true temple of Christ; adorn and furnish that—offer gifts to that receive Christ into it."* Herein consists the sum and marrow of our religion, namely, a heart totally dedicated unto God; and that is the second help to get a treasure in the heart.

3. Live by faith upon Jesus Christ. The lively acting of faith upon the Mediator of the covenant, will fill your souls with saving and savoury incomes. God hath appointed Christ to be the storehouse of his church. Now faith is the hand to fetch supplies from Christ to the heart. By faith is the soul engrafted into this true olive, and sucks fatness from it.† Christ dwells in the heart by faith, ‡ and still more of Christ is fetched in by faith. All the means of a Christian's life is by the exercise of faith; therefore is the righteous said to live by his faith, because it lives and feeds the soul upon Christ. Faith empties the heart, and so makes room for Jesus Christ, and then lays hold of him and compels him to turn into the heart. And our dear Saviour is willingly conquered with the strength of faith. Faith is the key that opens the chest where treasures lie, and the hand that brings them into the heart. Faith opens the heart to receive riches of grace, and that man hath a closed heart that hath not the key of faith. O, get a great measure of faith! for the more faith you have the richer you are; for faith itself is a precious treasure, and it doth all for enriching the soul. Truths cannot be a treasure in our minds to profit our hearts, except mixed with this precious ingredient, faith. § All graces of the

* Verum Christi templum anima credentis est, illam exorna, illam vesti, illi offer donaria, in illâ Christum suscipe.-Hieron. ad Paulin. tom. 1. p. 105. + Rom. xi. 17, 20. Eph. iii. 17.

|| Cor clausum habet, qui clavem fidei non habet. § Heb. iv. 2. 2 Pet. i. 5.

spirit attend this queen and sovereign grace of faith. Experiences cannot be gathered or improved without faith, and that comfort is but a fancy that is not ushered in by the assurance of faith. Faith is the great bucket to draw water out of the wells of salvation, and the more faith you bring, the more you receive.* Well then, would you have your hearts stored with a treasure? strive to increase your faith, and let the Lord Jesus be the direct object of your faith. It is he alone that hath the key of David, that doth both open heaven to us, and a heavenly treasure for us. Since the fall us.† we have no converse with God, or communication from him, but through a mediator. "It is a terrible thing," said Luther, "even to think of God out of Christ." You must "honour the Son as you honour the Father," and as you believe in God, so must you also act faith upon Christ God-man ;-that as our nature in Christ's person is filled with all that poor souls can want, so from that fulness we may receive all things needful for our being and well-being in grace. O, stir up and awake your faith! Come, poor soul, reach hither thy hand of faith," and thrust it into thy Saviour's pierced side," and there thou mayest feel, and thence fetch abundant fruits of love: "Be not faithless but believing." Do not dam up the channels of grace by unbelief. Do not forsake thy own mercies, by being shy and fearful to venture; thou canst lose nothing,-thou mayest get much by one single act of faith. O, sirs, one pure act of a lively faith will bring you in more treasure, than many hours tugging and struggling in duties and performances. Nothing in the world doth shoot a bar, and bolt the door betwixt Christ and the

* Quantum illuc fidei capacis afferimus, tantum inde gratiæ inundantis haurimus.-Cyp. Epist. ad Horat. p. 108.

heart, but unbelief; if thou canst believe all things are possible, but unbelief hinders the working of miracles* and operations of grace. Away with all distrust, set afoot the precious grace of faith,-break through the quarrelings of thy unbelieving heart,-lie low under the sad sense of thine insufficiency, and sweet apprehension of Christ's all-sufficiency. Humbly stretch forth the trembling hand of thy weak faith, though thou hast many misgivings of spirit,-yet say, with tears, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." I am no more able of myself to put forth one saving act of justifying faith, than I am to fulfil all righteousness, and keep the whole law;-but the grace of the gospel hath undertaken to do that which it requireth to be done. Lord, I roll myself upon thee. I come to thee by faith. Do not cast me off. Do not cast me out as a broken vessel, wherein there is no pleasure, but fill this empty vessel of my broken heart with abundant incomes, which will redound to thy glory, and my soul's abundant comfort. This do and prosper,—thus believe, and be thou filled, poor, wanting soul, "For whatsoever you ask believing, you shall receive.”Matth. xxi. 22.

4. Cherish in your hearts the grace of love. That noble grace is of an expatiating and extensive nature. Heaven is the fittest room for its exercise, and eternity for its duration. He that loves much will not be content with a little, and God will not put him off with a scanty portion. The more the soul is filled with love, the more it is filled with God, "for God is love,"† and can a man have a better treasure than God himself? Now if you love God," he will come in unto you, and make his abode with you," John, xiv. 23, and can you wish a better treasure? Love makes room in the

heart for more grace. He that loveth much, because much is forgiven him, shall have more given. Indeed, that expression in 2 Cor. v. 14, seems to denote the contracting nature of love, "The love of God constraineth us," [ovvéya]* straiteneth, keeps us in; but that is from other things, that the soul may have freer scope for God. This love diverts the affections from running in any other channel but towards Jesus Christ. It captivates the soul for Christ, and forceth it to do and endure, any thing for him whom the soul loveth. The grace of love widens the arms to embrace Jesus Christ, enlargeth the heart to entertain him, and spiriteth the hands to act for him. Christ Jesus rides in a glorious triumphant chariot. Whether it refer to his personal character, or mystical body, this flesh and human nature, or his church, which he fills with his presence, I dispute not; but sure I am, the midst thereof is "paved with love," Cant. iii. 10. Certainly, a soul decorated with the sparkling gems of love is the fittest receptacle for Jesus Christ. He that is love itself doth most freely commit the largest treasure to a loving disciple, as he bequeathed his dear mother to John,‡ when he was breathing out his last upon the bitter cross, and after his death entrusted him with the Revelation; || yea, him only, with a description of the state of the church to the end of the world. O, how freely do a loving Saviour, and loving soul, open their hearts to each other! Like entire and ancient friends meeting,-who let out themselves in ample evidences, and reciprocal acts of love. So here, the pure flame of a saint's love mounts up to Christ, and there meeting with that hea

* Ut non possint non velle extrema quæque pro Christo perpeti.-Aret. in loc.

+ See Ainsworth on the place, and Brightman.

‡ John xix. 26.

|| Rev. i. 1.

venly element of perfect love, brings more down into the soul, and still these continued sallies of love to God, bring in successive incomes and increases of grace. Every act of love exhales away some corrupt vapours, and dilates the soul's faculties, that it may be fit for the reception of more grace. Yea, love sets the soul on edge for more, and makes it as insatiable as it is unwearied in painful endeavours. "Faith worketh by love," that is, as by its hand to act for God; and, indeed, love, in a sort, worketh by faith, as its hand to fetch all from God. Faith sets love on to crave, and love engageth faith to derive more grace from God; and as love helps the soul to a treasure of graces, so of truths. Love to truths makes the soul look upon them as a precious depositum; to think much of them, and thus rivet them and clench them fast in the heart by meditation. Love makes a man "contend for the faith" by disputing and dying, if God call him to it. Hence it is, that love is one of those hands that "hold fast the form of sound words."-2 Tim. i. 13. But "he that receives not the truth in love,"* will never make it a treasure, but will sell it for a lust, and embrace a lie; therefore, sirs, I entreat you work up this grace,stir up your hearts to think of the love of Christ. Blow up this spark to a flame. Content not yourselves with a low degree of love to God. Love him with an intensive, extensive, appreciative love. Let your measure of love to him be beyond measure. Let your hearts ascend to him in this holy flame of entire love. Love him more than your enjoyments,-more than your relations, more than yourselves. † I shall say no

* 2 Thess. xii. 10.

+ See this subject handled in Mr. Williams' transcend. of Christ's Love, on Eph. iii. 19, pp. 73 — 145. "Plus quam tua, plus quam tuos, plus quam te;" vid. ibid. p. 114, very fully. Morn. Lect. Serm. 9, p. 186. Dr. Reynolds on Psal. 110.