his disciples, with lowly teachable minds, to be instructed by him; as wretched sinners, to be justified by his righteousness, and sanctified and filled with his Spirit; and as devoted subjects, to know and do their Redeemer's will, and find protection and delight under the shadow of his wings. How instructive is the representation of the faith of the patriarchs! They had not received the promises; they had not seen Christ, the sum of them, come in the flesh; "but having seen them afar off, they were persuaded of them, and embraced them, &c." What a beautiful gradation! They saw the promised blessings. afar off; they were persuaded of them; they embraced them; and then they practically and habitually applied themselves to seek the possession of them. How descriptive of the heart and life of a believer! While to carnal minds, the blessings of salvation are so far off, that they see nothing of their excellence, He has his mind enlightened to behold their attractive glory. Faith is the eye by which to see the king in his beauty a spiritual apprehension, a supernatural capacity to see spiritual and heavenly things.-The sphere of Nature's brightest capacity lies far below these exalted objects. Represent to the natural man,

the awful state of an unbelieving sinner, and urge him to flee from the wrath to come; tell him of the love of Christ, and the glory of Heaven; alas! hẹ has no heart to weigh these representations:-he can see things that are near; he can see and magnify the riches, the honours, and the pleasures of the world; but he depreciates Christ, and the great things of the Gospel, as some would depreciate the glory of the sun, and, for the same reason, because they are very far off. But" in thy light they shall see light." Faith is the evidence of things not seen; it pierces through the interposing heavens, and sees him that is invisible; it represents the grace of Christ by an inexpressible kind of evidence, and thus "works by love," awakens desire, and wins the soul to the obedience of Christ. When a man is enabled with spiritual discernment to see these glorious objects, he feels a firin persuasion of the reality of them, and of their sufficiency; he can believe there grace in the heart of such a Saviour, that there is merit enough in such a Sacrifice, that there is light and warmth in so glorious a Sun, and truth in such a God. Charmed, as well as persuaded of the excellence and sufficiency of these things, his very heart embraces them, his soul stretches its arms abroad, and cries," My Lord and my God!" "Whom have I in Heaven but thee?" &c. Then, his practical conversation demonstrates the reality and the divinity of his faith; he confesseth himself a stranger and pilgrim on the earth; his soul no longer

is

cleaves to the dust; "his treasure is in heaven," and there his heart is also: as he has received Christ Jesus the Lord, so he walks in him: His Name is as ointment poured forth; and, constrained by love to him, he is prepared alike for service or suffering. His faith purifies the heart and overcomes the world. And how pleasant and encouraging is it to behold the stedfastness with which the people of God have held their faith! The life they lived was by faith. By faith in the blood of Christ, in opposition to the works of the law, NewTestament believers have sought their justification; and hence their sanctification and consolation. They have lived by faith, in opposition to sense. The happiness they chose lay above the world, and beyond it: their conversation was in heaven: they loved the Word of God as their food, and their feast, and their treasure; they loved the people of God, because they loved Christ, and were led by his Spirit; and they loved ordinances, because in them they could sometimes get a glimpse of heaven; and to crown all, they died in the faith. They had nothing to fear in death, nothing from sin, nothing from Satan, for body or soul. They had much to hope for beyond death: they had a faithful promise, from the Lord of life and death, of life and glory that should never end; and his rod, and his staff, that had sustained and directed them so often and so long, now afforded them peculiar support. Under these circumstances, they could loose from earth, in

cheerful confidence of gaining the end of their faith, the heaven of everlasting rest. How sweetly did they speak to surrounding friends, of "the Angel that redeemed them from all evil!" "I die, but God will be with you; and then said, with a soul filled with the peace of God that passeth all understanding, "Into thine hands I commit my spirit." Precious faith! my very soul congratulates my dear children who "have obtained like precious faith." "Lord, increase our faith." What happiness when it shall be lost in vision! May this bear your hearts above the world, and sustain you under every burden!

LETTER IX.

TO MASTER B

J. BOWDEN.

Tooting, Dec. 22, 1808.

MY DEAR GRANDSON,

I OFTEN think of you with tender affection, and of your dear brother; and you may suppose that I felt an increasing solicitude, when I heard of your late illness, from which I hope you are now recovered. It is an occasion of great satisfaction to me, that Providence has placed you where you are favoured with the most important advantages. In addition to these, I hope you have found it good