ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

false resting place short of Christ? Has he swept away every refuge of lies? and thus put thee upon enquiring what thou must do to be saved. If not; may the Lord the Spirit convince thee, and in his own good time bring thee to the knowledge of thyself, and to the saving knowledge of and belief in Christ Jesus, without which this book can profit thee nothing. But if thou hast been thus convinced, and the Lord has shone into thy understanding, and enlightened it with the knowledge of the way of salvation, then read on. May the Lord make what thou readest profitable to thine establishment in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

There are two things spoken of faith in scripture, which highly deserve the attention of every true believer. The first is the state of safety, in which he is placed by Christ, and is delivered from every evil and danger in time and in eternity, to which sin had justly exposed him; and the second is the happiness of this state, consisting in an abundant supply of all spiritual blessings freely given to him in Christ, and received, as they are wanted, by the hand of faith out of the fulness of Christ. By which means whoever has obtained this precious faith ought to have a quiet conscience at peace with God, and need not fear any manner of evil, how much soever it be deserved, and thereby he may at all times come boldly to the throne of grace to receive whatever is necessary for his comfortable walk heavenwards. Every grace, every blessing promised in scripture, is his, and he may and does enjoy them so far as he lives by faith upon the Son of God: so far his life and conversation are well ordered, and his walk is even, his spiritual enemies are conquered, the old man is mortified with his affections and lusts, and the new man is renewed day by day after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness. And from what he already enjoys by faith, and from the hopes of a speedy and perfect enjoyment, the scripture warrants him to rejoice in the Lord with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

It is much to be lamented, that few live up to these two privileges of faith. Many persons who are truly concerned about the salvation of their souls, live for years together full of doubts and fears, and are not established in the faith, that is in Christ Jesus; and several who are in a good measure established, yet do not walk happily in an even course, nor experience the continual blessedness of receiving by faith a supply of every want out of the Saviour's fulness. These things I have long observed, and what I have been taught of them from the scripture, and from the good hand of God upon me, I have put together, and throw it as a mite into the treasury. I am sure it was never more wanted, than at present. May the good Lord accept the poor offering, and bless it to the hearts of his dear people to the praise of the glory of his own grace.

For the clearer understanding of what shall be spoken upon the life of faith, it will be needful to consider first what faith is: for a man must have faith before he can make use of it. He must be in Christ before he can live upon Christ. Now faith signifies the believing the truth of the word of God: so says Christ, "Thy "word is truth :" it relates to some word spoken or to some promise made by him, and it expresses the belief which a person who hears it has of its being true. He assents to it, relies upon it, and acts accordingly. This is faith. And the whole word of God, which is the ground of faith, may be reduced to two points, namely, to what the law reveals concerning the justification of a righteous man, and to what the gospel reveals concerning the salvation of a sinner. A short examination of these points will discover to us a great number of persons, who have no faith at all in the word of God.

First, every man in his natural state before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, has no faith. The scripture says, God hath shut up all that are in this state in unbelief; and when the Holy Spirit awakens any one of them, he convinces him of sin, and of unbelief in particular. When the Comforter is come,

says Christ, he shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not in me.

Secondly, A man who lives careless in sin has no faith. He does not believe one word that God says in his law. Let it warn him of his guilt, and shew him his great danger, yet he sets at nought the terrors of the Lord. He acts as if there was no day of judgment, and no place of eternal torments. He has no fear of God before his eyes. How can such a practical atheist as this have any faith?

Thirdly, The formalist has not true faith. He is content with the form of godliness, and denies the power of it. The veil of unbelief is upon his heart, and the pride of his own good works and duties is ever before his eyes, that he finds no wants of the salvation of Jesus, and is averse to the grace of the gospel. All his hopes arise from what he is in himself, and from what he is able to do for himself. He neither believes God speaking in the law, nor in the gospel. If he believed his word in the law, it would convict him of sin, and forbid him to go about to establish a righteousness of his own; because by the works of the law shall no flesh living be justified, yet this he does not believe. If he believed the word of God in the gospel, it would convince him of righteousness, of an infinitely perfect righteousness wrought out by the God-man Christ Jesus, and imputed to the sinner without any works of his own for unto him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is imputed for righteousness. To this he dare not trust wholly for his acceptance before God, therefore he has not true faith.

Fourthly, A man may be so far enlightened as to understand the way of salvation, and yet have not true faith. This is a possible case. The apostle states it, 1 Cor. xiii. 2. "Though I understand all mysteries, "and all knowledge, yet I may be nothing." And it is a dangerous case, as Heb. x. 26." If we sin wilfully "after that we have received the knowledge of the "truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins."

Here was such a knowledge of the truth, as left a man to perish without the benefit of Christ's sacrifice, there fore he wanted that faith, which whosoever hath shall be saved.

66

[ocr errors]

What great numbers are there under these delusions? Reader, art thou one of them? Examine closely; for it is of eternal moment. Prove thine own self, whether thou be in the faith. If thou askest how thou shalt know it, since there are so many errors about it? hear what God's word says, Whoever believes truly has been first convinced of unbelief. This our Lord teaches, John xvi. 9. "When the Comforter is come, he will "convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me." He convinces of sin, by enlightening the understanding to know the exceeding sinfulness of it, and by quickening the conscience to feel the guilt of it. He shews the misery threatened, and leaves sinners no false refuge to flee unto. He will not suffer them to sit down content with some sorrow, or a little outward reformation, or any supposed righteousness, but makes them feel that do whatever they will or can, still their guilt remains. Thus he put them upon seeking out for salvation, and by the gospel he discovers it to them. He opens their understandings to know what they hear, and read, concerning the covenant of the eternal Trinity, and concerning what the Godman has done in the fulfilling of this covenant. The Holy Spirit teaches them the nature of the adorable person of Christ-God manifest in the flesh, and the infinitely precious and everlasting meritorious righteousness, which he has wrought out by the obedience of his life and death; and he convinces them, that this righteousness is sufficient for their salvation, and that nothing is required except faith, for its being imputed unto them; and he works in them a sense of their being helpless and without strength to rely upon this righteousness, and through faith in it to have peace with God. He makes them see, that they cannot, by any power of their own in the least depend upon it: for all their

sufficiency is of God. It requires the same arm of the Lord, which wrought out this righteousness, to enable them with the heart to believe in it. They are made clearly sensible of this from the word and Spirit of God, and from their own daily experience, and there by they are disposed to receive their whole salvation from the free grace of God, and to him to ascribe all the glory of it. These are the redeemed of the Lord. To whom it is given to believe. They are quickened from a death in trespasses and sins, their consciences are awakened, their understandings are enlightened with the knowledge of Christ, they are enabled in their wills to choose him, and in their hearts to love him, and to rejoice in his salvation. This is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit: for faith is his gift, Eph. ii. 8. Unto you it is given, says the apostle, Phil. i. 29. in the behalf of Christ to believe on him; none can give it but the Spirit of God: because it is the faith of the operation of God, and requires the same almighty power to believe with the heart, as it did to raise Christ's body from the grave, Eph. i. 20. And this power he puts forth in the preaching of the word, and makes it the power of God unto salvation. The word is called, 2 Cor. iii. 8. the ministration of the Spirit, because by it the Spirit ministers his grace and strength. So Gal. iii. 2. "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, "or by the hearing of faith?" It was by hearing faith preached, that they received the Spirit: for faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, which is therefore called the word of faith. And thus the word is the means, in the hand of the Spirit, to dispose the hearts of those who hear it, to receive and to embrace Christ; whereby they retain the righteous ness of faith, as Rom. x. 10. "With the heart man "believeth unto righteousness." The heart is the chief thing in believing: for into it Christ is received, and in it he dwells by faith. The vital union between Christ and the believer is manifested and made known in the heart, and therein it is cemented and established.

[ocr errors]
« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »