of the elements which is not anchored "within the veil!" No, Brethren, there is no peace nor quietness but from Faith in God: there is no preservative from dread anticipation, and hourly perplexity, but in this one truth which Faith assures to us :-God is my Father-God has called me to himself in Christ Jesus-God has blotted out my sins-God regards me as his child, yea, with a true paternal fondness of endearment He regards me!—and therefore God will care for me, watch over me-make all things work together for my good. The only argument for the future is from the actual experience of the past; the only light which can brighten the dim expanse of time that stretches out before the awe-struck mind, dark, troubled, and tumultuous, is that light which has streamed from the countenance of Jesus on the believing heart, and which is thence reflected onward over all the future life. Why was Paul enabled to triumph in the midst of trouble, and be assured that all would yet be well? Because "the love of God had been shed abroad in his heart,”—the divine pardon and favour had been assured to him,-" by the Holy Ghost given to him." Why, amidst tribulation, and distress, and persecution, and famine, and nakedness, and peril, and sword, was he more

than conqueror? Because he knew that "Christ had loved him, yea, had died for him; yea, rather, had risen again; yea, more, was even at the right hand of God, making intercession for him." And with what argument would he quell the fears of his Roman converts, and animate their minds, but this? "If children, then heirs heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." For, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? -for, whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,"-i. e. the likeness of his glory ;" and whom He did predestinate, them He also called ; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom he justified, them He also glorified." "Faith," says our Homily again, "is a true trust and confidence that God will make us inheritors with Christ of his everlasting kingdom; and that in the mean time, until that kingdom come, He will be our protector and defender in all perils and dangers, whatsoever do chance; and that though sometimes He do send us sharp adversity, yet that evermore He will be a loving Father to us, correcting us, indeed, for our sin, but not withdrawing his mercy finally from us, if we trust in Him, and commit ourselves wholly

unto Him, hang only upon Him, and call upon Him, ready to obey and serve Him."

Here, then, is the triumph of Faith: it gives us quietness and assurance for ever it makes us tranquil in the midst of uncertainty: calm, though involved in ignorance of the future: peaceful, though altogether helpless in ourselves. Is there a feeling, Brethren, more delightful than that of entire dependance? Is there any thing more tranquillizing than to say, I have nothing, I am nothing, I know nothing, I can do nothing: but, if God be for me, what can be against me? I am poor and needy, but the Lord careth for me. Whom have I in heaven but Thee; and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee! This is what St. Paul emphatically calls the peace of God which passeth all understanding: which is "careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving" — without fear, without hurried trepidation, without trembling anxiety, but with a calm and tranquil and thankful spirit—" makes our requests known to God;" communicates our wants; and leaves the rest to Him. Would to God, Brethren, this were our spirit! Would that we rose up more into the privileges which are ours by adoption and grace; and as we are children of God in Christ Jesus, that we had the spirit of

a child, to trust unceasingly in his forgiving love, his favour, his paternal care! Thus should we know, what personal experience alone can teach us, the value of this animating sentiment which lived in Paul;-and thus should we adopt with thankful hearts the words of one who knew this faith by this same means, experience:*

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Blessed, for ever blessed, be that mother's child, whose faith has made him the child of God. The earth may shake; the pillars of the world may tremble under us; the countenance of the heaven may be appalled; the sun may lose his light, the moon her beauty, the stars their glory; but concerning the man that trusteth in God, what is there in the world that shall change his heart, overthrow his faith, alter his affection towards God, or the affection of God to him?-No! I know in whom I have believed I am not ignorant whose precious blood hath been shed for me. I have a Shepherd full of kindness, full of care, and full of power; unto Him I commit myself. The assurance of my hope I will labour to keep as a jewel unto the end, and by labour, through the gracious mediation of his prayer, I shall keep it."

* Hooker.

SERMON IX.

FAITH, THE SOURCE OF GOOD WORKS.

JAMES ii. 22.

Seest thou how Faith wrought with his works: and by works was faith made perfect?

THE Source of all error is the disjoining and making single those things which can be understood only in connection, and in their relative position. In our anxiety to contemplate some one object as a separate and independent whole, we forget that nothing in nature or in providence, nothing in experience or in theory, is separate and independent, but every thing is closely and essentially interwoven with all other things; every thing has its antecedent, and its consequent; its cause, and its effect: nothing has a positive value; every thing is relative: nothing can be judged of, or even understood,