his heart is inspired with a love to the law of God after the inner man." Considered as a transcript of the divine perfections, as an expression of [God's] immaculate holiness, as the instrument of his sanctification, it is the object of his devoted attachment. The dispositions which it enforces are wrought into his heart; the inward bias of his mind is directed towards the holiness which it prescribes; and so intense is his approbation of all its requisitions, that the least alteration in it would give him pain. He longs not to have the standard of duty reduced to his level, but to have his own heart raised to its elevation. He would not wish for a law which connived at impurity, which commanded any thing short of moral perfection. [Its] immaculate holiness, to him, forms its principal attraction.

It is also entitled to our warmest attachment, on account of its beneficial tendency; it is adapted, in the highest degree, to correct every moral irregularity, and to diffuse order and happiness throughout the whole creation. In proportion as it is obeyed, it never fails to insure the "peaceable fruits of righteousness."

Hence those passionate expressions of attachment to the holy precepts of God, which abound in the writings of David, and particularly in the 119th Psalm. "O how love I thy law!" "My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgements at all times." "I will speak of thy testimonies before kings, and will not be ashamed: and I will delight myself in thy commandments,

which I have loved. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate on thy statutes."

Its precepts may often do violence to the inclinations of flesh and blood, may often urge to laborious duties and painful sacrifices; sinful pleasures may be [desired], which unsanctified natures find as difficult to part with, as to "cut off a right hand, or to pluck out a right eye;" but still the manifest equity of its requisitions, and their evident subserviency to our best, our eternal interest, is such, that they are cordially approved. A congeniality of mind with the tenor of the divine precepts is experienced; whence arises a practical compliance, not so much the fruit of necessity, as the effect of inward vital principle. Herein is fulfilled the gracious declaration of the new covenant-" But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people."* This is the great work of the Spirit on the souls of the faithful, the seal of God on the heart of his servants, and the distinguishing feature in the character of his children. Their love to the law produces grief at seeing it violated. "Horror hath taken hold upon me, because of the wicked that forsake thy law."† 5. In a good man, this attachment to the law of God, and to the rules of duty, is progressive, *Jer. xxxi. 33. † Psalm cxix. 53.

and, with every accession of religious experience, becomes more vigorous and confirmed. The farther he advances in his christian course, the more deeply he is convinced that his prosperity is inseparably allied to obedience, that his spiritual enjoyments rise or fall in proportion as he walks more or less closely with his God. "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee."*

"Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way which thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea."†

II. Its effects on his character and conduct: "none of his steps shall slide." His steps shall not fatally slide; he shall maintain a uniform and зonsistent deportment.

1. The violence of temptation shall not overpower him.

2. The suddenness of it shall not surprise him. 3. The deceitfulness of it shall not seduce him. 4. The example of the multitude shall not prevail.

*Psalm lxxxi. 13, 14, 16.

+ Isa. xlviii. 17, 18.

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XXII.

ON PRAYER FOR THE INCREASE OF FAITH.

Luke xvii. 5.—And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

We have here an example of prayer addressed to Christ; which implies an acknowledgement of his divinity, since it is a received principle of scripture that God only is the proper object of prayer.

It is the more deserving of our attention on account of its being a prayer for a spiritual blessing, and that a blessing of prime importance; nor could it, with any propriety, be presented to one who was not conceived to have immediate access to the mind. However wavering or confused the apprehension the apostles entertained of Christ's personal dignity might be, during the continuance of his ministry on earth, it seems evident, from this instance, that there were seasons when they felt a lively conviction of his divinity, under which they ascribed to him a sovereign power over the heart.

From the reply which our Saviour makes to this petition, it is probable it more immediately respected that faith of miracles with which the apostles were, in some measure, endued, and which was greatly strengthened and enlarged after the day of Pentecost. The weakness of that faith they had, on some occasions, experienced, when persons afflicted with maladies were brought to

them, and they were not able to effect their cure.* A circumstance of this nature, it is possible, had recently occurred, which gave rise to this request.

Whatever particular species of faith might be designed in the words of the apostle, now before us, we shall beg leave to consider faith, in the present discourse, in its more ordinary acceptation, in which it denotes a persuasion of divine truth, founded on the testimony, and produced by the Spirit, of God.

The faith of which we shall speak is that cordial assent to the testimony of God, which distinguishes all regenerate persons, and which is defined by St. Paul," The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."+ Faith, in the New Testament, is applied solely to the exercise of the mind on the divine testimony. It denotes a reliance on the veracity and faithfulness of God; his veracity respecting the truth of what he has affirmed, his faithfulness in the accomplishment of what he has promised. Hence it differs from sense and reason. Of the objects of the former we gain a knowledge by immediate experience, by their direct impressions on the bodily organs; of those which fall within the province of the latter, we arrive at a conviction, by a process of argument more or less simple. Faith, on the contrary, is a reliance on the truth of what God has declared, simply because he has declared it. It implies a revelation of his mind and will; and the principle † Heb. xi. 1.

Luke ix. 40.