there is genuine confession of sin, there will equally be genuine confession of all that is vital in the system of Christianity. Why, then, should not the being saved follow, as it is made to follow in our text, on confessing with the mouth the Lord Jesus?

You may indeed urge that it is Christ as felt and apprehended, rather than as confessed with the mouth, that issues in salvation. Why should the apostle make it with the mouth that everlasting life is instrumentally obtained? Because what is believed with the heart must and will be confessed with the mouth. The man who is ashamed of Christ before men, can he be secretly the worshipper, the friend, the lover of Christ? Impossible. The sentiment must break forth, must show itself, must find vent. And God moreover requires confession; it is one of those fruits and evidences of faith which cannot be dispensed with. I understand, therefore, why so high a result is attributed to confession with the mouth. It is not because of any innate power in a word, (though "by thy words, thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned;") it is not in any contrariety to the immutable truth a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law; but it is that confession is but contrition finding utterance and faith giving evidence; and, from the very nature of contrition and faith, as well as from the direct requirement that we acknowledge Christ before men, it follows that it is not optional whether we will confess what we feel. We do not feel what we do not confess. If we would keep back confession when we really feel what sin is, and have a revelation of the Saviour, it will happen to us as it did to Jeremiah, "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." No, no, there may be occasional cowardice, through fear of man which prevents in certain cases the bold reproof of sin and the frank avowal of the Saviour; but the habit must be that of confession. Saints and martyrs are witnesses to this; the righteous of every age are witnesses to this; they have acknowledged the Redeemer, and they have glorified him, and by the acknowledgment they may be justly said to have apprehended, to have laid hold on everlasting life. It is not merely that the confession declared them the servants of Christ, or enlisted them among his soldiers; it is that confession was warfare, battle, victory. They fought with the mouth-I mean not only that with the mouth they published the gospel, and so won for themselves an incorruptible crown, but I mean that confession before men is a vanquishing of one's own heart. A righteous man can make it through the strength of the Lord; but oh! it were often far easier for him to go straight to the scaffold than to reprove the folly or brave the laugh of a "world that lieth in wickedness." Therefore it is that confession is unto salvation. It is the heart laid bare, anatomized, not only to itself, but to others. It is the Saviour chosen, preferred, beloved, not only in the eloset and in the church, but in the market, in the senate, in the exchange, or in the crowd. Oh! it were impossible to confess Christ with the mouth without believing in him with the heart-this were to dare scorn, obloquy, insult, loss, without a motive, or without a hope. But then it is also impossible to believe with the heart and not confess with the mouth-this were to have a fire which did not burn, a light which did not illuminate, a principle which did not actuate, a hope which did not stimulate. Genuine Christians are temples of the living God; but think ye to be temples, and yet that no voice shall go forth from the secret shrine? Not so. There must issue a sound from the recesses of the sanctuary, the sound as of a presiding Deity, eloquent to all around of the power and authority of the Being that dwelleth within. Therefore, whilst we admit that it is faith which is the instrument of justification, we can understand why confession should also be given as that which issues in salvation; even as we can understand why works should be spoken of as procuring us immortality. Confession is but the necessary result of beliefthe demonstration and exhibition. It is but faith showing itself in speech, even as works are but belief showing itself in action. Speech is one of the most distinguishing properties of man. Language is no human invention.

God made the vehicle in which thought may be embodied as well as the power by which thought may be excogitated. Ought, then, the hand, the ear, the eye, to be pressed into the service of religion, and is the tongue to be exempt Nay; this best member must do its part, otherwise is the whole man in rebellion against his Maker. Who, then, can wonder that though the apostle had to add, "If thou shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead," he began by affirming, "If thou shalt confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus," "thou shalt be saved ?"

II. Now in these latter remarks we have seemed to wander from the consideration of confession as a condition of salvation, and to touch upon faith, to which we have yet to give a more particular attention. This was almost unavoidable. The two are most intimately connected, faith in the heart being that which will necessarily produce confession with the mouth. We will now, however, speak more explicitly of faith. The apostle, you observe, refers only to believing in the heart that God hath raised Christ from the dead. The resurrection of our Saviour was the great attestation to the sufficiency and acceptance of the mediatorial work, so that to believe in Christ as raised from the dead by the power of God is to believe in him as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," as the Redeemer who ransomed us by his blood, and as the Intercessor who ever lives to plead our cause in heavenly places.

This being premised, you ought to observe with special attention where it is that the apostle places the seat of true faith—not in the head, but in the heart: "If thou shalt believe in thine heart." It is very easy, but very unfair, to speak of faith as a mere act of the mind which naturally follows where there is a sufficiency of evidence, over which, therefore, a man has little or no control, and which, in consequence, ought not to be made the test or criterion of moral qualities. We pronounce this unfair, because it does not take into account the influence which the affections exert over the understanding, and in consequence of which a man will readily believe some things and obstinately disbelieve others, though there be no difference in the amount of furnished testimony. It should be remembered that where the things to be believed are things which a man would naturally and strongly wish to disbelieve there is great probability that the heart will operate injuriously on the head; and if, notwithstanding, the assent be given, and the unwelcome facts be admitted, we have much reason to suppose that there has been a struggle in the breast, a contest between the power of truth and the power of the inclination, which makes the case widely different from that mere yielding on sufficient evidence which is all, we are told, that can be predicated of faith.

Apply this to the matter of revealed religion. It is hardly possible for you to imagine a book which contains more than the Bible does of truths against which there is a strong repugnance in the human mind. If a man receive them he has straightway to regard himself as a wretched and miserable being, void of all goodness, exposed to utter ruin, and possessing no ability whatsoever of propitiating the God whose anger has been provoked. Heretofore he may have cherished high notions of himself, imagining that he was endowed with powers, and that he exercised virtues, which would suffice to secure him the favour of his Maker; but, henceforwards, if indeed he admit the truth of the document under debate, there must be an end of all these towering thoughts; he must be content to sit in the dust, to clothe himself with sackcloth, and to acknowledge his will to be inclined only to evil, and his heart to be "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." And though indeed the Bible, not content with exposing to him his condition, offers him a remedy, nevertheless this remedy itself is offensive to his pride; for salvation through the righteousness and death of one executed as a malefactor is no inviting proffer to one who is puffed up with thoughts of his own excellence. Yea, over and above this he cannot fail to perceive that if he give his belief to the document in question, he devotes himself to a life of hardship, self-denial, mortification of lust, and renounces things which he best loves in expectation of others of whose superiority, or even reality, he

cannot gain any sensible evidence. Now the question is, whether it can justly be said of a man who receives a document thus humbling to himself, thus imposing duties from which nature shrinks, that he does nothing more than yield to a certain amount of testimony, an amount which left him no choice, but which, making faith involuntary, prevented the possibility of its being in any degree commendable. This were to make it with the head that man believes; whereas it is evident from the very nature of Christian truth that it must be with the heart.

You have only to observe the character of the truths which revelation unfolds, and you may see clearly that belief presupposes the possession, or requires the exercise of those virtues whose seat must be the heart. There must be humility in him who believes, for he must cordially confess himself unclean and undone. There must be submission of the understanding to God, for much which has to be received is not explained. There must be willingness to suffer, for Christianity summons to tribulation. There must be willingness to labour, for Christianity sets man about the most arduous of duties. What then? Is faith nothing more than our adversaries represent ? Is it an involuntary act, depending simply on the quantity of evidence, and therefore wholly unworthy of being exalted into a condition for the bestowment of blessings? Is it nothing that in him who believes there must be candour and freedom from prejudice, sincerity of purpose, an abandonment of all good opinion of himself, an entire resignation of his judgment to God, a willingness to submit to insult, a determination to enter into combat with the world, the flesh, and the devil? Are we to be told that though there must indeed be this great combination in every man who cordially believes in revelation, it is, nevertheless, a surprising thing that faith should be so dignified in the Bible, that it should be used as the test of admission into the privileges of the gospel? For our own part, when we consider what faith presupposes, what obstacles there are in the constitution of man to the belief of Christian truths, we can only feel, that if God did not work on the human heart the. whole world would be infidel. We do not know any achievement so remarkable, so little to have been expected, from a proud, prejudiced, and depraved creature such as man naturally is, as the believing in a record so humiliating, so condemnatory of lust, so rigid in enjoining difficult duties as the gospel of Jesus Christ. And thus the fact that it must be with the heart that man believes a fact which follows from the very nature of the things to be believed -is sufficient for the refutation of all that calumny which men cast upon faith, as though it were a mere thing of the understanding, and upon the Bible, as though in making faith the instrument of justification, it assigned a vast result to an inadequate cause. Faith is represented throughout Scripture as inestimably precious in God's sight, and as securing to its possessor the very choicest of blessings; but by many it is accounted surprisingly strange that faith should be thus commended and recompensed, faith being nothing, as they think, but that assent of the mind which follows on sufficient evidence, and in which, therefore, there can be no moral excellence. It is our endeavour to show that herein they grievously misrepresent the principle of faith. We are perfectly aware-and we would not even in appearance throw doubt upon the truth-that whatever the conditions which God may be pleased to appoint, and on the fulfilment of which his promises are realized, there is nothing meritorious in the condition, nor does their most accurate fulfilment interfere with the gratuitousness of the blessings which it ensures. Nevertheless, we may safely examine whether there be nothing in the conditions which may justly be pronounced acceptable to God, nothing which indicates and which cherishes those dispositions and qualities which he requires from his creatures. We have shown from the nature of man and from revelation, that there is a demonstration in the very act of belief of such a freedom from bias, such a submissiveness of the understanding, such a love for truth, such a determination to obey, as of themselves might well account for the high things which in Scripture are predicated of faith. Yet still, there is more than this to be said of faith; for belief with the head might leave the life what it was, but belief with the heart must be, as St. Paul says in the next verse, a be

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lief unto righteousness," a belief which will be evidenced by the whole tenor of the life. Faith cannot be a barren or uninfluential principle. It is not so in regard to inferior truths or things; much less can it be so when applied to the revelation of the divine will. We are accustomed to act from this principle of faith in the ordinary plans and occupations of life; for it is only because we believe in certain connections between cause and effect, and in the greater probability of this event than that, that we continue the processes of agriculture, or embark property in various speculations; and in all the affairs of the world there will be a right conclusion that a man did not actually believe truths in which he had a direct personal interest, if his belief had no effect whatsoever on his actions. We should find it hard to think that the mariner believed there was such a quicksand as was laid down in the chart if he steered the vessel directly to the spot, or that the merchant really believed that another was fraudulent if he committed unto him all his goods. The doctrines of Scripture are such as, if acknowledged, are of the strongest possible interest to man, so that we must be justified in concluding, as we would of any matter of common life, that all real faith must be wanting where there is manifest disregard of all which faith would enjoin.

Look at certain doctrines, and see what they must produce when believed with the heart. It is a portion of Scripture revelation that God is omniscient and omnipotent, that nothing can be hid from his scrutiny, that he is ever at hand, a vigilant inspector, to note down human actions, and register them for judgment. Can this really be believed, and yet the believer fail to be intensely earnest to approve himself in God's sight? Will he ever think himself in solitude, ever act as though he were alone and unobserved? Rather, will not his faith produce a holy reverence and awful fear of the Almighty, and make him walk circumspectly, because walking side by side with his Maker and his Judge? The Bible tells him, moreover, of an amazing scheme of rescue planned and executed by God on behalf of himself and his fellow men. It sets God before him as giving his own Son, and that Son as giving himself to ignominy and shame that pardon might be placed within reach of the sinful. Can this be believed, and yet the believer not glow with intense love towards so gracious and benevolent a God who has done such surprising things for his good; yea, and towards his fellow men, seeing that they are objects of the same mercy with himself, and therefore equally precious in the sight of the Creator? But yet further. Along with the revelation of this amazing scheme of mercy the Bible sets forth conditions apart from which we can have no share in the blessings of Christ's death, imposing duties on the performance of which our future portion is made to depend, and annexing threatenings and promises just as though we were to be judged by our works irrespective of the blood of the Redeemer. It tells us of heaven; it tells us of hell; and, dealing with us as with accountable creaturescreatures, therefore, who are free to choose, and left to determine for themselves whether they will be eternally wretched or eternally happy-it conjures us by the joys of the one state and the terrors of the other to "live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world.” Now tell me who believes this? The man who lives as though there were no heaven, as though there were no hell, doing the very things, obeying the very passions, neglecting the very duties, which are respectively forbidden or commanded, to all who would escape wrath and find mercy hereafter? Impossible. These things cannot be believed by the sensual man, the covetous, the proud, or the ambitious. Faith in these things must lead to effort, to obedience, to selfdenial. He who is really a believer in the revealed truths as to man's everlasting state, and the indissoluble connection between conduct here and condition hereafter, will necessarily be one who struggles for the mastery, and wages continual war with every spiritual adversary. If, then, humility, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance, all spring naturally from faith in such doctrines as are recorded in Scripture-if the resisting temptation, the overcoming evil, the subjugating unruly desires, the being resigned under affliction, and the triumphing over death, be the direct produce of this faith, who can fail to perceive that there is a most intimate and necessary connection,

CONFESSION WITH THE MOUTH, AND BELIEF IN THE HEART.

between believing what the Bible reveals and doing what it enjoins? Who can wonder that in the distribution of heavenly honours, faith should be made the passport to eminence and renown? Who can be surprised at such a summary of the conditions of salvation as is given in our text, where, after requiring confession with the mouth of the Lord Jesus, the Apostle adds, "If thou shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved?"

Remember, we beseech of you, this character of faith. It is from the heart, the heart only, that true faith can proceed. We live in the midst of allurements and temptations, we are placed in a scene where there are objects which address themselves to the passions of a corrupt nature, so that what is without conspires with what is within to bind us down to earth and make us cling to it as our home and our all. Whilst we are thus entangled and engrossed there comes a revelation from the invisible God-a revelation of amazing truths connected with his nature and his purposes towards ourselves, his guilty and depraved creatures. In this revelation we are bidden to believe, on the express declaration that in return for our faith we shall be admitted into privileges which we cannot measure. This faith is no easy thing. Oh ! never think that ye can believe, believe with the heart, except through that power which reared the universe and can quicken the dead. Here is a frail being with craving appetites and imperious desires, placed in a world which teems with the very objects which those appetites demand and to which those desires instigate; and there is brought to him a message from a God whom he cannot see, telling him of a brighter world than that which he inhabits and into which he shall pass at death through the merits of the Mediator, if he believe in a record which has been given him as divine. He strains his gaze, but he cannot catch a glimpse of this glorious land; the world around him solicits him by beauties on which he can look, melodies to which he can listen, delicacies which he can taste, flatteries which he can relish. The world which he is promised appeals not to his senses. It may have loveliness, but he cannot behold it; may have minstrelsy, but he cannot hear it; it may have glory, but he cannot feel it. Nevertheless, through faith he prefers the invisible to the visible, and, simply on the warrant of God's word, renounces the solicitations made through his bodily organs, denies his passions, and fastens all his hope on the far-off country which he cannot visit to certify himself of its reality, but which he can only reach through death. Wondrous achievement! How far beyond any human power, beyond any power but that of the Almighty! It is divinity in the heart, this believing with the heart. I must pray for faith if I would have it, for evidently I cannot give it for myself. If you think that you have the faith, take a criterion by which it may be tested. Know ye what it is to confess Christ with the mouth? It is not the joining in the anthem when a thousand voices shall swell his praises. It is not the joining in the crowd when an assembled multitude professes a belief in him as a Mediator. This indeed is in its measure confessing Christ with the mouth, but it comes far short of what this confession must be. To confess Christ with the mouth, is to own one's-self his disciple in the face of unpopularity, disgrace, and insult; not to be ashamed of him amongst those who deride him; to maintain his authority where it is despised; to rebuke his enemies wherever we meet them. Who is sufficient for these things? No man of himself; but he who implants the faith will clothe the tongue in answer to earnest supplication. Only deceive not yourselves; dream not of believing without confessing, for the Spirit which dictated the words-" If thou shalt believe with thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead," dictated also, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved."

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