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SERMONS.

SERMON I.

NOW ABIDETH FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY, THESE THREE; BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS CHARITY.-1 Cor. xiii. 13.

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HESE three virtues support the Christian life, as the elements support the world. No religion but the Christian did ever teach mankind any of these virtues : they are all peculiar to the Gospel: and so the Apostle intimates by calling them these three; joining them together as the three elements of the Christian system, none of which ever were or could be found in any other. When he compares them, he gives the preference to Charity; and with good reason; as you will see, when you have considered what it is. To describe it in as few words as possible, it signifies the friendship of Christians; the love we ought to have for the brethren; that is, for the church and all its members, for the sake of Christ. It is the virtue which binds Christians to one another upon earth, and shall unite them for ever in heaven: it proves us to be true disciples of Christ in the eyes of the world; and it recommends us to God, because it brings us to a nearer resemblance with himself; for "God is love."*

To understand this virtue rightly, we must know whence it proceeds, and how it is to be attained. This may be gathered from the text; where the Apostle hath placed the three great virtues of a Christian in their natural order. The first of them is Faith; the second is Hope; and the last is Charity; Hope arises from Faith, and Charity from

1 John iv. 8.

Faith and Hope. Where there is no Faith, there can be no Hope; and where there is neither Faith nor Hope, there can be no Charity.

This is what I shall endeavour to prove in the following discourse; and to correct a common mistake concerning the nature of Charity, so far as the time will permit.

If we inquire into the nature of Faith, we shall find, that it is a kind of Spiritual Sense; without which we cannot receive the Christian doctrines, nor believe the promises of God. It is that kind of apprehension, with which we admit things not yet seen; and as the word of God treats chiefly of such things, Faith is the faculty with which we receive the word of God; if we receive it at all. "By Faith," says the Apostle, "we know that the worlds were framed by the word of God, and that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.' We should not so much as know that God created the world, unless he himself had informed us of it: and so weak is human reason without Faith, that some who pretend to be wiser than all other men, do not believe this after they have been told of it. The general object of our Faith is the word of God, as revealed to us in the Scripture; the more particular object of it is the redemption of man by Jesus Christ, as it includes the whole work of our regeneration and final salvation. Till we admit of this, and of the nature of the person, both God and man, by whom it is accomplished, we have no Faith. St. John reduces Faith to this single article of receiving the record God hath given of his Son. "He that believeth not God," saith he, "hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son; and this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." So that to believe in God, according to the terms of the gospel, is to believe in his Son Jesus Christ; who, as the promised seed, the Conqueror of the serpent, and the Redeemer of the world, has been the

object of Faith to all believers from the beginning of the world. By virtue of this Faith, Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. Cain brought of the "fruits of the earth;" Abel brought a sacrifice, and shed the blood of it; confessing thereby, as a true believer, that without shedding of blood there was no remission of sin. All the saints of old time obtained a good report on the same principle: they believed that man is fallen, and must be redeemed by a saviour; that this life is a pilgrimage; and that there is a heavenly inheritance, which the saints shall possess after the resurrection from the dead. Such was their faith, and such is ours; and, when we have it, it is our defence against all the assaults of our spiritual enemies: "Above all," saith the Apostle, "taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." Faith has an answer to all temptations, a solution of all difficulties; and we may now add farther concerning it, that it is the only introduction to the virtue of Hope. The heart may as well be supposed to have gladness in it without having life, as the Christian can be supposed to have Hope without having Faith. For "Faith," as the Scripture declares, "is the substance of things hoped for:" which means literally, that Faith is the groundwork or foundation of Hope. This, therefore, is now, in its proper place, to be considered.

When the root of Faith is once planted in the heart, Hope will naturally grow out of it. The word of God is a seed, which, by the operation and power of divine grace, will be unfolded, and yield its fruits. Of these Hope is the first for when Faith has received the promises, Hope will rejoice in the expectation of their accomplishment. Faith informs us, that Christ is risen from the dead: Hope learns from thence, that he is the first fruits of a harvest, and that all the sheaves of the field shall follow him. Faith tells us, that he is seated at the right hand of God: Hope infers, that he is gone there to prepare a

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