XXXII.

ACTS, XV. 9.

PURIFYING THEIR HEARTS BY FAITH.

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HE apostle is here speaking of the converfion of the Gentiles, whose hearts, he says, were purified by faith.

Now the hearts of converts were purified by faith in two ways.

In the first place, when the convert, renoun. cing his idolatry and other fins, profeffed his faith in Christ, and his refolution to lead a Christian life, we are affured, in various instances, that his heart was purified by faith-his past fins were forgiven and he was placed in a state of innocence. Thus far his faith acted with a kind of atoning power, under the authority of the great Author of our redemption. But it was afterwards expected, that his heart fhould be purified by

faith, acting as a mean to lead him into that purity of life, which he had professed. His firft purification by faith, fignified nothing as to his future life without the fecond. If indeed he had died immediately after his first purification by faith, before he had committed fin, he fhould have. been faved. But if he lived afterwards, he was obliged to fecure his falvation by a holy life.

The thief upon the cross seems to have been an instance of the former mode of purification by faith. On his first conviction, he received abfolution, and dying immediately after, he carried with him a bleffed viaticum.

Simon Magus was an inftance of the neceffity of the latter mode of purification. His heart had received its first purification by faith, in confequence of which he had been baptized. But afterwards relapfing into his old depravity, the apostle St. Peter treats him with great feverity. After this relapfe, he could not be faved without repentance, and the purification of a holy life.

Some pious people feem to conceive this first mode of purification by faith as the general mode of its operation, fuppofing that faith alone is all that fanctifies a Chriftian, leaving good works to follow merely as a teft of it.

XXXIII.

HEB. xiii. 5.

BE CONTENT WITH SUCH THINGS AS YE HAVE.

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HE language of the world to its votaries, on the subject of contentment, is fomewhat in this ftrain.

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Your great end in life is to push forward, and your fortunes. The precepts of religion are, in fome things, too strict for a trading country. Indeed, without a little allowance they cannot be observed. Keep however within the nicest rules of what the world calls honesty. Do nothing openly knavish-nothing contrary to the common practice of men of character. Theft, forgery, false evidence, are all abominable, and will defervedly ruin your characters. At the fame time, there are feveral things commonly practised in your profeffion, which you must conform

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conform to. All fair traders allow them, though among precise puritanical people they would not readily be admitted. In felling or buying, you must often praise and depreciate beyond the truth. You muft, now and then, take advantage of fome for the loffes you may have sustained by others. Trade might otherwise be a lofing bargain. It is fair alfo to fpeculate, and, by monopolizing, to keep the price of some useful commodity in your own hands.-Or if any perfon oppose you in business, and stand between you and the accomplishment of fome favourite scheme, you may undermine him, and privately attack his character. It is felf-defence. He attacks you first. With regard to mercantile and qualifying oaths, I know not what to say. I must leave you in those matters to your own judgment. If by any casuistry you can avoid the force of them, it is all I defire. My great instruction, on the whole, is to raise yourselves in life. Let that thought be always uppermoft. Never be fatisfied with what you have, but always look forward to fomething more. You may talk of contentment, if you will, and of being fatisfied with moderate things. You will make your way easier under fuch declarations. Only take care never to make

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make fuch fentiments, the fentiments of your hearts.

Thus the World speaks on the subject of contentment. Let us now hear what Christianity says : When I enjoin you to be content with fuch things as you have, I mean to enjoin you literally to shut in all your defires. I allow induftry and frugality in your several employments; but I ftrictly forbid you to be folicitous about the event of things. Leave that entirely in the hands of God. He may ordain you to lead a life of poverty. Bear it with refignation, depending upon that God, who has declared he will never forfake if you, you never forfake him. Recollect also, that if you can be content in your low eftate, contentment is real happiness. On the other hand, it may please God to profper your industry with great fuccessor raise you, in other ways, to a state of affluence. In these cases, ftill draw in your defires. Your riches are not given you merely for yourselves. Except what a confcientious refpect to your stations in life may fairly require, your wealth is, in fact, no more your own, than if you did not poffefs it. It engages you only in a more arduous employment. You are taught to confider yourself as a fteward of God's bounty, for

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