felves do; who in the days of his flesh knew and owned him to be the Christ, the Son of God'.

With this fort of faith a man may believe all the doctrines of the gospel, and yet not have the root of the matter in him, or true grace. Men may have the whole form of gofpel-doctrine in their heads, and deny the power of it, or not feel it in their hearts; they may believe the things concerning the kingdom of God and Jefus Chrift, as Simon Magus did, or however profeffed to do, and yet be, with him, in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. Yea, many have had such a degree of knowledge in evangelical things, as to be able to preach the gospel clearly and diftinctly, to prophecy or preach in Chrift's name, and yet knew him not fpiritually and experimentally, nor were known by him; they may speak with the tongues of men and angels, have all knowledge and all faith of this kind, and yet be without charity or true love to God, to Christ, and to divine and fpiritual things. Indeed, without believing the gospel of Christ, and the things concerning him, there can be no true faith in him: men cannot be children of light without believing the light of the gofpel, or giving credit to the gospel-revelation; and therefore our Lord exhorts men to believe in the light, that they might be children of the light: the way and means of being fo, is to attend unto and believe the gospel-scheme; but then this may be believed, and yet men fall fhort of the true light of special grace.

This faith is but a temporary faith, a believing for a while; and it need not be thought strange if perfons that have only this should make shipwreck of it, and put away a good confcience; and which is no inftance of a true believer's falling away from grace; whereas those who have true faith, and live by it on Christ, are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the faving of the foul: which brings me to observe,

3. That there is a special and spiritual faith, to which falvation is annexed; with which he that believes fhall be faved, according to the gospel-declaration; and which directs and encourages fenfible finners to look to Christ, and believe in him, affuring them they shall be faved. The scheme of falvation the gospel publishes and proclaims, is, that it is by grace through faith in Chrift: hence, I suppose, it is, that this fort of faith is commonly called faving faith, to distinguish it from others; though I think not with strict justness and propriety, and could with the phrase was disused; fince it seems to derogate and detract from the glory of Chrift, who is the only Saviour, and to carry off the mind from the object of faith, to the act of it. But be this as it will: This fort of faith is not of a man's felf; it does not owe its original to the exeature; it is exprefsly denied to be of man; that not of yourselves, it is the

gift

1 Luke iv. 34, 43.

John xii. 36.

gift of God; it is not the effect of pure nature; it is not the produce of man's free-will and power; all men have not faith: there are few that have it, and those that have it, have it not from nature, but by the grace of God. No man, fays Christ, can come unto me; that is, believe in him, for coming to Chrift, and believing in him, are the fame thing, except it were given him of my Father. And again, no man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him; that is, by the influence of his Spirit and grace.

Nor is this fort of faith of the law of works; for as the law is not of faith', so neither is faith of the law; the law is not fo much as the means of it, nor does it reveal the object, nor require the act, or direct and encourage to it: it is not the means of true faith in Chrift; faith comes by bearing the word of God'; but by what part of it? not the law, but the gospel; received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith"? that is, by the preaching of the law, and the works of it, or by the preaching of the doctrine of faith? by the latter, and not the former: and as the Spirit is not received in that way, or by fuch means, so not the graces of the Spirit, and particularly faith. How fhould it come this way, fince the law does not reveal the object of it, Christ, or give the least hint concerning him? By the law is the knowledge of fin"; but not the knowledge of a Saviour from fin: did it reveal Chrift to a poor awakened finner, it would not work that wrath in his confcience, or leave him without hope of mercy, as it does; and if it knows nothing, and makes known nothing of the object of faith, how can it be thought it fhould require the act of it? does it require an act upon an unknown object? does it require men to believe in an object it does not reveal, or give the leaft discovery of? How fhould they believe in confequence of fuch a requirement, of whom they have not heard the least tittle from the law? Nor does the law give any direction or encouragement to fouls to believe in Chrift; its language is, do this and live, but not believe in Chrift and be faved; this is the voice of the gospel, and not of the law. Should it be faid that faith is reckoned among the weightier matters of the law; this is to be understood either of fidelity, of faithfulness among men, or of trust in God, as the God of nature and providence, &c. giving credit to the revelation of his will, and the worship of him according to it.

True faith in Chrift, comes from another quarter than from the covenant of works, and flows in another channel; it is a bleffing of the covenant of grace, of that covenant which is ordered in all things, and fure; for the glory of God, Father, Son, and Spirit, and for the good of the covenant-ones; it provides all bleffings of grace for them, for time and eternity, and among the rest faith in

Christ Jefus. This lays open and exposes a mistaken and falfe notion of fome, who affert, that faith and repentance are conditions of the covenant of grace, when they are the bleffings of it, included in that promise; a new heart also will I give unto you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the Aony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an beart of flesh; and these are gifts without repentance, which God never revokes or takes back, or suffers to be of no effect. Faith in Chrift is the fruit of electing grace, and is as fure as falvation itlf; the one is in the decree of the means, the other in the decree of the end; that decree of election which fecures the end, falvation, fecures alfo the means, fanctification of the fpirit, and belief of the truth; or faith in Christ, who is the truth; fo it has been in all ages, now is, and ever shall be, that as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. Hence true faith is called the faith of God's elect; it being certain, proper and peculiar to them; and this is the true reafon why one believes, and another does not; as our Lord says of fome, ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep'; the fheep which the Father gave unto me in election, and in the covenant of grace: let any man rife up and give a better reason if he can, than this that Chrift has given, why one believes in him, and another does not. Believing in him is the pure gift of God, of his rich, fovereign and diftinguifhing grace; he gives it to one, and denies it to another, as he pleases; he bides the things of Chrift, and of the gospel, from the wife and prudent, and does not vouchsafe unto them faith in them; and reveals them unto babes; and gives them faith in his Son; and no other reafon can be given of it than his fovereign pleasure: even fo, Father, fays Christ, for fo it feemed good in thy fight".

Special faith in Chrift is of the operation of the Spirit of God; he produces. it by his mighty power in the foul; he enlightens the mind, reveals the object, brings near Chrift, his righteoufnefs and falvation, and enables the fenfible finner to look unto him, lay hold on him, and receive him as his Saviour and Redeemer hence he is called the Spirit of faith"; becaufe he is the author of it, who begins and carries on, and will perform the work of faith with power; the principal ufe of which grace is to receive all from Chrift, and give him the glory.. God has put this honour upon it, to conftitute and appoint it to be the receiver. general of all the bleffings of grace. It receives Chritt himself as the Father's. free-gift; it receives out of the fulness of Chrift, even grace for grace, or an. abundance of it; it receives the bleffing of righteousness from the Lord for juftification; it receives the remiffion of fins through his blood, according to the gofpel-declaration; it receives the adoption of children, in confequence of the way being opened for it through the redemption which is in Chrift; it receives

the inheritance among them that are fanctified, the right unto it, and the claim upon it; and to this poft it is advanced, that all the glory might redound to the grace of God; it is of faith, that it might be by grace: there are other uses of faith, and actings of it, which will be observed under the following head. I. now proceed to confider,

1

II. The objects of faith, as in the words directed to, the Lord God and his prophets. ft, The Lord our God, who is the one Lord to be believed in; bear, O Ifrael, the Lord our God is one Lord: from which paffage the antient Jews have established the doctrine of a Trinity of perfons in the Godhead, as. well as the doctrine of the Unity of the divine Being; and certain it is, that Father, Son, and Spirit, are the one God; and each, and every one of them, are to be believed in, and are the proper objects of faith.

1. God the Father is the object of faith, who is to be believed in; and to believe in him, is not merely to believe his existence and perfections, for he is a fool indeed that believes there is no God; nor merely to believe in him as the God of nature and providence, and to trust in him for the preservation of life and the continuance of the bleffings and mercies of it, and to glorify him for them; though there are fome who believe there is a God, yet do not glorify him as such, nor truft in his goodness, nor are thankful for providential favours: but to believe in him with a fpecial faith, is to believe in him as he has proclaim-ed his name in Chrift, a God gracious and merciful, pardoning iniquity, tranfgreffion, and fin; it is to believe in him as our covenant-God and Father, for fo he is to his people in Chrift; he is to them what he is to him, as he fays, I af cend to my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God": it was a noble act of faith expreffed by David, I trufted in thee, O Lord; I faid, thou art my God and fuch fhould believe that this God, who is their God, will be their God and guide even unto death; fince covenant-relation always fubfifts, and can never be made void. And whereas the Father of Chrift ftands in the relation of a Father to his people; it becomes them, having had the teftimony of the Spirit of adoption, witneffing to their fpirits that they are the children of God, to call him in faith, and with a filial fear and reverence, their father, and not turn away from him: to believe in him, is to believe in his everlasting and unchangeable love; and to believe that it is fo, and their intereft in it, it being fhed abroad in their hearts by the Spirit given unto them; this love being declared unto them by the Lord himself, and affirmed in the ftrongeft terms, faying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; of which he has given full proof, not only by his choice of them in Chrift, and by the redemption of them through

him, but by drawing them with loving-kindness to himself in effectual vocation it fhould be believed: it is a glorious act of faith of the apoftle's, when he fays, I am perfuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things prefent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, fhall be able to feparate us from the love of God, which is in Chrift Jefus our Lord; this is to be rooted and grounded in it. To believe in God the Father, is to believe in him as the God of all grace, the author and giver of it; that his grace is fufficient for us in all times of need; that he is able to caufe all grace to abound towards us; and that he will supply all our wants, according to his riches in glory by Chrift Jefus: it is to believe in his promises, which are exceeding great and precious; that he is faithful who has promised, and will perform; that he will never fuffer his faithfulness to fail, nor any good word which he has spoken; that all his promifes are yea and amen in Chrift: it is to believe in his power, that he is able alfo to perform and make good what he has faid; and likewife that there is in him everlasting strength, and that, according to his promise, as our day is, our strength shall be; and that we are, and shall be kept by his power, through faith, unto falvation.

2. Jefus Chrift, the Son of God, is alfo the object of faith: ye believe in God, believe alfo in me', fays Chrift himself; who is God as well as the Father, and to be believed in equally with him: the gofpel directs to faith in Christ, and it is the principal thing it encourages to; the minifters of it point him out to sensi ble and diftreffed finners, faying, believe on the Lord Jefus Chrift, and ye shall be faved: the fum of the gospel of the word of faith is, that if thou shalt confefs. with the mouth the Lord Jefus, and fhalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be faved; for with the beart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confeffion is made unto falvation. The Targum, or Chaldee paraphrase of our text, is, believe in the word of the Lord your God; where the Paraphraft, by the memra Jehovah, or word of the Lord, does not mean the written word of the Lord, the fcriptures; nor the oral word of the Lord, what was spoken by the prophets, as it is faid he fometimes does; fince it follows in the fame paraphrafe, believe in his law, and in his prophets; wherefore it is to be understood of the effential Word, the Son of God, who is to be believed in; and various are the acts of faith which are exercised on him, or believing on him. is expreffed by various things.

Faith in Chrift is fignified by feeing him, and looking unto him; an unknown Christ cannot, but an unfeen Chrift is, and may be, the object of faith: faith is the evidence of things not feen", the principal of which is an unfeen Chrift: the believer by faith beholds the glory of his person, the fulness of his grace, the ex

cellency

Rom. viii. 38, 39. u Hebrews xi, 1.

John xiv. 1.

• Acts xvi. 31.

Rom. x. 9, 10.