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X.

believe: help Thou mine unbelief. I MED.
am ready to obey do thou perfect my
obedience. Pardon the weakness of
my faith, and the imperfection of my
best endeavours, praise the eye of my

understanding from a contemplation of
this fluctuating and vain scene, from
this sorrowful and wicked world, to a
clearer prospect of those happy regions
prepared for the righteous. Thither
let me be carried by the eye of faith:
and when faith shall become certainty,
may
I be received into the communion
of glorified saints, through his merits,
on which only I rely, and by his medi-
ation in whom only I believe. Amen.

MEDITATION XI.

XI.

JAMES. ii. 22.

By works was faith made perfect.

MED. IN meditating on practical christianity, it is not my intention to deal in mysteries, or to recommend doctrines too deep for the understanding of man. At the same time I would impress upon my own heart, and make it manifest to others, that human reason, however inadequate to explain what may be above its comprehension, is a fair and impartial judge of the truth of revelation. Being satisfied of this from many unerring and infallible principles, the contemplative believer will proceed to draw such conclusions as are fully equal to that di

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XI.

vine authority, on which they are MED. founded. The religion, which he thus extracts from his Bible, is very dif ferent from the speculations framed upon a fanciful philosophy. He finds that it influences his conduct, and gives him a new life here, as well as an assurance of immortal joys hereafter. He discovers that mere moral feeling is not alone sufficient to regulate the heart of man; because it is no universal princi-› ple, but varies according to the education, condition, or even the natural disposition of indiyiduals: that in conse quence of this, honor is a phantom, and even honesty itself a pretence, when put in competition with interest. Opinion indeed is something, and bears consi→ derable sway in the world; but hide the offence from the scrutinizing` eye, and the dread of opinion is illusory and vain,

How different will the reasoning be, when we have found out the true motive of human actions! Draw forth

MED. from the writings of immutable and imXI. mortał truth, that one principle which

unites this world and the next together, the principle of faith, truly understood and truly adopted, and the religion of faith becomes the glory of the world. Its comprehensive nature, and its invariable and beneficial effects, resemble the eye of Divine Providence which diffuses warmth and light, natural and spiritual, through the remotest regions of the globe.

Faith is indeed an heavenly light, which beams brightly on the soul-for "God who commanded light to shine "out of darkness, hath (by this faith) "shined in our hearts, to give the light " of the knowledge of the glory of "God in the face of Jesus Christ *." And in consequence of this knowledge we are sanctified also by the Holy Spirit, and induced by a strong impulse of our spiritual necessities to fly to him

* 2 Cor. iv. G.

with humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient hearts, to receive him as our highest friend and benefactor, and to - rest wholly in him. For " as many as "shall receive him to them will he

give the power to become the sons of "God, even to them that believe in his "name: which were born, not of blood, "nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the "will of man, but of God."

Nothing then but an ignorance of the true faith can prevent any one from being benefited by it: and when we behold so many offenders polluting their own hearts by every species of practical wickedness, invading their neighbours peace, both covertly and openly, sinning and blaspheming without the least check or remorse, we must necessarily conclude that they form a part of that distressing multitude of unreasonable and wicked men, concerning whom the Apostle pronounces-"all men have

*John i. 12, 13.

MED.

XI.

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