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SAVING FAITH, 
 
 AS LAID DOWN IX 
 
 THE WORD OF GOD, 
 
 AND 
 
 MAINTAINED IN CONFESSIONS OF THE REFORMED 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 BEIXG A SERIES OF WORKS liY THE FOLLOWING AUTIIOHS :- 
 
 JOHN^NDERSON, D.D., S.T.P., 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 REV. EBENEZER ERSKINE, 
 
 OF STIRLING. 
 
 REV. WILLIAM CUDWORTII, 
 
 OF NORWICH. 
 
 We believe that through the grace'of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved."— Acts xv. 11. 
 We detest and refuse .... his (Antichrist's) desperate and uncertain repentance, his 
 general and doubtsome faith."— NAXiONALlJCovEXANr of Scotland. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 JOHN JOHNSTONE, HUNTER SQUARE. 
 
 LONDON : R. GROOMBRIDGE. 
 
 MDCCCXLIII. 
 
\ 
 
 Printed by John Johnstone, High Street, E.linburgh. 
 
INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. 
 
 It has been wisely remarked bv a godly and learned 
 divine, and also a sufferer for Christ during the persecut- 
 ing reigns of the two last Stuarts,*"" that " three things 
 are simply necessary unto any man's having of true reli- 
 gion and godliness : sound principles of divine truth 
 known, — the savour of that knowledge in the heart, — and 
 the power of that savour in a man's worship and walk. 
 There are no sound principles of saving truth, but in and 
 from God's written Word. There is no right savour of 
 those principles, but in and by ' faith and love which 
 is in Christ Jesus.' — 2 Tim. i. 13, and iii. 15. It is by 
 ' this savour of the knowledge of Christ' (2 Cor. xi. 1 4), 
 that the power of godliness is impressed on the heart, 
 and expressed in the life of a believer. If the principles 
 of truth be not from God's Word, there can be no true 
 religion. If the truth professed be consonant to God's 
 Word, and faith and love be wanting, it may be a man's 
 notion and opinion, but it is not the man's religion. And 
 if the power of known truth be not in his walk and con- 
 versation, neither should he himself, nor ought any other 
 to think, that such a man hath any religion at all." 
 
 * Rev. Robert Traill of London, son of Rev. Robert Traill, Grey- 
 friars' Church, Edinburgh. 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY PREFACF. 
 
 Struck with the force of such truths, and with the 
 eventful signs of our own tiaies, it has been now thought 
 seasonable to repuMish, in a cheap form, some of the best 
 works of godly and learned divines, on the nature, grace, 
 duty, and life of faith ; of which works the three follow- 
 ing are a specimen. And, if encouragement be given, 
 the fourth will be a reprint of that valuable work by the 
 Rev. John Brown of Wamphray, entitled, " The Life of 
 Faith in Times of Trial and Affliction." 
 
 It is well known that the doctrine of faith is strangely 
 perverted and misunderstood by carnal men, — " the natu- 
 ral man not receiving the things of the Spirit of God ;" 
 that even many true Christians have confused and defec- 
 tive views of it ; and that all come far short in the prac- 
 tice of this grace. It is hoped, however, that the close, 
 serious, and prayerful perusal of such choice works as the 
 above mentioned, in connection with the Holy Scriptures, 
 — the only and infallible rule and ground of faith, — may, 
 through the Divine blessing, prove a means of correcting 
 mistakes of the nature, and promoting the exercise of 
 this grace, to the glory of God, and to the establishment 
 and comfort of true Christians in the present circum- 
 stances of the Church of Christ. 
 
 Our lot is cast in perilous and sifting times. The sour 
 leaven of Antichrist, and its foul exhalations of atheism and 
 immorahty, the never-failing products of a mock- Chris- 
 tianity, threaten to pervade the Reformed Churches. In 
 such times, and with such prospects in view, it would be 
 well for professing Christians deeply, solemnly, and wisely 
 to ponder the following apposite statements, by the same 
 enlightened and faithful confessor of Christ Jesus : — 
 
 " There are two sorts of mysteries spoke of in the New 
 
INTKODUCTORY PREFACE. 5 
 
 Testament, — ' the mystery of godliness,' which centres in 
 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, — 1 Tim. iii. 16 ; and ' the 
 mystery of iniquity,' which centres in Antichrist, ' the 
 man of sin, and the son of perdition,' — 2 Thess. ii. 3, 7. 
 These two mysteries are constant and direct contraries. 
 Whoever is ignorant, or an unbehever of ' the mystery 
 of godhness,' may be easily drawn or driven to be a be- 
 hever of ' the mystery of iniquity.' So it was foretold, 
 — 2 Thess. ii. 10-12; and accordingly, we daily see this 
 awful judgment of God executed upon many. Neither is 
 any thing more needful to make a man a real hater of 
 Popery, than to be a sincere believer on Jesus Christ. 
 It is true, that the excessive pride of the Pope and his 
 prelates, the cruelty of his domination, the frontless pro- 
 faneness of his synagogue, and the visible worldly craft of 
 his religion, is more than enough to make him and it 
 hateful to Pagans, Jews, Turks, and Infidels ; yet to hate 
 Popery spiritually, as it is a gross corruption of Christi- 
 anity (of which he falsely arrogates the name), is only 
 found with the elect of God : ' And all that dwell upon 
 the earth shall worship him ' (that is, the beast), * whose 
 names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb 
 slain from the foundation of the world.' — Rev. xiii. 8 ; 
 see also Rev. xviii. 8. 
 
 " It was not the clearness of light and knowledge, in 
 which this age doth much exceed the former, but the 
 power of known truth on the hearts of Christ's witnesses 
 against Antichrist (whether Papal or Cesarean), that car- 
 ried them so honourably through the fiery trial. 
 
 " It is unaccountable hypocrisy and folly in such as 
 pretend to be followers of such martyrs for Christ, in 
 their cause and testimony, and yet do mock that faith, 
 
G INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. 
 
 and love, and communion with God, which were their 
 support in their sufferings for it. If it be possible, it is 
 very rare and highly improbable, that a stranger to, much 
 more a mocker at, the power of godliness, should suffer 
 extremity, and that cheerfully, for the form of it." 
 
 He then goes on with a graphic sketch of a class which 
 may be fitly represented by some of our own infidels, 
 heretics, and semi-infidel Erastians : — 
 
 " We have also, in these last and perilous times, some 
 Antichrists that do deride both ' the mystery of godliness ' 
 and ' the mystery of iniquity.' They have no faith to take 
 up the glory of ' the mystery of godliness ;' but they have 
 sense and reason enough to take up the folly and knavery 
 of ' the mystery of iniquity :' a sort of men to whom may 
 be applied what the evil spirit said to the vagabond Jews, 
 exorcists, ' Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are 
 ye?' — Acts xix. 15. ... . Such men do not halt betwixt 
 God and Baal, betwixt Christ and Antichrist, but oppose 
 both. If they escape Antichrist's rage in this world, they 
 shall not escape the wrath of the Son of God in the next. 
 They are such as have both heaven and hell against them, 
 and fight against both. But whatever disturbance the 
 Church of Christ may meet with, and whatever danger 
 and loss particular men's souls may sustain by other dam- 
 nable heresies, yet the grand trial of the New Testament 
 Church, and the chief plague of the latter days, is from 
 Antichrist ; and no wise Christian can expect the fulfil- 
 ment of the prophecies of the glory of the Church of 
 Christ, but in and by the ruin of Antichrist, and of his 
 
 throne of iniquity And though Antichrist's throne 
 
 seems to be fixed by long possession, and the blindness 
 of most of the kings of Europe, yet there is that rotten- 
 
INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. 7 
 
 ness in its foundations, and that weight of wrath threat- 
 ened in the Word of God, which will sink it as a mill- 
 stone in the sea in due time." 
 
 The venerable Fox, in his " Book of Martyrs," g-ives 
 this as the reason of Luther's success against Poperv, 
 above all former attempts of preceding witnesses : — " But 
 Luther gave the stroke, and plucked down the foundation, 
 and all by opening one vein, long hid before, wherein 
 lieth the touchstone of all truth and doctrine, as the only 
 principal origin of our salvation : which is, our free jus- 
 tification, by faith only, in Christ the Son of God." 
 
 " He is a wise and happy man who anchors his soul on 
 that rock, at which he can ride out the storm of death. 
 Why should men contend for that in their Hfe, that they 
 know they must renounce at their death ? or neglect that 
 truth now, that they must betake themselves to then ? 
 Why should a man build a house, which he must leave in a 
 storm, or be buried in its ruins ? Many architects have at- 
 tempted to make a sure house of their own righteousness ; 
 but it is without a foundation, and must fall, or be thrown 
 down sorrowfully by the foolish builder — which is the bet- 
 ter way. It is a great test of the truth of the (Protestant) 
 doctrine about the way of salvation, when it is generally 
 approved of by sensible dying men ; and what the uni- 
 versal sense of all such in this case is, as to the righteous- 
 ness of Christ and their own, is obvious to any man. He 
 was an ingenuous Balaamite, who, being himself a Papist, 
 said to a Protestant, ' Our religion is best to live in, and 
 yours best to die in.' " ■' 
 
 '" TrailFs Doctrine of Justitication Vindicated. 
 
THE SCRIPTUEE DOCTRINE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 APPEOPRIATIOX 
 
 WHICH IS IN THE NATURE OF 
 
 SAVING FAITH 
 
 STATED AND ILLUSTRATED IN SEVERAL DISCOURSES. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN ANDERSON, D.D., S.T.P., 
 
 AND MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN SERVICE AND KING'S CREEK, 
 PENNSYLVANIA, U. S. 
 
 We believe, that.through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be 
 saved."— Acts XV. 11. 
 
 THE FOURTH EDITION. 
 
THE AUTHOR^S PREFACE. 
 
 Reader, — Our Lord Jesus directs his people to "go 
 forth by the footsteps of the flock;" and the faith we 
 should seak to obtain, is like precious faith with that of 
 all true believers who have gone before us. It is a great 
 encouragement to hold fact the doctrine conceminr^ the; 
 appropriation in the nature of saving laith, which is in- 
 sisted upon in the following Discourses, that there is a 
 remarkable harmony among the Confessions of the Pro- 
 testant Churches in asserting it. " We believe," say the 
 Reformed Churches of France, in the 20th article of their 
 Confession of Faith, " that we are made partakers of this 
 righteousness [of Christ] by faith alone ; as he hath said, 
 that he suffered for the procuring of our salvation, that 
 whosoever beheveth on him might not perish. And this 
 is the case, when the promises of life which are given us 
 in him are appropriated to our use ; and they rendered 
 effectual to us, when we receive them, not doubting, being 
 assured by the mouth of God that we shall not be disap- 
 pointed." The Confession of the Belgic Churches, as it 
 was revised and approved by the Synod of Dort, says, in 
 the 2 2d article, " We believe that the Holy Spirit kindles 
 true faith in our hearts ; which faith embraces Jesus 
 Christ, with all his merits, appropriates and makes him 
 
4 THE AUTHORS PREFACE. 
 
 its own, nor ever seeks any thing without him." The 
 Augsburg- Confession, article 20 : " We are to hold, that 
 the remission of sins is given to us, and of unjust we are 
 made just ; that is, reconciled, accepted, and sons of God, 
 freely for Christ's sake ; not for the sake of the worthi- 
 ness of our contrition, or of any other works going before 
 or following. This benefit is to be received by faith ; 
 whereby we are to believe, that, for Christ's sake, remis- 
 sion of sins and justification are freely given to us." — 
 " The faith we speak of does not only signify historical 
 knowledge, but the belief or confidence of the promise of 
 mercy, which comes for the sake of Christ the Mediator." 
 The Confession of the Churches of Saxony, which was 
 presented to the Council of Trent in tbx year 1551, in 
 lUe article, of the Remission of Sins and Justification, we 
 have these words : — " Faith signifies not only historical 
 knowledge, such as is in devils (for they are said to ' be- 
 lieve, and tremble'); but it signifies the embracing of all 
 the articles of faith ; and particularly of this article, — / 
 believe the remission of sins ; I believe that this remis- 
 sion is given not only to others, but to me also. This 
 faith is a confidence, acquiescing in the Mediator — behold- 
 ing and embracing the promises." The National Cove- 
 nant of Scotland : — " We detest and refuse his [Anti- 
 christ's] desperate and uncertain repentance, his general 
 and doubtsome faith." Larger Catechism of the West- 
 minster Assembly, question 73 : — " Justifying faith is a 
 saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the 
 Spirit and Word of God ; whereby he not only assenteth 
 to the truth of the promise of the Gospel, but receiveth 
 and resteth upon Christ, and his righteousness, therein 
 held forth, for the pardon of sins, and the accepting and 
 accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God, for 
 
THE AUTHOR S PREFACE, 5 
 
 salvation.'' To be satisfied that the Assembly mean the 
 same fiducial application of Christ, and his righteousness, 
 as is meant in the other Confessions of the Protestant 
 Churches, the reader is desired to consider their words in 
 connection with the texts of Scripture which they quote, 
 namely, Philip, iii. 9 ; Acts xv. II. 
 
 A (ew sentences may be added from two eminent lights 
 of the Church. Augustine (Serm. 1 6, de verb. Apost.) : — 
 " If we say we have no righteousness, we lie against the 
 gifts of God, nor have we any faith. If we have no faith, 
 we are not Christians." Again (in Psal. 31): — "We 
 ought to put no works before faith, — I mean, works that 
 can be called good. The works that are said to be before 
 faith, however commendable they may appear to men, are 
 mere vanity. They seem to me to be but great strength" 
 exerted in running- out of the way. Let no man reckon 
 upon his works done before faith. Where there was no 
 faith, there was no g-ood works." 
 
 Pareus ( Themate Seculari de fugiend. Pap. Rom.) : — 
 " The saving faith to which we believe unto righteous- 
 ness, is not only a knowledge of, or assent to, these things 
 which are written in the Word of God ; but especially, 
 a confident persuasion of the promise of the Gospel con- 
 cerning the remission of sins, for the sake of the merit of 
 Christ. To believe that God is God, and that Christ is 
 Christ, without application to thyself, will avail thee no 
 more, than to believe that Venice is a most opulent city, 
 while you have not a house, nor the least concern in it. 
 
 The faith which is described in the ensuing Sermons, 
 prevailed in the hearts of the patriarchs and prophets, 
 martyrs and confessors, by which they " subdued king- 
 doms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises." It is 
 that faith which leads the soul directly to Christ, as offered 
 
6 THE author's preface. 
 
 in the promises of the Gospel, without waiting for any 
 previous qualifications, and to improve him for sanctifica- 
 tion as well as justification, by looking- unto him for all 
 the endowments necessary thereunto. 
 
 February, 1793. 
 
 N.B — A few of the foot-notes, marked (R), to dis- 
 tinguish them from the Author's notes, are by the Editor 
 of the second edition, and were reprinted in the third, 
 which was published in Philadelphia, 1823. 
 
THE 
 
 SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 OF 
 
 SAVING FAITH. 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 " This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of 
 his Son Jesus Christ." — 1 John iii. 23. 
 
 Many are forward to make the profession which we 
 have in the 22d verse of this chapter, " We keep the 
 commandments of God ;" who, if they had a right under- 
 standing" of the following words, " This is his command- 
 ment, That we should believe on the name of his Son 
 Jesus Christ," would be no less astonished and con- 
 founded, than a certain young- man was, when our Lord 
 Jesus said to him, " Go, sell what thou hast, and give 
 to the poor." 
 
 The doctrine of believing in the name of Jesus Christ, 
 though declared in Scripture with great plainness, is so 
 very remote from our natural apprehensions, that, while 
 we discourse on the object, the act, the duty, and the 
 EFFECTS, of this beheving, we have peculiar need to look 
 up to the Father of lights for his pity and direction. 
 
 We 2Lxe,Jlrsty to consider the object of faith, or that in 
 which we are to believe, which is, " The name of Jesus 
 Christ the Son of God." 
 
 The name of Jesus Christ is himself, as made known 
 to us by supernatural revelation in the Holy Scriptures, 
 
8 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 SO the name of God is God himself, made known to us 
 in his word and works. Again, the name of Jesus Christ 
 denotes his person ; for so the word narae is used in 
 Scripture. — Acts i. 15. 
 
 But to enter into some particular consideration of this 
 name, we observe. 
 
 In the first place. That the object of saving faith is 
 THE Son of God : not in the sense wherein saints and 
 ang-els are called sons of God, but in such a sense as 
 carries in it necessary existence and supreme Deity. He 
 denied not, but allowed the justness of, the inference 
 which the Jews drew from his declaring- that God was 
 his Father, namely, that " he made himself equal with 
 God." — John v. 18, 19. For when they told him so, he 
 " answered and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the 
 Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the 
 Father do ; for what things soever He doeth, these also 
 doeth the Son likewise." Now, it would be blasphemy 
 to say of any one who is not equal with God, that what- 
 soever God the Father doeth he doeth likewise. So we 
 must understand the profession which the Ethiopian 
 eunuch made of his faith in order to baptism, " I believe 
 that Jesus Christ is the Son of God ;" that is, he is so the 
 Son of God as to be himself the only true God ; " whose 
 name alone is Jehovah, the most high over all the earth ;" 
 who made all things, and without whom was not any 
 thing made that was made ; who upholdeth all things 
 by the word of his power. Indeed, it is manifest, that 
 none can rationally or warrantably be believed or trusted 
 in for the salvation of our souls, but He who is God all- 
 sufficient, — who claims the honour of being a Saviour as 
 his incommunicable prerogative : " I, even I, am the 
 Lord, and besides me there is no Saviour." — Isa. xliii. 11. 
 The glorious object which faith apprehends, is the great 
 God our Saviour, exerting his infinite perfections in the 
 work of our salvation. 
 
 The name of the Son of God implies, that in the ab- 
 solute unity and simplicity of the divine Being or Essence, 
 there are more persons than one; for Son supposes 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. V 
 
 Father. Accordingly, we are assured that there are three 
 that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and 
 the Holy Ghost ; and these three are one. So that, when 
 we believe in the Son of God, we believe that in the 
 only true God there are three distinct persons, the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Spirit ; we also believe, that the 
 Father sent his. only begotten Son in the character of 
 Mediator ; and that the sending of hira in that character 
 supposed him to be the Son of God, but did not make 
 him so, the name Son denoting his personal relation, not 
 his office. He is the Son of God by eternal and neces- 
 sary generation ; whereas he is Mediator by his voluntary 
 undertaking. Thus, there can be no believing on the 
 Son of God, while the Scripture doctrine of the Trinity 
 is rejected. By the denial or the corruption of this truth, 
 which is the foundation of the Christian religion, multi- 
 tudes, at this day, are bringing upon themselves swift 
 destruction. 
 
 In the second place. The object of faith is Jesus ; 
 a word of Hebrew original, signifying the Saviour ; 
 intimating what we are to believe in him for, namely, 
 salvation, or deliverance from sin and wrath : " And she 
 shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name 
 Jesus ; for he shall save his people from their sins." — 
 Matt. i. 21. " His Son Jesus, who delivered us from the 
 wrath which is to come." — 1 Thess. i. 10. The Saviour 
 of the world is the character wherein he is set forth to 
 us in the Gospel : " We have seen, and do testify, that 
 the Father sent the Son, the Saviour of the world." — 1 
 John iv. 14. The salvation of sinners was the errand on 
 which he came : " This is a faithful saying, and worthy 
 of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world 
 to save sinners." — 1 Tim. i. 1 5. " The Son of man is 
 come to seek and to save that which was lost." — Luke 
 xix. 10. By his obedience unto death, even the death 
 of the cross, he obtained, not what some call easy terms 
 or conditions of salvation, but salvation itself. He 
 finished the work that the Father gave him to do, having 
 fully satisfied the demands of law and justice, so that 
 
] THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 nothing remained to be done in the way of procuring ; 
 nothing remained but that each of his people should, 
 according to the order settled in the covenant of grace, 
 enter, first, upon the begun possession of salvation in the 
 day of effectual calling ; and, afterwards, upon the full 
 and eternal possession of it in the other world. 
 
 The supposition that the design of Christ's obedience 
 unto death was to obtain easy terms of salvation for men, 
 is contrary to the nature of the covenant of grace ; ac- 
 cording to which the gift of God'"' is eternal life, in the 
 beginning, the progress, and consummation of it, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord ; to the absolute exclusion of 
 creature boasting ; particularly of that boasting, to which 
 the creature's performance of certain prescribed terms or 
 conditions gives occasion. The purport of the everlast- 
 ing covenant is, " I will give you the sure mercies of 
 David." It leaves no room for the scheme of suspending 
 our salvation upon certain terms or conditions to be per- 
 formed by us, — since there is nothing that can be con- 
 sidered as a condition of salvation, but what is to be 
 found among the promised blessings of that covenant, 
 being a part of the promised salvation. This is mani- 
 festly the case with respect to faith, repentance, and new 
 obedience : " In his name shall the Gentiles trust. I 
 will give them a new heart ; a new spirit will I put with- 
 in them : I will take away the stony heart out of their 
 ilesh, and I will give them an heart of flesh : I will put 
 my Spirit within them, and cause them to walk in my 
 statutes. They shall look upon me whom they have 
 pierced, and they shall mourn for him." Besides, in the 
 promises which the Father made to Christ, the fulfilment 
 of all righteousness, or Christ's going through a course 
 of service and suffering in a state of humiliation, is repre- 
 
 * Rom. vi. 23. The gift of Ood, by way of eminence ; his gift to 
 poor sinners, who, in themselves, are as worthy of eternal death, as the 
 labourer is worthy of his wages. That which is most worthy of God, 
 as being of all his gifts the freest, the richest, and the most glorifying 
 to all his perfections, is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord ; that is, 
 eternal life given us freely for the sake of Him whose name is, the 
 
 LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 1 1 
 
 sented as the only condition upon which the salvation 
 of his people, or their attainment of grace and glory, 
 was suspended, and by which it was to be fully and in- 
 fallibly secured. " When thou shalt make his soul, or, 
 when his soul shall make itself, an offering for sin, he 
 shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the 
 pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall 
 see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied : by 
 his knov.ledge shall my righteous servant justify many ; 
 for he shall bear their iniquities : Therefore will I divide 
 him a portion with the great ; and he shall divide the 
 spoil with the strong ; because he hath poured out his 
 soul unto death." Now, it is manifest, that the whole 
 salvation of his people, their faith, holiness, and comfort, 
 are included in Christ seeing his seed, — in his seeing the 
 travail of his soul, and being satisfied : and therefore, 
 since Christ, bearing the iniquities of his people in obe- 
 dience unto death, even the death of the cross, infallibly 
 secured the latter, that is, his seeing his seed, or the tra- 
 vail of his soul ; it no less infallibly secured the former, 
 that is, the faith, hohness, and comfort, the whole salva- 
 tion, of his people. 
 
 Thus the object of faith is Jesus the Saviour. Those 
 who regard any thing besides Him, as what they are to 
 rest upon, in whole or in part, for salvation, whether it 
 be under the notion of merit, or of a condition, or of a 
 recom.mending predisposing qualification, are attempting 
 to rob him of the glory of his name. " He is despised 
 and rejected of men ;" of all who do not rely on him for 
 the whole of their salvation. In the name Jesus, faith 
 beholds the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
 ending, of our salyation. This name is to all believers as 
 " ointment poured forth ;" an unfailing spring of comfort 
 in all their tribulations. Blessed Jesus ! they that know 
 thy name will put their trust in thee : the desire of their 
 souls will be to thy name, and to the remembrance of 
 thee. 
 
 In the third place. The object of faith is called Christ, 
 a word of Greek original, signifying Anointed. This 
 
] ^ THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 rjiame hath respect to his being set up from everlasting 
 as the covenant-head and surety of his people : " I was 
 set up," or, as some read it, " I was anointed, from ever- 
 lasting." — Prov. viii. 23. As also, to the Father's 
 sending him in his incarnation : " Say ye of him whom 
 the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou 
 blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God ?"— 
 John X. 36 ; and to the public and illustrious manner in 
 which the Father declared his acceptance of the person 
 and righteousness of his beloved Son as our representa- 
 tive and surety, when there came such a voice from the 
 excellent glory, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
 well pleased ;" and when he was raised from the dead, 
 and received up into glory ; and, lastly, to the super- 
 abundant measure in which the Holy Spirit was com- 
 municated to his human nature, fitting him for the exe- 
 cution of his mediatorial offices : " For God giveth not 
 the Spirit by measure unto him." — John iii. 34. This 
 was signified by the Holy Ghost descending upon him at 
 his baptism in the form of a dove ; and had been fully 
 declared in the Old Testament : " And there shall come 
 a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow 
 out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest 
 upon him," — Isa. xi. 1, 2 : " The Spirit of the Lord 
 God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to 
 preach good tidings to the meek." — Isa. Ixi. 1. The 
 Spirit, which God gave not by measure unto him, rested 
 and abode upon him through the whole course of his 
 humiliation ; but was eminently and illustriously upon 
 him as a spirit of gladness, in his state of exaltation : 
 " Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness ; 
 therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil 
 of gladness above thy fellows." — Fsal. xlv. ?• As David 
 was thrice anointed to the kingly office, — first, at Beth- 
 lehem by Samuel ; and next, at Hebron by the men of 
 Judah ; and again, at Hebron by the tribes of Israel ; so 
 there were three remarkable anointings of our Lord Jesus 
 — the first, at his incarnation ; the second, at his baptism, 
 when he was entering upon his public ministry ; and the 
 
OP SAVING FAITH. 13 
 
 third, which was of all the most illustrious, in his resur- 
 rection and ascension.'"^ 
 
 He who is the object of our faith is called Christ, or, 
 the anointed One, in relation to his prophetical, priestly, 
 and king-ly offices, and in allusion to the instances we 
 have in the Old Testament, of persons being anointed 
 when they were invested with these offices. Instances 
 of anointing- to the kingly office are common in the Old 
 Testament. Of anointing to the prophetical office, we 
 have an instance in the case of Elisha the son of Shaphan. 
 With respect to the priestly office, the command is ex- 
 press, " Thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and con- 
 secrate them, that they may minister in the priest's office." 
 — Exod. xxviii. 41. 
 
 Faith views its glorious object as our Great High 
 PiiiEST,t unspeakably excelling the priests of the order of 
 Aaron. These were but mere men; He is a divine 
 person, the only true, the supreme, and necessarily ex- 
 istent, God. Their offerings were of no value, but as 
 they served to shadow forth the one offering of Christ, 
 and to direct the faith of church members to Him. They 
 were made without an oath ; but He with an oath, by 
 Him that said unto him, " Thou art a priest for ever 
 after the order of Melchizedek." Of his three offices, 
 the priesthood alone is confirmed with an oath ; because 
 it is a matter of supernatural revelation, most remote 
 from our natural apprehension ; and because it is the 
 foundation of the other offices -,% for he could not be a 
 
 * Witsius in Symbolura, de nomine Christi. 
 
 'Y Faith receives Christ as Priest, King, and Prophet : though as 
 Christ, iu the order of his offices was first a Priest, undertaking to 
 satisfy for sin ; then as a Prophet and King, to rule and guide his 
 people to eternal life ; so faith, in order of nature, first looketh on him 
 as a Priest for reconciliation with God ; then as a Prophet and King, 
 for illumination and sanctification. — Troughton^s Liitherus Redivivus, 
 chap. X. 
 
 X Some have quarrelled this expression, that Christ's priestly office 
 is the foundation of his prophetical and kingly offices. But, whatever 
 may be said about the mode of expression, the sentiment appears ex- 
 ceedingly just. Christ would have had no business among sinning 
 men, more than among fallen angels, as a Divine Teacher, by his Word 
 and Spirit, had he not become their surety, to redeem them from the 
 
14 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 prophet or a king- of his people, but on condition of his 
 submitting as their great High Priest, to give himself 
 for them, " an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet- 
 smelling savour." 
 
 The priests under the law were said to offer gifts and 
 sacrifices for sins. The sacrifice that Christ offered was 
 himself, in respect of his human nature. His divine 
 nature was the altar which sanctified the gift or offering, 
 rendering it of infinite value and virtue. The offering 
 up of himself was begun in his incarnation, carried on 
 through his life, and finished at his death. The effect 
 of it was nothing Jess than the expiation of all the sins 
 of his people, and their full reconciliation to God. For 
 " by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are 
 sanctified." Hence the Lord represents the efficacy of 
 this offering, by saying, " I will remove the iniquity of 
 the land in one day.'' — Zech. iii. 9. In this oblation, 
 faith beholds the sure foundation and full security of our 
 pardon and acceptance with God. 
 
 It was part of the office of the High Priest under the 
 law to intercede for the people ; but the intercession of 
 our Lord Jesus is infinitely superior ; which is not barely 
 the offering up of a desire to God, like the intercession 
 of the saints for one another ; but is a glorious represen- 
 tation of that will of Jesus whereby we are sanctified, 
 founded on the dignity of his person, on his infinitely 
 meritorious obedience unto death, and on the everlasting 
 covenant or council of peace, which was between the 
 Father and him from eternity ; and therefore, his man- 
 ner of speaking in his intercessory prayer, is so majestic 
 and peremptory, as would be unbecoming and presumptu- 
 ous in any other than him who is the Son of God, the 
 Father's equal, the surety of the better covenant : " Father, 
 I will that those whom thou hast given me, be with me 
 
 curse, and procure a special right to dominion over them, and in them, 
 as their Sovereign Lord. — Rom. xiv. 8, 9, &c. So it was most neces- 
 sary that Christ should be a partaker of our nature, in order to serve, 
 suffer, and intercede, as a Priest. — See Oiven on Hehreios^ vol. i, p. 225, 
 of the Exposition. (R.) 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 15 
 
 where I am, to behold ray glory," — I will, not I heg or 
 entreat. Such is the dignity, authority, and efficacy, of 
 his intercession, that it can no more, without blasphemy, 
 be ascribed to any other, than his oblation, on which it 
 is founded, and with which it is inseparably connected. 
 The prevailing intercession of our Lord Jesus proclaims 
 to the whole Church, that "the Lord is well pleased for his 
 righteousness sake ;" and that every believer is " blessed" 
 for ever " with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places 
 in Christ Jesus ;" and that whatsoever we ask in Christ's 
 name shall be given us, — believing prayer being a sort of 
 echo of Christ's intercession. 
 
 Again, faith views its glorious object as our anointed 
 Prophet. By nature we are utterly blind to the things 
 of the Spirit of God ; for the natural man receiveth not 
 the things of the Spirit of God ; neither can he know 
 them. For this deplorable case, we have an adequate 
 remedy in our Lord Jesus Christ, as he is set forth in 
 such passages of Scripture as these : " I will give thee 
 for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles, 
 to open the blind eyes." — Isa. xlii. 6, 7. " Thus saith 
 the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, who 
 teacheth thee to profit, who leadeth thee by the way thou 
 shouldest go." — Isa. xlviiiv 17. The prophets under the 
 Old Testament instructed the people, foretold things to 
 come, and confirmed their doctrine by miracles. Our 
 Lord Jesus was, no doubt, greatly superior in what he 
 spoke and did, in the course of his personal ministry 
 among the Jews, to all the prophets that went before 
 him ; yet we would have a defective and erroneous 
 notion of his prophetical ofifice, were we to consider it as 
 wholly or even chiefly executed in his personal ministry, 
 while he was in that state of humiliation, the proper and 
 peculiar design of which was the fulfilment of his priestly 
 undertaking. Here we are to distinguish between the 
 general nature of Christ's prophetical office, and the pecu- 
 liar manner of his executing it in a state of humiliation, 
 as a minister of the circumcision, and in obedience to the 
 law as a covenant of works, which bound him to teach- 
 
16 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 ing, as well as other good works. When we consider his 
 teaching with respect to this manner of it, or as what he 
 did in the character of a bond-servant, we justly main- 
 tain that it belongs to his surety-righteousness, which 
 was wrought out for, and is imputed to, his people for 
 their justification. But with respect to the general 
 nature of Christ's prophetical office, which is the reveal- 
 ing of the will of God to his people for their salvation, 
 the execution of it was no way peculiar to the time of 
 his personal ministry in the days of his flesh, but has 
 been going on from the giving of the first promise till 
 now. The external revelation that he gave to the Church 
 under the Old Testament, while there was only a part of 
 the Scriptures in the hands of church members, was more 
 obscure ; but the external revelation that he gave to the 
 Church under the New Testament, by completing the 
 canon of Scripture, is far more clear and full. He has 
 now given to his people all the external revelation of the 
 will of God for their salvation, that they have to expect 
 till the end of time. The Bible, as we have it in our 
 hands, is Christ's last will and testament, to which nothing 
 is to be added, either by new revelations of the Spirit or 
 traditions of men. Christ is even now externally exe- 
 cuting his prophetical office amongst us, in his word ^nd 
 ordinances : in these he is " speaking to us from heaven." 
 Christ teaches inwardly and effectually by his Spirit : 
 he not only gives outward instruction, but an heart to 
 receive it, — he opens our understanding to understand 
 the Scriptures. The supernatural teaching of the Holy 
 Spirit is necessary to our attaining of* the saving know- 
 ledge and application of what we are taught in Scripture ; 
 but adds no new matter to what we are taught there. The 
 teaching of the Spirit attends the teaching of the Word ; 
 and we have no ground to expect the former, where the 
 latter is wanting. Christ is bringing in his sheep, by the 
 effectual working of his Spirit, in those places only in 
 which he is teaching by his Word, contained in the Scrip- 
 tures of the Old and New Testament ; for faith cometh 
 by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 1 7 
 
 Farther, faith beholds its object as that glorious King, 
 whom God hath set upon his holy hill of Zion. Faith 
 views him as the irresistible Conqueror of that enmity 
 which naturally reigns in the hearts of sinners : " Thy 
 people shall be willing in the day of thy power," — Psal. 
 ex. 8 ; and as the irresistible Conqueror of Satan, in whose 
 possession the sinner is by nature : " When a strong man 
 armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace/' — Luke 
 xi. 21. Thus our poor souls are by nature Satan's palace, 
 of which he is represented as having peaceable possession, 
 because there is a willing subjection to him, or, which is 
 in effect the same thing, to the dominion of sin. But it 
 follows in the next verse, " When a stronger than he 
 shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from 
 him all his armour, wherein he trusted, and divideth the 
 spoil." The stronger one than Satan is our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who binds Satan ; so that he has no more that 
 absolute commanding power over the soul which he had 
 before. Again, " All his armour is taken from him, 
 wherein he trusted," when the soul is delivered from the 
 law as a covenant, so that Satan can no more exercise his 
 power over the soul, by virtue of that broken law from 
 which the soul is fled to Christ ; and when the soul is 
 renewed in all its faculties ; so that, though there be still 
 remainders of corruption, yet these, being effectually op- 
 posed by the newly implanted principle of grace, cannot 
 give Satan that absolute dominion which he formerly had. 
 It is added, " He divideth the spoil ;" he gives everlast- 
 ing salvation to the poor soul, and takes all the glory to 
 himself. Again, faith beholds the King of Zion, not only 
 as the almighty Conqueror, but as the faithful Keeper, 
 of the soul. " I give unto them eternal life ; and they 
 shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of 
 mine hand," — John x. 28. "I know whom I have be- 
 lieved, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that 
 which I have committed unto him against that day." — 
 2 Tim. i. 12. Faith beholds him, not only as our great 
 High Priest, who hath delivered us from the law as a 
 covenant, but also as our King, giving forth the same pure 
 
18 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 and perfect law as a rule of life. Though believers are 
 not under the law as in the hand of God absolutely con- 
 sidered, or according- to the covenant of works, — that is, 
 either to be justified or condemned by it, they being jus- 
 tified already, and set free from liableness to condemna- 
 tion, so that they have nothing to do with the law in that 
 respect, it being dead to them, and they to it, — yet the 
 authority by which the law, as a rule of life, is given forth 
 to believers, and is binding upon them, is the authority 
 of God-Creator as well as of God-Redeemer ; for it can 
 lose nothing of its authority or obligation by being in the 
 hand of Christ, who " is the brightness of his Father's 
 glory, and the express image of his person. All things 
 were made by him, and without him was not made any 
 thing made that was made." The law that believers are 
 under as a rule of life being regarded as in Christ's hand, 
 is called the law of Christ : " Bear ye one another's bur- 
 dens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." — Gal. vi. 2. " Being 
 not without the law to God, but under the law to Christ." 
 — 1 Cor. ix. 21. And how persuasive and endearing is 
 the manner in which he gives his commands to his people ! 
 He says to each of them, " My son, bind them continu- 
 ally upon thine heart; tie them about thy neck. When 
 thou goest, it shall lead thee ; when thou sleepest, it shall 
 keep thee ; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with 
 thee." According to the measure or exercise of faith, it 
 will be the great desire and endeavour of believers to walk 
 in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord 
 blameless. This is their great encouragement, that he 
 calls his people to no duty without allowing them a suf- 
 ficiency of grace and strength to carry them through the 
 performance of it ; saying to each of them, " My grace 
 is sufficient for thee ; and my strength shall be made per- 
 fect in weakness. As thy days, so shall thy strength be." 
 Faith likewise beholds a gracious exercise of his kingly 
 authority, in the correction or chastisements of his people ; 
 for he will "not suffer sin upon" his people, — he will "in 
 any wise rebuke them." Both his love to them, and the 
 glory of his infinite holiness, require that he should mani- 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 17 
 
 fest his displeasure with sin regarded in their heart, or 
 breaking- out in their practice. " As many as I love, I 
 rebuke and chasten." — Rev. iii. 19. " Beware of him, and 
 obey his voice : provoke him not ; for he will not pardon 
 your transgressions " — (Exod. xxiii. 21) ; that is, he will 
 not connive at or countenance their transgressions, but 
 will have them brought to a deep and humbling sense of 
 the heinousness and aggravations of them. Surely a gra- 
 cious heart would tremble to think of the heavy correc- 
 tions by which the Lord often manifests his displeasure 
 with the sins of his own people. Hence the Psalmist 
 says, " My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid 
 of thy judgments." Though a person that has truly be- 
 lieved on the Son of God shall never be cast into hell, 
 yet a sort of hell may, for a time, be cast into him. Such 
 was the case of Job, described in these words : — " The 
 arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison where- 
 of drinketh up my spirits." But faith gets a satisfying 
 view of the heaviest correction, under the management of 
 their merciful and gracious King, as not against their per- 
 sons, but against their corruptions, and as " light afflic- 
 tions, which are but for a moment, working for them a 
 far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The 
 enemies of our salvation, within and without, are numer- 
 ous and powerful ; but if we have the true faith of that 
 glorious victory over them which our King and Head 
 hath obtained, in his own person, and in our name, we 
 will have a real persuasion, that, through him, we shall 
 be overcomers at last. He may, indee d, for holy and wise 
 ends, suffer believers t o^fall gr ievously ; but he will raise 
 them up again, as he did Peter, with bitter weeping, — 
 restoring their souls, causing themTwith renewed strength, 
 to walk in the paths of righteousness, for his name's sake. 
 Faith beholds the warfare in believers against indwelling 
 sin, Satan, and the world, as going on under the hand of 
 Zion's King, to a complete victory and triumph. Hence 
 the apostle, having uttered that mournful complaint, " O 
 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the 
 body of this death?" immediately adds, " I thank God 
 
18 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord ;" or, as it may be sup- 
 pHed from 1 Cor. xv. 57, "Thanks be to God, who giveth 
 us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Faith 
 beholds the power and authority of Zion's King illustri- 
 ously displayed in the erection and maintenance of his 
 visible Church in the world ; in preserving the doctrine, 
 worship, discipline, and government thereof, pure and 
 entire ; and in directing all the concernments thereof to 
 a most blessed and glorious issue. Is there one of the 
 truths or institutions of our Lord Jesus Christ which men 
 are peculiarly intent upon having buried in oblivion ? 
 Faith beholds, in his kingly office, good security for the 
 resurrection of such a truth or institution, and for its being 
 made to shine forth with distinguished lustre. " His name," 
 which includes all the truths and ordinances wherein he 
 makes himself known, " shall endure for ever ; his name 
 shall be continued as long as the sun." The preservation 
 of such truths and ordinances is the cause of his people ; 
 and their " Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is his 
 name ; he shall thoroughly plead their cause." By the 
 revival of such truths, in the profession and power there- 
 of, he will carry on the work of building up his Church, 
 which belongs to him, as her King. For, " Behold the 
 man whose name is The Branch; and he shall grow up 
 out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord ; 
 even he shall build the temple of the Lord ; and he shall 
 bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne ; 
 and he shall be a Priest upon his throne." 
 
 Thus we have given some account, from the Scripture, 
 of that Name which is the object of faith, which is " as 
 ointment poured forth," and which all behevers will dwell 
 on to eternity, with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
 What we have farther to offer, on this part of our subject, 
 shall be in answer to three questions. 
 
 The Jirst is. Whether such principles as the being of 
 God, the immortality of the soul, a future state of rewards 
 and punivshments, as they are known by human reason in 
 its present corrupted state, are to be considered as objects 
 
OP SAVING FAITH. 19 
 
 of faith, or as the foundation on which the Gospel, or the 
 faith of the Gospel, is built ? 
 
 Answer. It is absurd to call such truths as those now 
 mentioned, objects or matters of faith, while they are 
 known and considered no otherwise than as matters of 
 reason. Faith is a particular way of apprehending things ; 
 and nothing- can be said to be the matter or object of a 
 divine faith, but as it is apprehended to be revealed in the 
 Word of God — as it is seen in the light of a supernatural 
 testimony, or in the face of Jesus Christ.* 
 
 We allow that there are many truths concerning the 
 being and perfections of God, and concerning the relation 
 we stand in to him, which our reason, corrupted as it is, 
 does not fail to suggest. These truths, not as matters 
 
 * The doctrine contained in these words of the apostle, " He that 
 cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of 
 them that diligently seek him " (Heb. xi. 6), is far more sublime than 
 anjiihing that can be kno-vm by the light of nature. For, 1. To " be- 
 lieve that God is," is to give credit to the testimony wherein he hath 
 revealed his name, his perfections, and the riches of his all-sufficiency ; 
 for faith is knowledge founded singly on the testimony of God : and 
 since God hath revealed himself in his Word as well able to be the Salva- 
 tion of the sinner, it follows, that a person does not truly believe that God 
 is, unless he believes the Gospel, as it gives God the praise of his being 
 well able to "justify the ungodly;" for this is included in the notion of 
 God, as he reveals himself in his Word. 2. God might be " what he is," 
 as to his all-sufficiency, though it were not his will to be the God and 
 Salvation of the sinner. Hence faith does not stop here ; for it also 
 believes that God is actually " the rewarder of them that diligently seek 
 him ;" according to his own declaration, " I said not unto the seed of 
 Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain," — Isa. xlv, 19. 3, Another principle 
 of faith is, that God is to be sought as our chief good, with diligence 
 and deep concern ; and that we " must come to him." Here it is sup- 
 posed that God has given us a testimony, wherein he hath shown us the 
 way wherein poor man, in his present fallen condition, may seek him, 
 and come to him. It is certain, the sinner cannot " seek God," unless 
 he seek also the righteousness of God ; nor may he look for salvation, 
 but in such a way as declares and magnifies that righteousness. — Rom. 
 iii. 26. Nor is it fit that he should " come to God" without such an 
 atoning and interceding High Priest as the apostle says " became us " 
 (Heb. \\\. 26), or otherwise than is included in Him who " engaged his 
 heart to approach unto God " on our behalf, in our name. — Jer. xxx. 21, 
 
 They utterly mistake the apostle's meaning, who suppose that there is 
 nothing in the words now considered, but what natural religion teaches ; 
 for the knowledge of God, such as it is, Avhich men attain by the light 
 of nature, is not " faith," nor is it sufficient to salvation, nor by it can 
 any one ''please God." 
 
20 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 of faith, but as dictates of reason, are supposed and im- 
 plied in all the doctrines of revelation ; and whoever is 
 an enemy of the former, must be much more an enemy 
 of the latter. On the other hand, the knowledge of thing's 
 by reason, is a different kind of apprehension from that 
 of faith — as the way of apprehending- things by the out- 
 ward sense is of a different kind from both the former ; 
 and though there can be no real contradiction among the 
 truths of God, yet, such is the natural corruption of the 
 human mind, and so great is the distance between the 
 truths that are knowable by human reason and the pecu- 
 liar doctrines of revelation, that the latter can never be 
 so represented to the understanding of an unrenewed man, 
 as to make him discern that they have a sure and satisfy- 
 ing foundation in the former. Nothing less than this 
 can be meant by the apostle in 1 Cor. ii. 14, " The natural 
 man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; they 
 are foolishness to him ; neither can he know them, because 
 they are spiritually discerned."* 
 
 ^' " The natural man," so called by the apostle (homo animalis), 
 the rational man, who has no other principle of action than his own 
 mind, or natural reason, does not perceive the things of the Spirit of 
 God ; they exceed his reasoning powers, and, after all his efforts, he 
 cannot know them, so as to form a right judgment of them. Where- 
 fore ? " Because they are spiritually discerned." They belong to a 
 sublimer sjihere, which the axioms or principles of natural reason do 
 not reach. 
 
 There is another cause why men cannot discern a foundation for the 
 peculiar doctrines of revelation, in the axioms or principles of reason, 
 beside the sublimity of these doctrines ; which is, that the reason of all 
 natural men is now so corrupt, and even blind, especially with respect 
 to the things of God, that they are continually taking gross errors for 
 iixioms and principles of reason. 
 
 Excellent are the words of Lord Bacon, in his Treatise concerning 
 the Improvement of the Sciences, in the beginning of the ninth book. 
 " The prerogative of God," says he, "extends to the whole man — to 
 our reason as well as our will ; for man must deny himself altogether, 
 in coming to God. Wherefore, as we are bound to obey the divine law, 
 notwithstanding the reluctance of the will ; so we are to give credit to 
 the Word of God, notwithstanding the reluctance of reason ; for if we 
 believe those things only in the Scripture which are agreeable to our 
 reason, we assent to the reasonableness of the things, but give no credit 
 to the Testifier of them — as we use to deal with witnesses of a suspected 
 character. Moreover, there is something more excellent in believing 
 than in mere knowledge ; for in knowledge, the mind is acted upon by 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 21 
 
 The embracing of a divine truth, upon the immediate 
 view that a renewed understanding has of God's autho- 
 rity shining in some passage of the Holy Scriptures, where 
 that truth is really taught, is a very different thing from our 
 assent to a truth, because it is agreeable to our natural rea- 
 son. The dictates of natural reason may, indeed, be made 
 use of to show men the inexcusableness of their unbelief, 
 and to excite believers to the more lively exercise of faith, 
 but they may in many cases be sufficient to answer these 
 purposes, and yet be utterly insufficient to be a foundation 
 of faith. Thus our Lord excites the disciples to a cheer- 
 ful trust in the providence of their heavenly Father, from 
 this consideration, that they were better, or of more im- 
 portance, than the birds or beasts, of which they saw his 
 providential care so conspicuous. This rational considera- 
 tion was proposed as a motive to their faith, but not a 
 
 sense, which results from material things ; but in faith, the soul is acted 
 upon by a soul," says Lord Bacon : I would rather say, b)' the Spirit 
 of God, who is a nobler agent. 
 
 The hearts and minds of unregenerate men are far from being thus 
 subjected to the authority of the Word of God. Such, however, may 
 have a knowledge of much revealed truth ; and with respect to the variety 
 and arrangements of their notions, and suitable utterance, they may, and 
 it is probable often do, excel real Christians. But this is not to be 
 ascribed to the force of the ordinary light of natural reason and con- 
 science, but to the peculiar heightening of that light by the common 
 influences or operations of the Holy Spirit, which persons partake of in 
 the visible Church, for her benefit. 
 
 But the light of that knowledge is of a different kind, which, being 
 inseparably accompanied with the love of the truth, and mth the sanctifi- 
 cation of the inner man, is kindled in the souls of the elect by the Spirit 
 of Christ, which he purchased for them, and which flows from him as 
 the Head, into them as the members of his mystical body. The Holy 
 Spirit endues them with a new spiritual capacity of apprehending spiri- 
 tual things ; a ca pacity no ^ess peculiarly adapted to the purpose of 
 apprehending spiritual things, in their reality, glorj', and suitableness, 
 than the eye is adapted to the purpose of seeing, or the ear to that of 
 hearing. He also gives them the use or exercise of this capacity, by 
 opening and unfolding the Word of God to them ; by causing them to 
 behold the infallible truth and excellency of it in its own light, so that 
 their persuasion thereof is no less full and satisfying than their persua- 
 sion of the existence of the sun, when he shines upon them in a clear 
 day. See a dissertation of Witsius, which he addresses, Ad amplusi- 
 mioii Tiruni Ulricuni Hiiberurii. This is the doctrine of the Westmin- 
 ster Confession of Faith, chap. i. art. 6 : " We acknoAvledge the inward 
 illumination of the Spirit to be necessary for the saving understanding 
 of such thins;3 as are revealed in the Word." 
 
22 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 ground of it ; for all that is to be seen, in the ordinary 
 course of providence, is utterly insufficient to be a ground 
 of that special confidence in God's fatherly love to which 
 they were exhorted, — without that special revelation of 
 his good-will to them in his Word of promise. 
 
 Faith embraces the truths revealed in the Word of God, 
 not because it apprehends them to be agreeable to, or 
 founded upon, reason, but because it immediately discerns 
 the Word wherein these truths are revealed to be the 
 Word of God — a Word which bears a manifest, unde- 
 niable impression of his authority, majesty, wisdom, power, 
 holiness, righteousness, mercy and truth. So the apostle 
 tells the Thessalonians, that when they received the Word 
 of God, they immediately received it, " not as the word 
 of man, but (as it is in truth) the Word of God." To 
 receive a truth as the word of man, is to receive it as 
 agreeable to, or founded upon, the principles of natural 
 reason ; a way of receiving the truths of religion which 
 here stands opposed to the receiving them as the Word of 
 God — that is, to the receiving of them by faith. Nature 
 affords us some image of faith's immediate discernment of 
 the voice of God in his Word, particularly in that imme- 
 diate, indescribable manner in which we distinguish one 
 person from all others, by his countenance, by his voice, 
 and sometimes by his manner of expression. It seems 
 to be in allusion to this that faith is represented as our 
 seeing Jesus^ and our knowing his voice. 
 
 At the sametime, this faith does not hinder, but rather 
 promotes, the right use of all the faculties which God 
 hath given us. No mathematical demonstration is more 
 suitable or more satisfying to our rational nature than 
 the light of God's Word, when let into the soul by the 
 power of the Holy Spirit. When reason sets itself above 
 divine revelation, or refuses to submit thereto, it is per- 
 verted, and works its own overthrow ; whereas, while it 
 acts within its own sphere, and in due subordination to 
 divine revelation, its exercise is ready, uniform, vigorous, 
 and beneficial. What a noble field does revelation open 
 for the due exercise of reason ! — in discerning, for ex- 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 23 
 
 ample, the propriety and significancy of the words employed 
 by the Holy Spirit ; in tracing the connection of revealed 
 truths with one another, as so many links of one beauti- 
 ful chain ; and in observing the harmony and agreement 
 between the Word of God and his works of creation and 
 providence. 
 
 The second question is, Whether the whole Word of 
 God, and whatever is contained in it, be the object of 
 faith? 
 
 Answer. The whole Word of God is, indeed, the gene- 
 ral object of faith; but, as Calvin observes, "In the 
 Word, which is its general object, it seeks a special ob- 
 ject, in which it may find and receive reconciliation with 
 God, and remission of sins." It may be farther observed, 
 that the Word is to faith what light is to the eye ; it is 
 that wherein faith apprehends its only suitable and fully 
 satisfying object, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 
 
 As to other things contained in the Scripture, they all 
 meet in Christ as their centre. Thus, the law shows us 
 the sinfulness and misery of our natural state, and so our 
 unspeakable need of Christ. The examples of the saints 
 show us what others have received, and what we may 
 expect to receive, out of the fulness of Christ. The 
 threatenings declare to us the infinite hazard that attends 
 our neglect of Christ. The voice of the threatenings, 
 as they stand connected in the Bible, is like that of the 
 angels to Lot, when they brought him out of Sodom, — 
 " Escape for thy life ; look not behind thee : escape to 
 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lest thou be consumed." 
 " In Christ are all the promises of God Yea, and in him 
 Amen, to the glory of God." The grand scope or design 
 of all the Scripture is, to testify of Christ ; to declare 
 what he is in himself, what he is to us, his doing and 
 dying on earth, and his intercession in heaven, with the 
 manner in which we are brought to the enjoyment of fel- 
 lowship with him. 
 
 Question third. How is God the object of faith ? 
 
 Answer. Luther had good reason to say. Nolo Deum 
 ahsolutum^ — I will have nothing to do with an absolute 
 
24 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 God, or with God according to the revelation which he 
 makes of himself in the law of works.* A person that 
 has "sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (as all 
 mere men have done), has nothing to look for from God, 
 absolutely considered, but " judgment and fiery indigna- 
 tion, that shall devour the adversaries." Faith cannot 
 see God as the God of our salvation, but in Christ. . It 
 is only in Christ that faith terminates, or comes to rest 
 upon God, upon his power, wisdom, mercy, and truth, as 
 working salvation for the Church, and for us in particular. 
 To this purpose it is said, in 1 Pet. i. 20, " Who by him 
 do believe in God that raised him from the dead, and gave 
 him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God." If 
 we see Christ aright, we will see God in him — ^^we will 
 see that we need not go out of Christ to seek any know- 
 ledge of God ; for in Christ " dwells all the fulness of 
 the Godhead bodily." God's " name," nature, all his per^ 
 fections, are " in him." He and the Father are one God. 
 Hence he says, " He that hath seen me, hath seen the 
 Father." 
 
 Jesus Christ was the object of faith under the Old 
 Testament dispensation. He was revealed to faith in the 
 first promise concerning the Seed of the woman, and in 
 all the ceremonies and sacrifices of divine appointment. 
 The Old Testament Church is expressly enjoined to be- 
 lieve in Christ : " Behold, I send an Angel before thee, 
 to keep thee in the way. Beware of him, and obey his 
 voice; for my name is in him." — Exod. xxiii. 20, 21. 
 "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry." — Psal. ii. 11. The 
 name of Christ was faith's plea under the Old Testament 
 as well as now : " Behold, God, our Shield, and look 
 upon the face of thine Anointed." — Psal. Ixxxiv. 9. 
 " Cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary, which is 
 clesolate, for the Lord's sake." — Dan. ix. 17. The God 
 of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, was God as revealed 
 in the promises of the covenant of grace — God in Christ 
 
 '" " Often," says Luther, "and willingly, do I inculcate this truth. 
 That you should shut your ears, and say, you know no God out of 
 Christ." 
 
OF SAYING FAITH. 
 
 reconciling sinners to himself, not imputing their tres- 
 passes unto them. In a word, the same righteousness 
 of God which is now, under the New Testament, more 
 clearly manifested, was all along "• witnessed by the law 
 and the prophets." 
 
 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 " This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of 
 his Son Jesus Christ."— 1 John iii. 23. 
 
 We have considered Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of 
 God, as the object of saving faith ; and surely what the 
 Scriptures teach concerning all his glory, and all his suit- 
 ableness to our case, should awaken in us an earnest soli- 
 citude to have that faith by which he dwells in our hearts. 
 
 Let us proceed to another head of inquiry — What it is 
 that, properly and strictly speaking, constitutes the act 
 of believing in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God. 
 
 Here some things may be premised, for the better un- 
 derstanding of what we aim at : — 
 
 1 . The faith under consideration is a saving grace ; of 
 which the apostle speaks in Eph. ii. 8, " By grace are ye 
 saved, through faith ; and that not of yourselves, it is the 
 gift of God ;" in 1 Tim. i. 16, "For this cause I obtained 
 mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all 
 long-suffering, for a pattern to them who should after- 
 wards beheve to life everlasting;" and in Heb. x. 39, 
 " We are not of them that draw back unto perdition ; 
 but of them that beheve unto the saving of the soul." 
 It is true, there are counterfeits of faith, as well as of the 
 other graces of the Spirit. Simon Magus, Agrippa, and 
 others, are said to have believed ; the stony-ground hearers 
 are said to have received the Word : persons in the apos- 
 
26 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 tolic age, destitute of charity, mig-ht prophecy and work 
 miracles ; and in our own times, a counterfeit faith may 
 be attended <vith many spiritual gifts, and even with a 
 semblance of love — repentance — devotion — carefulness 
 about good works. But the faith concerning which we 
 now inquire differs not only, as some suppose, in degree, 
 but even in kind or nature, from the counterfeits now 
 mentioned, and from all that can be found in unregenerate 
 men. If the difference between saving faith and mere 
 historical faith, as it is called, were only in degree, then, 
 instead of saying, as the apostles did to the jailor, " Be- 
 lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," 
 they should have said, " Believe in such a degree, and 
 then thy faith will be saving ;" whereas their way of speak- 
 ing gave the jailor ground to conclude, that if he believed 
 at all in the sense wherein he was called to believe, he 
 should be saved. True behevers are sometimes repre- 
 sented as weak in faith — as of little faith : if the difference 
 between saving and historical faith were only in degree, 
 then Simon Magus might be represented in the same 
 manner. Again, that there must be a difference between 
 saving faith and that which is not so, in some other respect 
 than in degree, is evident from the account that is given 
 of Judas and other apostates : it is not said of them, that 
 they did not believe in a sufficient degree, but that they 
 did not believe at all : " There are some of you that be- 
 lieve not ; for Jesus knew from the beginning who they 
 were that believed not, and who should betray him." 
 — John vi. 64. Several properties of saving faith show- 
 that it is of a different nature from whatever semblance 
 of it maybe found in natural men. It is ''unfeigned 
 faith," 1 Tim. i. 5 ; " most holy faith," Jude 20 ; " pre- 
 cious faith," 2 Pet. i. 1 ; it is a faith k)f "the operation 
 of God who raised Christ from the dead," Col. ii. 12, 
 These are properties that belong to the smallest degree 
 of this faith, as well as to a great degree of it. If it be 
 allowed that there are degrees of faith in unregenerate 
 men of the same nature or kind with saving faith, the 
 former must be allowed to be a good preparation for, or 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 27 
 
 rather a progress toward, the latter : and it will follow, 
 that man has some natural ability to prepare himself for 
 saving grace, or to move toward it, — whereby the Scrip- 
 ture doctrine of man's natural inability to do any thing 
 spiritually good, or to prepare himself for it, is overturned, 
 and the old popish doctrine about merit of congruity is 
 introduced. This scheme tends to mislead persons in the 
 weighty and important duty of self-examination ; for, in 
 examining ourselves, it should be our first concern to 
 inquire, whether our exercises and attainments are of a 
 saving nature or kind, rather than whether they have 
 been in such a degree. The contrary way of managing 
 this exercise tends to gross delusion : accordingly, many 
 persuade themselves, that they have extraordinary attain- 
 ments and high degrees of grace, while they have ground 
 to fear, what they give themselves no trouljle about, that 
 they are destitute of the reality, or of that which is of a 
 saving nature. It is high time to purge the leaven of 
 such corrupt doctrine out of the Church of Christ. 
 
 2. The subject of our present inquiry is the act of be- 
 lieving in the name of Jesus Christ, abstracting from such 
 things as accompany or follow it. Regeneration, for 
 example, must be considered as, in the order of nature, 
 before believing ; faith, or beheving, being an act of a 
 soul that is spiritually quickened. " Except a man be 
 born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ; he can- 
 not see the Son, nor believe on him." With respect to 
 any law work, as it is called, which may be, in the order 
 of time, before faith, or while there is no believing on the 
 name of Jesus Christ, it is, in its own nature, or as to 
 the exercise of the soul under it, no other than what may 
 be, and actually is, found in reprobates, as in Cain, Judas, 
 and others. Legal terror, unaccompanied with any be- 
 lieving views of Christ as the soul's only hiding-place, 
 is, in persons under a gospel dispensation, the working 
 of inexcusable ignorance, enmity, and unbelief ; and its 
 native tendency is to produce blasphemous thoughts, 
 more and more hardness of heart, and desperate obstinacy 
 in departing from the living God ; and therefore, as one 
 
28 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 justly observes, such terror is rather to be accounted 
 pangs of the second death, than of the new birth. It is 
 certain, however, that God, who knows how to bring good 
 out of evil, makes his people profit by such a law work 
 at last ; and as soon as the supernatural principle of faith 
 is implanted in the soul, the experience of these legal 
 terrors will afford many motives which contribute, under 
 the agency of the Holy Spirit, to stir up the soul to the 
 immediate and diligent exercise of believing on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Thus, when a person is in some measure 
 savingly enlightened in the knowledge of the Gospel, the 
 discovery that is made, under legal terrors, of the deceit 
 and desperate wickedness of the heart, will be of use to 
 promote the necessary conviction. That his case would 
 be hopeless, were it not for the sovereign and super- 
 abounding grace of God in Jesus Christ : the experience 
 he had, under these terrors, of the vanity and falsehood 
 of all the refuges to v/hich he used to have recourse is, 
 under the hand of the Spirit of faith, a powerful incite- 
 ment to adhere stedfastly to the only true remedy : and 
 the sense he had of the dreadful reality of God's wrath, 
 and of its full execution as near at hand, shuts him up 
 to an immediate and earnest essay to " flee for refuge that 
 he may lay hold on the hope set before him." Indeed, 
 there is a real and thorough conviction of the utter sin- 
 fulness, helplessness, and misery, which we are under as 
 the children of the first Adam, necessarily supposed or 
 implied in every act of saving faith. But this conviction, 
 so far as it is of a peculiar nature, and distinguishes the 
 Lord's people from others, is not before saving faith, nor 
 a previous qualification in order to saving faith, but 
 rather a necessary ingredient in the very act or exercise 
 of it.''^ Accordingly, it is implied in many representations 
 
 * This is agreeable to that scriptural definition of justifying faith 
 Avhich we have in our Larger Catechism : " Justifying faith is a saving 
 grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God ; 
 Avhereby he, being convinced of his sin and miserj^ and of the dis- 
 ability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost 
 condition, not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the Gospel, 
 but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness, therein 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 29 
 
 of faith in Scripture, as in " fleeing- from the wrath which 
 is to come ; in fleeing as doves to their windows ; in look- 
 ing to Christ that we may be saved." It is not this con- 
 viction, however, though it is constantly implied in all 
 that we teach concerning the nature of faith, but faith's ap- 
 plication of the remedy, which we have m.ore particularly 
 in view as the subject of our present inquiry. Again, 
 the act of believing, of which we treat, is to be carefully 
 distinguished from those things which necessarily attend 
 it as concomitants, evidences, fruits, or efl'ects ; such as 
 love, godly sorrow for sin, new obedience, or desires and 
 purposes of obedience. Considering the act of saving 
 faith as distinct from these things, is by no means a need- 
 less aff"ectation of accuracy, but of great necessity and 
 importance ; because it is well known that Papists, and 
 many called Protestants, who have lost a relish for the 
 purity of Gospel doctrine, contend that a resolved sub- 
 jection to, or compliance with, what they call the precepts 
 of the Gospel, ought to be included in the definition of 
 saving faith.'"' But such a definition is contrary to all 
 
 held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his 
 person righteous in the sight of God for salvation." Excellent, to this 
 purpose, are the words of an eminent divine : " I would not," says he, 
 ■•' willingly speak of preparations to faith ; because itputteth men upon 
 searching something in themselves, upon fashioning their own hearts, 
 and trimming them, to come to Christ ; whereas nothing can be ac- 
 ceptable to him but what cometh from him. But, I think, all that men 
 intend, when they speak of preparations, may be gained this way, — by 
 holding out to men the impossibility of coming to Christ till they be 
 emptied of themselves. Not that the one is a thing going before, to be 
 done by us ; but because they are all one. It is one motion of the soul, 
 to come out of itself, and into Jesus : it is one thing to distrust our- 
 selves, and to trust in Him : and, by this means, when the true nature 
 of faith itself is holden out, men might, examine themselves rather by 
 it, whether they have it, than by the preparations to it." — Mr Hugh 
 Binning^ on Isa. xxvi. 3. 
 
 ■* Faith, as it respects the kingly office of Christ, is the soul's resting 
 on him for sanctification, and for deliverance from all evil. The lan- 
 guafife of it is, The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the 
 Lord is our king ; he will save us. But the absolute surrender of our- 
 selves, or our resolved subjection to his laws, is a native and neceggatr 
 effect of faith, but is by no means faith itself. Faith is not our resoh-A 
 ing, undertaking, or promising to do ; but our persuasion of what Chjigt/ 
 is, and of what he has undertaken and promised to do. When we say, 
 that faith is not a resolution of subjection to Christ, we do not detract 
 
30 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 these places of Scripture which represent love and obe- 
 dience as distinct from faith : " Faith worketh," or mani- 
 festeth itself, " by love." — Gal. v. 9. " And besides 
 this, giving- all diligence, add to your faith, virtue ; and 
 to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance; and 
 to temperance, patience ; and to patience, godliness ; and 
 to godliness, brotherly-kindness ; and to brotherly-kind- 
 ness, charity." — 2 Pet. i. 5. " The end of the command- 
 ment is charity^ out of a pure heart, and of a good con- 
 science, and of faith unfeigned." — 1 Tim. i. 5. Neither 
 love, nor repentance, nor the desire or purpose of these 
 can be opposed, as faith is in the matter of justifica- 
 tion before God, to works, to all works of obedience to 
 the law : " To him that worketh not, but believeth on 
 Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for 
 righteousness." — Rom. iv. 5. " We have believed in 
 Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of 
 Christ, and not by the works of the law." — Gal. ii. 16. 
 Here is a plain reason why faith is to be considered as 
 distinct from love, repentance, good desires, or purposes ; 
 because these cannot, like faith, be distinguished from 
 them, and opposed to the works of the law ; for love, 
 repentance, good desires, and purposes, cannot justly be 
 considered otherwise than as works of the law, or in- 
 stances of conformity to the law. It is true, faith is a 
 duty required in the first commandment ; and is allowed, 
 in that respect, to be a work of the law. But in the 
 matter of justification, faith is of no consideration as an 
 instance of obedience to the law ; it has no place in this 
 matter, but as it is that in or by which v/e receiv^Jhti 
 justifying righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faitlu 
 is capable of being considered as no work, but merely oupJ 
 receiving a free gift at the hand of a gracious GoCm 
 Christ. " Therefore," says the apostle, " it is of faith, 
 
 from the necessity of such a resolution ; because we maintain that this, 
 and other things, are as necessary in the Christian character asjaith 
 itself. Thus the necessity of repentance and holiness is represente d ijjj 
 as strong terms as that of faith. — Luke xiii. 3, Heb. xii. 14. WithoutS 
 these, faith would be dead, and unprofitable to salvation. — James ii.y 
 14-17. '1- y 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 31 
 
 that it mig-ht be by grace ;" if it had been of love, re- 
 pentance, good desires and aims, it would have been by 
 works, and the whole design of the Gospel would have 
 been frustrated. The scheme of including- love, repen- 
 tance, or good resolutions, in the notion of faith, renders 
 it quite uncertain what we are to understand by faith ; 
 whereas the sacred writers are particularly careful to 
 ascertain what it is, by representing it as no less distinct 
 from other things with which men would confound it, 
 than a cause from its effects ; by opposing it, in the mat- 
 ter of justification, to all our own works, or personal con- 
 formity to the law ; and by the descriptive names that 
 are given to it, such as persuasion, assurance, trust, con- 
 fidence, believing or receiving a testimony. Farther, the 
 act of believing under consideration is to be distinguished 
 from any consciousness of, or reflection upon, our own 
 attainments. It is one thing to believe on the Son of 
 God ; it is another thing to know that we have believed 
 in a true and saving manner. What we inquire after is, 
 that direct act of faith which neither looks to itself, nor 
 to its effects, but only and immediately to its glorious 
 object, the Lord Jesus Christ ; according to the call in 
 Isa. xlv. 21, 22: "There is no Saviour beside me. 
 Look unto me, and be saved." 
 
 3. The subject of our present inquiry is not, what this 
 or that person takes to be his own exercise in believing, 
 but what is that which, in the Scripture account, consti- 
 tutes believing in the Lord Jesus Christ ? or, it is not 
 what a believer's own faith appears to himself, through a 
 cloud of unbelief, and other prevailing corruptions ; but 
 what is that direct act of faith which corresponds with 
 the ground and warrant of it in the Word of God ; and 
 the lively exercise of which we should seek, in the use of 
 all appointed means, to attain ? 
 
 These things being premised, we observe, that a per- 
 son may justly give the following definition of saving 
 faith : That it is a real or unfeigned persuasion, wrought 
 in my heart by the Holy Spirit, that, in the Gospel record 
 or testimony, God gives his Son Jesus Christ, with his 
 
32 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 whole salvation, to sinners of mankind indefinitely, and 
 to me a sinner in particular. 
 
 Here we propose, first, to take a view of the record of 
 God concerning his Son Jesus Christ ; and then to con- 
 sider the nature of this persuasion. 
 
 As to this record of God, the great subject of it is, that 
 which we considered in the preceding discourse, that is, 
 the name of his Son Jesus Christ. We may now con- 
 sider it somewEat more particularly, according to its for- 
 mal nature, or as it is the ground of saving faith. 
 
 1. It may be observed, that there is no salvation for 
 poor sinners of Adam's family, but in Jesus Christ, as 
 held forth in this record : " Neither is there salvation in 
 any other ; for there is no other name under heaven 
 given among men whereby we must be saved." — Acts 
 iv. 12. All the advantages which the things of the world, 
 together with the help and favour of men, can afford ; all 
 the opinions, sincerity, devoutness, good-meanings, and 
 the most assiduous endeavours to walk according to the 
 law, being without Christ, are of no avail to our salva- 
 tion. So the heathen, being without Christ, are without 
 God and without hope in the world. And where men 
 are without the record of God in his Word, they are also 
 without Christ, according to the apostle's declaration in 
 Rom. X. 13, 14, 15: "Whosoever shall call on the 
 name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call 
 on Him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall 
 they beheve in Him of whom they have not heard ? and 
 how shall they hear without a preacher ? and how shall 
 they preach except they be sent ?" 
 
 2. This record of God is an exhibition of the all-sufl&- 
 ciency of his Son Jesus to accomplish our salvation. " He 
 is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by 
 him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." 
 
 Heb. vii. 25. His obedience unto death, even the death 
 
 of the cross, is such an infinitely valuable ransom and satis- 
 faction to the law and justice of God, that they can demand 
 no more in order to the justification of the most guilty of 
 the human race. " As by the offence of one, judgment 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 33 
 
 came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the right- 
 eousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto 
 justification of life."^ — Rom. v. 18. " The blood of Jesus 
 Christ cleanseth us from all sin." — 1 John i. 7. " I say 
 unto you^ All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be for- 
 given unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy 
 Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men." — Matt. xii. 31. 
 The unpardonableness of that which is peculiarly called 
 " the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost," is no diminu- 
 tion or disparagement of the atoning or cleansing virtue 
 of the blood of Christ ; but is only the declared conse- 
 quence of a wilful, deliberate, malicious, fixed, open, and 
 avowed contempt of the whole profession of Christianity, 
 and particularly of justification by the blood of Jesus, by 
 a person who has been as much enlightened in the know- 
 ledge of the truth, and has tasted as much of its sweetness, 
 as is consistent with an unrenewed state. Such a person 
 perishes, not from an insufficiency in the cleansing virtue 
 of the blood of Christ, nor, properly, for any want of a 
 right of access to that blood ; but because he not only 
 puts it away from him, but persists in treating the appli- 
 cation of it by the Holy Spirit with open and avowed 
 scorn, and fixed malicious rancour. The all-sufficiency 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ to save the vilest sinner that 
 comes to him, shines with conspicuous lustre in the names 
 that he bears ; such as, " The Saviour of the world," — 
 1 John iv. 14 ; " The Saviour of sinners," — 1 Tim. i. 15 ; 
 " Immanuel," God in our nature, " God with us," or on 
 our side," — Matt. i. 23 ; " Jehovah our Righteousness," — 
 Jer. xxiii. 6 ; " Jehovah our Peace," — Judges vi. 24 ; 
 " Jehovah our Healer," — Exod. xv. 26 ; " Our Hope," — 
 1 Tim. i. 1 ; and also in the offices which he executes as 
 Redeemer. Is there any spiritual blindness that he can- 
 not deliver us from, as our Prophet ? Is there any guilt 
 which the blood of our great High Priest cannot ex- 
 piate ? Is there any promised blessin g- th at we may not 
 expect on account of his righteousness r" What bondage 
 of corruption will he not set us free from, as our King ? 
 In respect of these three offices, he is set forth to poor 
 c 
 
34 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 sinners as made of God to them, wisdom, and righteous- 
 ness, and sanctification, and redemption. The sufficiency 
 of Christ, exhibited in the Gospel, is a sufficiency of good- 
 will to the salvation of sinners, — a sufficiency of loving- 
 kindness as well as of power. " Glory to God in the 
 highest, and on earth peace, and good-will toward men." 
 — Luke ii. 14. " Him that cometh to me, I will in no 
 wise cast out.'^ — John vi. 37« " The kindness and love 
 of God our Saviour toward man appeared." — Tit. iii. 4. 
 " How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God ! There- 
 fore the children of men put their trust under the shadow 
 of thy wings." — Psal. xxxvi. 7. " O Jerusalem, Jeru- 
 salem ! which killest the prophets, and stonest them that 
 are sent unto thee : how often would I have gathered thy 
 children together, as a hen doth gather her chickens under 
 her wings ; and ye would not ! " — Luke xiii. 34. 
 
 3. In this record of God we have a free gift and grant 
 of Christ crucified, and of eternal life in him, to sinners 
 of mankind without distinction. This grant is sometimes 
 expressed in the most formal manner ; as in Isa. xlix. 6 : 
 " He said " (the Father said to the Son), " It is a light 
 thing that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the 
 tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel : I 
 will also give thee to be a light to the Gentiles, that thou 
 mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth ;" and 
 xlii. 6 : " I will give thee to be a covenant to the people, 
 for a light of the Gentiles ; to open the blind eyes, to 
 bring the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in 
 darkness out of the prison-house." Here it is obvious, 
 that those to whom the Father gives his beloved Son as 
 a Surety and Saviour, are Gentiles, blind prisoners ; that 
 is, according to the import of these metaphorical expres- 
 sions, to mankind sinners indefinitely, who are all, as the 
 children of fallen Adam, in a state of alienation from God, 
 — in a state of spiritual blindness and bondage. Another 
 text to this purpose is in John vi. 32, where Christ is 
 speaking to the promiscuous multitude, many of whom, it 
 is evident from the context, particularly ver. 36, were still 
 in their natural state, — unbelievers, and enemies to Christ : 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 37 
 
 " My Father," says he, " giveth you the true bread from 
 heaven." Christ is here comparing- himself to the manna 
 which fell about the tents of Israel in the wilderness. As 
 the simple raining of the manna around their camp, even 
 before it was gathered, is in the 31st verse called a giving ; 
 so the revelation or offer of Christ in the word of the 
 Gospel, even before actual believing, is called a giving of 
 him.* To the same purpose, we read in 1 John v. 11 : 
 " And this is the record," by the disbelieving of which 
 men bring upon themselves the guilt of making God a 
 liar, " that God hath given to us eternal hfe, and this life 
 is in his Son." The giving here meant is not a putting 
 persons in possession ; but such a giving, in the way of 
 grant or tender, to sinners of mankind, that each of them 
 to whom this record comes is bound to believe that it is a 
 giving to him in particular; otherwise he makes God a liar. 
 We have a very remarkable representation of this grant 
 in John iii. 16 : ••' God so loved the world, that he gave his 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
 not perish, but have everlasting life." This giving of his 
 only begotten Son, is such a giving as warrants any of 
 the human race, or whosoever will, to believe on him. 
 But the giving of Christ to some men, as to the elect, 
 in the decree of election, and in the intention of Christ's 
 death, or to believers in actual possession, cannot be a 
 warrant to all men, that whosoever of them will, may 
 believe on him, or receive him. The giving of an enter- 
 tainment to some individuals only of a company, never 
 can be a warrant to the whole company, that whosoever 
 of them will, may come and partake of the entertainment. 
 But the giving here meant, is a giving which is prior to 
 believing, and upon which we are to proceed in believing ; 
 which can be no other than the revelation of Christ in 
 the way of grant and offer to sinners of mankind indefi- 
 nitely, warranting whosoever of them will, to believe on 
 him for everlasting life. This giving of the only-begot- 
 ten Son of God is illustrated by the simile made use of 
 in verse 14 : " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
 * See Calvin on the place. 
 
38 
 
 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up : 
 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting- life." The brazen serpent was given 
 and lifted up as a common good to all the stung- Israel- 
 ites, that whosoever of them should look on it might be 
 healed. So Christ is given to a lost world in the Word, 
 that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but 
 have everlasting life.* This grant is also expressed in 
 free and absolute promises, — in promises directed to those 
 who are destitute of every good qualification. In a pro- 
 mise, for example, of pardon to the guilty : " Thou hast 
 made me serve with thy sins ; thou hast wearied me with 
 thine iniquities. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy 
 transgressions, for mine own sake ; and will not remem- 
 ber thy sins," — Isa. xliii. 24, 25 ; in a promise of purifi- 
 cation to the most polluted sinner : " I will sprinkle clean 
 water upon you, and ye shall be clean ; from all your filthi- 
 ness and from all your idols will T cleanse you ;" in a pro- 
 mise of the new heart to those who have nothing but the 
 old stony heart : " A new heart will I give you, and a 
 new spirit will I put within you : I will take away the 
 stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart 
 of flesh ;" in a promise of faith to the unbelieving : " In 
 his name shall the Gentiles trust ;" in a promise of re- 
 pentance to the impenitent : " Ye shall defile also the 
 covering of the graven images of silver, and the ornament 
 of the molten images of gold : thou shalt cast them away 
 as a menstruous cloth ; thou shalt say unto it. Get thee 
 hence," — Isa. xxx. 22 ; in a promise of the Spirit : " I 
 will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in 
 my statutes ;" in a promise of Christ himself : " In him," 
 who according to the flesh is the seed of Abraham, " shall 
 all the families of the earth be blessed ;" in a promise of 
 God in Christ : " I will be your God." Such are the 
 free and unconditional promises (which are a principal 
 part of that Gospel) which the ministers of Christ are 
 
 * See Answers to Twelve Questions, put to some ministers by the 
 Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in the 
 year 1721. 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 39 
 
 commissioned to teach to every creature under heaven ; 
 saying to their hearers, " The promise is unto you and 
 your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many 
 as the Lord our God shall call. Let us fear, lest a pro- 
 mise being left us of entering- into his rest, any of you 
 should seem to come short of it." O sinner of mankind ! 
 to whom the Word of God comes, know, that whatever 
 thy case or character be, a promise is left thee of enter- 
 ing- into God's rest. Let it be thy great concern, that 
 thou mayest not come short of it by unbelief. This free 
 and unconditional grant is also declared in the many calls 
 and invitations to an immediate participation of Christ 
 which are directed to sinners of mankind indefinitely. 
 Thus, in Rev. xxii. 17, " Whosoever will, let him take 
 the water of life freely." These words can signify nothing 
 less than that God g^ives "the water of life" to mankind 
 sinners in such a manner, that any individual of them all 
 may freely or immediately take it home to himself, be- 
 cause the divine grant has already made it his, for appli- 
 cation, use, and enjoyment. Suppose a number of persons 
 to be in a room where a table is covered with plenty of 
 food : suppose the master of the house coming in, should 
 say to them all. Whosoever will, let him eat and drink of 
 what is on this table, till he be satisfied, it shall cost him 
 nothing ; might not each of these persons, esteeming- the 
 master of the house to be an honest man, and as speaking 
 these words in earnest, justly consider these provisions as 
 his own, for present or immediate use, no previous terms 
 or conditions being proposed or required ? And why 
 should it not be deemed warrantable to make the same 
 conclusion, when the God of truth condescends to use the 
 same language ? " Whosoever will, let him take the water 
 of life freely." And again, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, 
 come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come 
 ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk without 
 money, and without price." Those that thirst are men 
 in their natural state, who (as you may see by consulting 
 the passage, Isa. Iv. 1, 2) are spending their money for 
 that which is not bread, and their labour for that which 
 
40 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 satisSeth not. Surely "^no poor sinner of mankind, to 
 whom the Word of God comes, can warrantably reckon 
 himself excepted in such calls as the following : " In the 
 last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood, and 
 cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, 
 and drink." — John vii. 37. " Hearken unto me, ye 
 stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness ; I bring 
 near my righteousness : it shall not be far off, and my 
 salvation shall not tarry." — Isa. xlvi. 12, 13. " Unto 
 you, O men, I call ; and my voice is to the sons of 
 men." — Prov. viii. 4. " Whoso is simple, let him turn 
 in hither : as for him that wanteth understanding, she 
 saith to him. Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the 
 wine that I have mingled." — Prov. ix. 4, 5. These 
 being calls or invitations to an immediate receiving or 
 partaking of Christ, of his righteousness and salvation, 
 and being directed to sinners of mankind indefinitely, 
 necessarily carry in them the notion of that free gift or 
 grant of which we speak. Surely, he who brings a bene- 
 fit to our hand, and entreats us to accept of it, and make 
 it our own, without money and without price, that is, 
 without requiring any previous compliance with terms or 
 conditions, — entreats us to make it as much our own as 
 we do what we buy for our own use, or what we eat and 
 drink for our own refreshment, may well be said to make 
 a gift and grant of that benefit ; and the record in which 
 it is made, being written, sworn, and sealed, may, with 
 the greatest propriety, be called a deed of gift and 
 
 GRANT. 
 
 It may be asked. Since Christ is thus given or granted 
 to mankind, how can any of them come short of him ? 
 
 Answer. Because a thing that is presented as a free 
 gift may be despised and rejected ; in which case, there 
 can be no possession. That this may be the case with 
 the Gospel-grant of Christ, and of salvation through his 
 name, is the more evident, as it is expressed in gracious 
 invitations, as well as in absolute promises. And that 
 the Lord may give an absolute promise to those who, in 
 the event, never come to the actual enjoyment of the 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 41 
 
 promised blessing, is manifest from the instance of the 
 promise made to the Israelites of the land of Canaan. 
 This promise, as it is recorded in Exod. iii. 17? is free 
 and unconditional : " I have said, I will bring- you up out 
 of the affliction of Egypt, unto the land of the Canaanites. 
 and the Hittites, and' the Amorites, and the Perizzites, 
 and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing 
 with milk and honey." This promise was given to the 
 children of Israel, as a nation, to be rested on by them as 
 good security for their introduction into and possession of 
 that good land. But the bulk of that generation, despising 
 this security, and persisting in their unbelief, never saw 
 the promised land, — they could not enter in, says the 
 apostle, because of unbelief. This is a type or emblem 
 of the Gospel-promise, wherein Christ, and eternal life in 
 him, are made over to us as a free gift. Such as will not 
 credit the promise, nor accept of the gift, will justly come 
 short of the promised rest. The Lord says to such, as 
 he said to the Israelites, Numb. xiv. 34 : " Ye shall 
 know my breach of promise," — that is, as it is with 
 believers according to their faith, so it shall be with 
 you according to your unbelief. Since ye account my 
 promise unworthy to be trusted in, it is fit that ye should 
 never experience the accomplishment of it ; but that 
 there should be, in your case, a seeming breach of it. 
 But we now proceed to observe, 
 
 4. That the record of God, which faith receives, is the 
 Gospel, as contradistinguished from the Law. The Law 
 is a perfect rule of righteousness ; there is nothing good 
 in man's nature, dispositions, or actions, but what it re- 
 quires. All the commands of God, therefore, not ex- 
 cepting those of faith and repentance, belong to the Law. 
 On the other hand, the Gospel, strictly and properly 
 taken, has no commands, no prescriptions of duty in it. 
 Thus the Law and the Gospel diff"er, — not as one precept 
 of the Law may differ from another, in respect of objects 
 and occasions, in respect of more easiness or difficulty in 
 the performance, but in their nature, as a command differs 
 from an absolutely free grant or promise. It is true, the 
 
42 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 Law, too, has its promises ; but neither promises nor 
 threatenings constitute its formal nature or distinguishing 
 character. The Law might have been without the pro- 
 raise of eternal life ; the revealed will of God would have 
 been the rule of obedience to man, as his morally depend- 
 ent creature, though no such promise had been given. 
 And that the Law may be without the threatening, is 
 manifest from its being a rule of obedience to the con- 
 firmed angels and glorified saints ; in the case of whom, 
 it must be allowed to have no threatening annexed to it. 
 Thus, we say, the formal nature of the Law is a revela- 
 tion of God's commanding will to men as reasonable 
 creatures. And, even in this respect, it must be care- 
 fully distinguished from the Gospel, which, in its formal 
 nature, is purely a revelation of God's giving and pro- 
 mising will towards poor sinners of mankind, in Jesus 
 Christ. The sum of the Law is. Thou shalt love God, 
 thy Maker and Preserver, with all thy heart, with all thy 
 soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind ; 
 and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On the 
 other hand, the Gospel was revealed to our first parents 
 in these words, directed to the serpent, " He," even the 
 Son of God, " shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise 
 his heel." The Gospel, as the apostle tells us, was 
 preached to Abraham in these words, " In thee shall all 
 the families of the earth be blessed." The Gospel was 
 proclaimed, at the birth of Christ, in these words of the 
 angel to the shepherds, " I bring you good tidings of 
 great joy which shall be to all people : For unto you is 
 born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is 
 Christ the Lord." — Luke ii. 10, 11. The Gospel is this 
 faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, " That 
 Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners ;" and 
 this, " That God was in Christ reconciling the world to 
 himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." The 
 Gospel is good tidings of good to sinners of mankind, 
 through Christ crucified, dead and buried, ascended and 
 interceding. Such is the difference between the formal 
 nature of the Law and that of the Gospel. 
 
OP SAVING FAITH. 43 
 
 But if the Law be considered as a covenant, which all 
 men are under as the children of fallen Adam,'"' promising- 
 eternal life as a reward of debt to him who performeth 
 the condition of perfect obedience, and threatening eter- 
 nal death as the wages of every the least transgression ; 
 the Law in this sense, and the Gospel, are not only differ- 
 ent, but opposite to one another. The Law, as a cove- 
 nant, declares, that every sinner is cursed : " Cursed is 
 every one that continueth not in all things written in the 
 book of the law to do them ;" but the Gospel declares 
 that sinners shall be " blessed in Christ," — blessed with 
 deliverance, both from sin and from that wrath and curse 
 
 * There is, perhaps, some inaccuracy, or at least ambiguit}% of ex- 
 pression, in many valuable authors, about the state of men under the 
 covenant of works. It is certainly true, that all men are under the 
 covenant of works, if this implies, that they are under the curse of it as 
 a broken covenant ; and they are also cursed who continue not in all 
 things written in the law, as the rule of their obedience, while they 
 have no interest in the righteousness of the surety. It is also true, that 
 all men are under the command of the covenant of works, if this be 
 understood only as affirming, that all men have contracted, in their 
 representing head, Adam, a debt of obedience, which they can never pay 
 in their own persons ; yea, to which, while strangers to Christ, they are 
 continually adding, by the transgression of the law as a rule of duty. 
 Now, believers are honourably delivered fi'om this, by the obedience of 
 Jesus Christ. Sinners are under it, as desperate debtors, who can give 
 no satisfaction to law and justice. But the covenant of works was 
 never renewed vf ith any sinful man, after Adam broke it ; either in, 
 what some have called its natural state, as including the whole moral 
 law, which Christ fulfilled, and the curse of which he endured ; or, in 
 its positive state, as summed up in abstinence from the tree of know- 
 ledge of good and evil. It has no promise of life now to any man, 
 either in the Pagan or Christian parts of the world. Such Scriptures 
 as Jer. xviii. 5, Rom. x. 5, Gal. iii. 11, declare only what was the 
 original tenor of this covenant. All who enjoy the Word of Christ, 
 instead of being encouraged so much as to endeavour obedience to the 
 law as a covenant, are required to renounce all hopes of salvation in that 
 way, to seek it by faith in Christ. — Rom. iii. 19, 20; Gal. iii. 10-12 ; 
 and though men are, under the influence of ignorance, and a perverse 
 disposition, disposed to seek righteousness by the law, especially when 
 awakened and convinced of sin in some measure, yet in regard of moral 
 obligation, and gracious revelation, they are required and encouraged 
 to seek salvation only according to the new covenant plan. Now, as 
 the law has no more any promise of life to sinners, and a promise is an 
 essential part of a covenant, it may be questioned, whether it be so pro- 
 per to assert, that sinners are under the commanding power of the cove- 
 nant of vforks, except as desperate debtors. (R.) 
 
44 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 of God wliich every sin deserves. The Law says to every 
 sinner, Thou art " condemned already ;" the Gospel says 
 to him, " There is no condemnation to thee who art in 
 Christ Jesus." The Law says, " Thou hast destroyed 
 thyself ;" but says the Gospel, Thy sure and all-sufficient 
 help is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Law-covenant 
 says. That eternal life is the reward of debt to which thy 
 own personal obedience gives thee a title ; but the Gospel 
 says, Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. The Law-covenant says, Thou hast no right 
 to the promises till thou hast performed the condition of 
 them ; the Gospel says, Jesus Christ, thy Surety, hath 
 perfectly fulfilled the condition of all the promises in his 
 obedience unto death ; so that in him, or for his sake, 
 thou hast a good right to them ; in him they are free 
 and unconditional to thee ; in him all the promises are 
 yea, and in him Amen. Hence it appears the essential 
 difference between the promises of the Law-covenant and 
 those of the Gospel is, that the former are conditional to 
 us ; whereas the latter are to us free, unconditional, and 
 absolute. 
 
 But it is objected, that many promises of the Gospel 
 are conditional, as declaring that they belong to persons 
 of such and such characters. Such, among many, are 
 the following: "He that believeth shall be saved." "The 
 Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn 
 from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord." " He 
 became the author of eternal salvation to all them that 
 obey him." " Blessed are they that mourn ; for they 
 shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek ; for they 
 shall inherit the earth." " He that overcometh, shall 
 inherit all things." 
 
 We answer, 1. When we say the promises are abso- 
 lutely free, or unconditional, we are very far from mean- 
 ing, that any of the promised blessings of the Gospel can 
 be received or enjoyed separately from the rest, or from 
 the great comprehensive blessing of a real vital union to 
 Christ. On the contrary, they are so inseparably con- 
 nected, that whosoever receives one, shall receive all. 
 
OP SAVING FAITH. 45 
 
 There is, for example, such a connection between the 
 overcoming- or mortification of sin, and inheriting- all 
 things, that they must be miserably deceived who expect 
 the latter without the former. 
 
 2. There is a certain order, according- to which, and 
 not otherwise, we are to expect the enjoyment of the 
 promised blessings of the covenant of grace. Thus, we 
 are not to expect the attainment of a holy walk, before 
 faith in Christ ; nor assurance of sense, or experience of 
 the comforts of the Holy Spirit, before we be brought 
 into the Gospel way of studying hohness. A life of 
 grace here, is before a life of glory hereafter. Thus, 
 when it is said, " that they who mourn shall be com- 
 forted," and " that they who endure to the end shall be 
 saved," the meaning is, that, according to the order 
 established in the everlasting covenant, there is a mourn- 
 ing before the sensible enjoyment of spiritual comfort, — 
 an enduring to the end, before we can come to the full 
 possession of salvation. 
 
 3. The surety-righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 is the only proper condition of all the promises taken 
 together. The redemption which we have through his 
 blood, includes all the blessings of the new covenant. 
 Hence, though we find one of those blessings promised 
 to those who have begun to possess another, we are not 
 to consider the begun possession of the latter as the 
 proper condition of the former ; but rather both of them, 
 as alike freely and absolutely promised to us, for the sake 
 of Him whose name is, the Lord our righteousness. 
 We should consider all the promises as one : " This is 
 the promise which he hath promised us, even eternal 
 life." Those which have been called conditional pro- 
 mises, are only declarations of the inseparable connection 
 among the various blessings contained in that one pro- 
 mise, and also of the order according to which the Lord 
 is pleased to bestow them ; for when we take a view of 
 the whole comprehension of the Gospel promises, we find 
 all these blessings made over to poor sinners in the same 
 free and absolute manner, — the righteousness of Christ 
 
46 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 being always understood as the only proper condition. 
 Hence, that which has been taken for the condition of a 
 promise in one part of Scripture, is absolutely promised 
 in another. Thus, faith is absolutely promised in Matt, 
 xii. 21 ; and perseverance in grace unto the end in Jer. 
 xxxii. 40. Hence we see how the apostle came to ren- 
 der one of the texts quoted in the objection as he does, 
 in Rom. xi. 26, " It is written, There shall come out of 
 Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ung-odliness from 
 Jacob." So that, according- to the apostle, the prophet's 
 saying, that Christ would come to them that turn from 
 ungodliness in Jacob, implied a free, absolute, and uncon- 
 ditional promise, that " he should turn away ungodhness 
 from Jacob." Thus, when we read this promise, " Unto 
 you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness 
 arise with healing in his wings," we are to understand 
 the absolute promise as implied ; as if it had been said, 
 " I will put my fear into your heart, and to you shall the 
 Sun of Righteousness arise." 
 
 4. Sometimes the promised blessing is connected w^ith 
 such characters as infallibly evidence persons to be already 
 partakers of that blessing; as when it is said, "Like as 
 a father pitleth his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
 that fear him." Now, this godly fear is such as evi- 
 denceth a person to be already a partaker in Christ of 
 God's fatherly pity. In like manner, w^hen it is said, 
 that Christ is "the author of eternal salvation to all them 
 that obey him,"* only such obedience must be understood 
 as certainly evidenceth the person to be already a partaker 
 of that salvation. Such characters as these may be evi- 
 dences, but cannot be any proper conditions of the pro- 
 mised blessings to which they are annexed. Sometimes 
 the promised blessing is represented in propositions of 
 the same form, as belonging to persons in poverty, afflic- 
 tion, temptation, or the like circumstances, which no one 
 
 * Christ is the author or cause of eternal salvation to all who, by- 
 hearing, attentively listen to him, which includes faith in his promises 
 and doctrines, with obedience to his commandments, and compliance 
 with his gracious invitations. — Rev, xxii. 14. (R.) 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 47 
 
 will be so absurd as to reckon conditions : " Blessed be 
 ye poor; for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are 
 they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs 
 is the kingdom of heaven." " O thou afHicted, tossed 
 with tempest, and not comforted ! behold, I will lay thy 
 stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with 
 sapphires : and all thy children shall be taught of the 
 Lord ; and great shall be the peace of thy children." From 
 these and the like passages it is evident, that a character 
 given in the Word of promise to those who either are or 
 may be partakers of the blessing promised, is a different 
 thing from the prescribing of terms or conditions. The 
 design of the former is no more than to encourage per- 
 sons to receive freely what is, for Christ's sake, freely 
 granted to them in the divine promise as peculiarly suited 
 to the case or character described ; whereas the design of 
 the latter, is to show upon what ground a person may 
 warrantably claim the blessing promised.* 
 
 5. If the Gospel promise be conditional, then the con- 
 dition of it either is or is not promised. If our opponents 
 should say that it is not promised at all, they will fall 
 into gross error ; for it is evident that faith, repentance, 
 prayer, and whatever has been represented as a condition, 
 are included in the promises of the covenant of grace. 
 To give one example from a multitude, most, if not all, 
 
 * If it be objected, that in the Gospel there are promises of life upon 
 condition of our obedience, as in Rom. viii. 13 : " If ye through the 
 Spii'it do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live ;" we answer, 
 The promises of the Gospel are not made to the work, but to the 
 worker ; and to the worker, not for his work, but for Christ's according 
 to his work. For example, the promise of life is not made to the work 
 of mortification, but to him that mortifies his flesh ; and that not for 
 his mortification, but because he is in Christ, and his mortification is 
 the token and evidence thereof. — Perkins on Galatians. 
 
 It is a very just observation of Dr Smith of Pequea, in the Second 
 of his Three Sermons on Faith, lately published, to this purpose : That 
 the distressful case is mentioned in Matt. xi. 28, not as a condition 
 either of the persons right to the blessing, or of his right to come for 
 it, but to point him out, as it were, by name, and invite him to come, 
 to Christ for free salvation. He justly represents the sinner as under \ 
 a fatal mistake, when he attempts to appropriate the promised blessing, \ 
 not because it is freely offered, but because he has something to offer J 
 for it. ^-^—^ 
 
48 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 such conditions are comprehended in that promise which 
 we have in Zech. xiii. 9 : " And I will brings the third 
 part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is 
 refined, and will try them as gold is tried : they shall call 
 on my name, and I will hear them : I will say, It is my 
 people, and they shall say, The Lord is my God." Be- 
 sides, it is allowed by those that hold the promises to be 
 conditional, that the condition is the gift of God. But 
 every gift that we receive from him is either natural or 
 supernatural. If the condition of a promise be a natural 
 gift of God, then it is no other than what may be found in 
 unregenerate men ; and then it will follow, that there are 
 natural attainments, to which God hath secured saving 
 grace by his promise ; which is the old exploded error of 
 Pelagius. But if this condition be a supernatural gift, 
 or something given in virtue of the covenant of grace, 
 then it is promised ; for there is nothing peculiar given 
 to men by virtue of that covenant, which is not promised 
 in it. 
 
 But if they say that the condition is promised, then 
 we ask, Whether it be promised absolutely or condition- 
 ally ? If they say it is promised absolutely, they yield 
 the matter in question ; for what is promised absolutely, 
 cannot, with any propriety, be called a condition required 
 of us. If they say it is promised conditionally, the ques- 
 tion recurs, Whether this second condition be promised 
 absolutely or conditionally ? If it should be answered. 
 Conditionally, it may be still asked, How the third con- 
 dition is promised, — and so on without end. 
 
 6. It seems absurd to represent faith as a condition 
 necessary to warrant the application of the promises to 
 ourselves, not only because faith is a promised blessing, 
 but also because, properly speaking, it is itself the only 
 application of the promises to ourselves, as yea and amen 
 in Christ. This is undoubtedly the scriptural notion of 
 saving faith ; but when people consider faith as a condi- 
 tion of the application of the promises to ourselves, they 
 must either have a quite different notion of faith, or they 
 make faith the condition of itself ; the application of the 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 49 
 
 promises, the condition of our application of them ; our 
 receiving of a gift, the condition of our receiving it !* 
 
 We shall only add, that the new scheme of Gospel 
 conditional promises no more excludes boasting than the 
 conditional promise of the covenant of works did ; be- 
 cause, according to the former as well as the latter, it is 
 our compliance with the terms or conditions that entitles 
 us to the promised blessing, — so that, according to both 
 schemes, the reward is of debt. The common pleas that 
 it is not merit, but the free grace of God, that makes 
 such an act or such a qualification a condition of salva- 
 tion — that what is required as a condition is easily com- 
 plied with — that this compliance is not of ourselves, that 
 it is the gift of God — that a humbling sense of our un- 
 worthiness, and of our unprofitableness to God, belongs 
 to our performance of the condition, — are of no avail to 
 distinguish their new Gospel covenant from the covenant 
 of works ; for it is very obvious, that all these things 
 belonged to the covenant of works, as it was made with 
 upright Adam. For who can deny that it was not merit, 
 but the free grace of God, which made Adam's abstaining 
 from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil 
 the condition, by the observation of which he was to 
 secure eternal life to himself and all his posterity ; that 
 there was no imaginable condition easier to be complied 
 with ; and yet, if he had actually complied, he ought to 
 have ascribed his doing so wholly to the upholding grace 
 of God, acknowledging his weakness as a creature, his 
 insignificance before God, who is glorious in holiness, 
 and his unprofitableness to Him who is infinitely blessed 
 in and of himself. So that, so long as persons are stand- 
 ing upon conditions, to be found in themselves, whether 
 
 * To say that the grant of Christ and all his salvation in the promise 
 is not free and unconditional, because what is thus granted cannot be 
 actually possessed and enjoyed unless it be believed, or, in other words, 
 received, is to say in effect, that there never was, nor can be, any such 
 thing as a free gift or unconditional grant of any thing ; for no gift can 
 be so free, no grant so absolute, but, in the very nature of the thing, a 
 man must accept, before he can actually enjoy the benefit of it. — Mr 
 Wilson's PalemorCs Creed Reviewed and Examined^ vol. ii. p. 63. 
 
50 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 supposed to be attained by nature or grace, as giving 
 them a rigbt or claim to Christ or his salvation, all the 
 most humbling acknowledgments and mortifying exer- 
 cises in the world will not exempt them from the charge, 
 of persisting in the cursed attempt of rebuilding the old 
 Jericho of the broken covenant of works. The evil of 
 this scheme, though it has often been sohdly evinced, 
 both in preaching and in writing, is still very little at- 
 tended to by church members. It is, however, a bitter 
 root ; and is at the bottom of that decline of the life and 
 power of godliness, which at this day is matter of mourn- 
 ing and lamentation with all the true children of Zion. 
 
 Thus the Gospel, properly taken, is to be carefully 
 distinguished from the Law. But it is allowed, that the 
 word Gospel is sometimes to be taken in a large sense, 
 which includes the Law ; that is, it is sometimes to be 
 understood as comprehending the whole Gospel dispen- 
 sation, not only what is properly the doctrine of the 
 Gospel, but all the doctrine of the Law, as being subser- 
 vient to the Gospel. According to this dispensation, 
 there is a twofold subserviency of the Law. 
 
 \. As it is a covenant of works, it sets before us the 
 sinfulness and misery that we are under as the children of 
 the first Adam, in whom we sinned and died. As it reveals 
 the wrath of God from heaven against all ungodliness and 
 unrighteousness of men, and declares us all dead men, it 
 is the great mean by which the Holy Spirit makes use of 
 in awakening us to a true sense of our lost and undone 
 condition. It may be said to shut us up to the Gospel 
 way of relief, as it discovers the vanity of all other ways. 
 It proclaims, with terrible and inflexible severity, its high 
 and extensive demands, and our utter inability to answer 
 them. It proclaims us naked and destitute of any justi- 
 fying righteousness, and that we must continue so for 
 ever, unless we receive that righteousness which was 
 finished upon Mount Calvary. 
 
 2. Our Lord Jesus, having in his flesh perfectly ful- 
 filled the Law as a covenant or condition of life (in which 
 sense, through his fulfilment of it, belieyers are dead to 
 
OP SAVING FAITH. 51 
 
 it), still enjoins it on them as the rule of their thoughts, 
 words, and actions. In this injunction all his authority, 
 as King- in Zion, is displayed ; and their compliance with 
 it is secured by the promise of the new covenant : " I 
 will put mv law in their inward parts, and write it in 
 their hearts." The Law, in this view, is greatly subser- 
 vient to the Gospel, as, by setting it before his people in 
 his word and ordinances, and by writing it on their hearts, 
 he makes them partakers of that lea-ding and unspeakably 
 precious benefit of the covenant of grace, sanctification. 
 Therefore, we are to meditate on the law of the Lord 
 night and day, mourning for whatever is opposite to it 
 in our hearts and ways, being deeply concerned that the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with us, to con- 
 form us more and more to this pure and perfect rule. 
 Whoever neglects the study of conformity to the law in 
 heart and life, is undoubtedly slighting and despising the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Thus the term Gospel is sometimes used, in a large 
 sense, for the Gospel dispensation ; including not only 
 the Gospel properly so called, but also, in subserviency 
 thereto, the doctrine of the Law, both as a covenant and 
 as a rule of life. But it is necessary to remember, that we 
 cannot use the Law as we ought, in subserviency to the 
 Gospel, unless we understand and maintain the distinction 
 between them. The confounding and blending of them 
 has been a most fatal source of error and corruption in 
 the Christian Church. The divine truth, with respect 
 to this distinction, shone with peculiar lustre in the 
 morning of the reformation from Popery, and had a prin- 
 cipal share in dispersing the deep shades of error and 
 superstition, which had so long overspread the face of 
 the visible Church. It was Luther's favourite theme ; 
 and he was often at a loss for words to express the sense 
 he had of its importance. He reckoned it one of the 
 most necessary qualifications of a minister of the Word, 
 to be able to distinguish rightly between the Law and the 
 Gospel. " It seemeth," says he, " to be a light matter 
 to mingle the Law and the Gospel, faith and works, 
 
52 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 together ; but it does nvore mischief than man's reason 
 can conceive. It not only clouds and darkens the Gospel, 
 but oyerthroweth it utterly, taking away Christ, with all 
 his benefits." 
 
 We have dwelt the longer upon this part of our sub- 
 ject, in regard that our view of the direct act of faith 
 must be according to our view of the record of God 
 concerning his Son Jesus Christ. 
 
 We come now to consider the act of saving faith, or 
 to inquire what sort of a persuasion it is. 
 
 First, We observe, that it is. a persuasion wrought in 
 our hearts by the supernatural operation of the Holy 
 Spirit. Faith is such a receiving of the things of the 
 Spirit of God as natural men are incapable of (1 Cor. ii. 
 14); to such the Gospel is hid (2 Cor. iv. 3); to such 
 Christ crucified is a " root springing out of a dry ground, 
 having no form nor comeliness." — Isa. liii. 2. Nay, the 
 mind of man, by nature, is full of enmity against the 
 
 Lord and against his Christ Rom. viii. 7 ; 1 Pet. ii. 4. 
 
 Hence the Scriptures represent, as necessary to the pro- 
 duction of saving faith, not only the outward proposal of 
 God's record concerning his Son Jesus Christ, but also 
 the supernatural teaching and illumination of the mind, 
 together with a display of almighty and irresistible power 
 in drawing us. — Matt. xvi. 17 ; John vi. 44, 45 ; 2 Thess. 
 i. 11 ; Eph. i. 19. And faith is represented as our seeing 
 the Son in a special and supernatural manner : " This is 
 the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth 
 the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life." 
 — John vi. 40. " We see Jesus, who was made a little 
 lov.er than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned 
 with glory and honour." — Heb. ii. 9. This faith is not 
 of ourselves, it is the gift of God ; not a natural gift, as 
 a common benefit, which the ungodly may partake of, 
 but a supernatural gift, which comes to us in virtue of 
 the new covenant, as a proper fruit or efifect of Christ's 
 purchase. " It is given us, in the behalf of Christ, to 
 ))elieve on him." — Phil. i. 29. The Holy Spirit is called 
 the Spirit of Faith, because the working of faith in our 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 53 
 
 hearts is peculiarly ascribed to him as the applier of the 
 purchased redemption : " He shall glorify me ; for he 
 shall receive of mine, and show it unto you." — John 
 xvi. 14. We should be much in this consideration, that 
 however near Christ crucified be brought to us in the 
 outward dispensation of the Word, yet we cannot get the 
 least saving sight of him, till the Lord the Spirit open 
 our eyes. It is proper exercise for a Gospel hearer to be 
 saying, with blind Bartimeus, " Lord, that I may receive 
 my sight." 
 
 Secondly, We observe, that it is a sure persuasion. 
 Grounded on the Word of God, and wrought in us by 
 the Spirit of God, it must carry in it a real assurance. 
 It is our seeing the light of God's Word in the light of 
 his Spirit. The language of faith is not, we are almost 
 persuaded, as Agrippa said ; but we are fullypersuaded ; 
 or, as the apostles expressed themselves, "We believe, 
 and are sure, that thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
 living God : we believe that, through tEe grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved." The doubts of 
 salvation by Christ, which often sadly prevail in be- 
 lievers, are to be ascribed to remaining unbelief, legality, 
 and other corruptions, and are carefully to be distin- 
 guished from the nature of faith ; for, true and saving 
 faith evidences assurance to be its nature, by wresthng, 
 according to its measure, against all these doubts, and 
 by its never failing to overcome them at last. 
 
 Thirdly^ It is an appropriating persuasion ; or a be- 
 lief of the Gospel record, with application to ourselves in 
 particular. It is a persuasion that Christ is ours, for all 
 the purposes of justification and salvation, upon no other 
 ground than the Gospel-grant. None can have this per- 
 suasion without being actually put in possession of Christ, 
 of his righteousness and salvation. Thus, no person in 
 believing that Christ is his Saviour in particular, his 
 righteousness and strength, upon the ground of the 
 Gospel -grant, can be deceived or disappointed ; because 
 the Lord assures every believer, that it shall be to him 
 according to his faith. Sinners, we call you, or rather 
 
54 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 Christ himself calls you, to believe that he is yours, his 
 righteousness and salvation yours, by God's grant thereof 
 in the Gospel.* And herein you are not called to believe 
 a lie : but you are assured, that whosoever of you all, be 
 his case and character what it will, is enabled to make 
 such an appropriation of Christ to himself, singly upon 
 the ground of the Gospel-grant, shall not be ashamed, 
 but shall find that, in believing, he is become an actual 
 partaker of Christ, and of his whole salvation, — whoso- 
 ever believeth shall not be ashamed. 
 
 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 " This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of 
 his Son Jesus Christ."— 1 John iii, 23. 
 
 Mai^y and various are the artifices which Satan employs 
 to darken or obscure the glorious Gospel of Christ, who 
 is the image of God, and to hinder its hght from shining 
 in our hearts. Some he seduces to the embracing of 
 gross heresies ; as in the case of those who, with Socinus, 
 reject the divinity and satisfaction of Christ ; or with 
 Pelagius and Arminius, deny the effectual and victorious 
 operations of his grace and Spirit upon the souls of men. 
 For those, again, who make a general profession of the 
 truth, in opposition to these abominable errors, he has 
 more subtle schemes and deviations from the truth of the 
 
 ''' He calleth you : " Go, then, unto him, I beseech you ; and if he 
 come and meet you (as his manner is), then do not you unadvisedly 
 say with Peter, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." — 
 Luke V. 8. But say in plain terms, O come unto me, for I am a sinful 
 man, O Lord. Yea, go on farther, and say, as Luther bids you. Most 
 gracious Jesus and sweet Christ, I am a miserable poor sinner, and 
 therefore do judge myself unworthy of thy grace ; but yet I having 
 learned from thy Word, that thy salvation belongeth to such a one, 
 therefore do I come unto thee, to claim that right, which, through thy 
 gracious promise, belongeth unto me." — Marroxo of Modern Divinity^ 
 chap, ii., sect, iii., § 3, 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 55 
 
 Gospel ; which, though they seem, at first, but trivial, 
 and differing Httle but in expHcitness of expression from 
 the doctrine that we have learned, yet secretly tend to 
 enervate and reduce all that serves to distinguish it from 
 the doctrine of Papists and Arminians, to a mere nothing. 
 Thus, many insist on the necessity of coming to and 
 improving him by faith ; who will by no means allow, 
 that the Gospel affords every poor sinner of mankind that 
 hears it, an immediate and a sufficient warrant to trust in 
 the promises, grounded upon the law -magnifying righ- 
 teousness of Christ, for his own everlasting salvation. 
 But their aversion to this manner of expression (while 
 they use many expressions which, according to the true 
 scriptural sense of them, imply the same doctrine) might 
 appear no way dangerous, did it not proceed from an un- 
 scriptural notion of saving faith, as not consisting in the 
 sinner's fiducial and apphcatory persuasion of God's 
 record concerning his Son, but in his compliance with 
 certain terms and conditions prescribed, as they say, in 
 the Gospel. 
 
 This doctrine of conditions (of which we have already 
 spoken), as it is commonly understood, namely, as signi- 
 fying some good and commendable qualifications, exer- 
 cise, or attainments, the consciousness of which is neces- 
 sary, in order to warrant a sinner's appropriation of 
 Christ crucified to himself, is, in truth, the very soul of 
 Arminianism and Popery ; or, in other words, of that 
 scheme of justification by the works of the law, against 
 which the apostle employs so much reasoning in the 
 Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians. Hence the 
 manifest importance of that part of our subject to which 
 we now proceed, which is, to show, 
 
 That, in the direct act of saving faith, a person ap- 
 propriates Christ crucified to himself, saying with the 
 heart, I am verily persuaded that Christ is mine, upon no 
 other ground or warrant than that of th6 free grant, 
 which God is now making of him to me in his word of 
 grace and promise. 
 
 Before we come to the argument, it seems necessary to 
 
56 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 oifer a few previous observations, to obviate some com- 
 mon prejudices on this subject. 
 
 1. We are far from saying-, that every one who pro- 
 fesses to hold this doctrine, with respect to faith's appro- 
 priation of Christ crucified, is a true believer. Persons 
 may hold this, as well as other truths, in unrighteousness. 
 
 They may have evangelical heads with leg-al hearts. 
 Such is the amazing deceitfulness of the human heart, 
 that many imagine that they have a persuasion that Christ 
 is theirs, upon a Gospel-foundation, whilst that which 
 they take for such a persuasion is but a selfish notion, 
 grounded upon their own personal righteousness, their 
 knowledge, their outward church privileges, their long 
 standing, reputation, and usefulness in the visible Church ; 
 the frames they have been wrought up to, and the reso- 
 lutions they have taken ; their deep convictions, followed 
 by comfortable feelings and enlarg-ements. Nothing can 
 be farther from what is here meant, than to reproach or 
 disparage these things. Would to God, that, being of 
 the right kind, and kept in their proper place, they were 
 more common in the visible Church. But what we con- 
 demn, is the vain and impious attempt to invert the order 
 of the Gospel, by building the faith or hope of salvation 
 upon such things. This is the case with those, whatever 
 their opinions or professions may be, who have no self- 
 abasing sense of the blindness of their minds, and the 
 natural enmity of their hearts against the way of salva- 
 tion revealed in the Gospel, and who do not feel their 
 pressing need of the enlightening and renewed work of 
 the Holy Spirit to make them discern and take up with 
 the revealed warrant, which they have, in common with 
 others, to say with the whole heart, and with entire con- 
 fidence, Christ is mine, His whole salvation is mine ; 
 " In the Lord have I," a poor sinner of Adam's family, 
 '•' righteousness and strength." Faith is not a notioi^ 
 nor a profession of a notion ; but a real seeing of the Son,/ 
 and believing on him. 
 
 2. The appropriation of which I speak, is the appro- 
 priation of a whole Christ and of his whole salvation to 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 5 i 
 
 ourselves. A persuasion that Christ is mine for present 
 pardon, and not nnine for present sanctification, is not 
 faith, but a mere delusion : Because Christ can be no 
 otherwise received by faith, than as he is given to us in 
 the Gospel. Christ and his benefits are inseparable both 
 in the Gospel report and in the appropriation of faith : 
 which correspond with one another, as the impression on 
 wax with the imprinting seal. 
 
 There are several misrepresentations with respect to 
 the ground of this appropriation. The first we take 
 notice of, is that which makes particular election or par- 
 ticular redemption the ground of it. It is evident, that 
 the ground of our faith must be something that may be 
 known before, or in order to the act of faith : it must be 
 among the things that are revealed, which belong to us 
 and to our children. But it is utterly unwarrantable to 
 seek the knowledge of our election, or of our actual in- 
 terest in Christ's intention to lay down his life for his 
 sheep, before or in order to our believing in his nam.e ; 
 because, before the exercise and fruits of faith, our elec- 
 tion and interest in Christ's intention when he laid down 
 his life, are among the secret things which belong unto 
 the Lord our God : a preposterous prying into which, is 
 to be regarded as an abominable temptation of Satan. 
 Faith looks directly or immediately, not at all to what 
 was in God's secret decree from eternity, but to what is 
 now revealed and presented to us in the Gospel. Again, 
 this faith is grossly misrepresented, when it is said to 
 proceed upon any scheme of universal redemption ; which 
 supposes, that Christ made reconciliation by his death 
 for many that are never to be reconciled ; or that he laid 
 down his life for others than his sheep, for many to whom 
 he will not give eternal life. The faith of which we 
 speak, makes an application of the death of Christ as that 
 which, in itself, fully and infallibly secures to us deliver- 
 ance from wrath, and eternal glory. But this is a faith 
 for which the scheme of universal redemption affords no 
 ground ; since it is supposed that Christ died for many 
 that shall never be saved, and that something more than 
 
58 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 his death is necessary to secure any from th« wrath which 
 is to come. The salvation, which universal redemption 
 gives ground for the faith of, is but a conditional and un- 
 certain salvation ; whereas that, which saving faith ap- 
 prehends in the free promise of the Gospel, is uncondi- 
 tional and absolutely sure. Nor can the ground of this 
 appropriating faith be our experience of any saving ope- 
 ration of the Holy Spirit in our souls, or our conscious- 
 ness of any divine communication of supernatural light or 
 power to believe ; for there can be no real experience or 
 consciousness of any communication but in or after believ- 
 ing. Thus, when our Lord commanded the man who had 
 the withered hand to stretch it out, he could have no ex- 
 perience of the strength imparted to him for that purpose, 
 but in or after his act of stretching it out. In believing, 
 we proceed upon the same ground upon which that man 
 proceeded, namely, the call of the Lord Jesus. In short, 
 the ground of this appropriation is utterly misrepresented, 
 when it is said to be any good or commendable qualifica- 
 tions in our souls, or, indeed, any thing peculiar or not 
 to be found in other sinners ; for we are to come to 
 Christ, or, in other words, to make a believing apphca- 
 tion of him and all his benefits to ourselves, as miserable 
 sinners, having nothing in ourselves to distinguish or 
 give us a better claim to him and his salvation than other 
 sinners of the human race. 
 
 4. The appropriating persuasion or assurance, which 
 we hold to be in the nature of saving faith, is carefully 
 to be distinguished from the knowledge of our being be- 
 lievers, and already in a state of grace. For, though the 
 mind must ever be conscious of its own act ; yet whether 
 that act be such as has the particular nature and proper- 
 ties of saving faith, cannot be known but by reflection. 
 That knowledge is to be ascribed to the shining of the 
 Holy Spirit upon his own blessed work in the soul, 
 wherebv he causeth us to see that it bears the marks given 
 in the Word of that which is saving. This knowledge is 
 usually attained in the diligent use of means, particularly 
 of self-examination. They seem to speak with the great- 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 59 
 
 est accuracy, who call it, the assurance of sense. The 
 assurance of faith arises from the single view of what is 
 contained in the Word of God ; the assurance of sense 
 from the joint view of his Word without us, and of his 
 work within us. The language of faith is, Thus he hath 
 spoken ; the language of sense, Thus he hath done. 
 
 Having premised these things, we proceed to state the 
 scriptural evidence of this truth. That there is an appro- 
 priation of Christ crucified to ourselves in the nature of 
 saving or justifying faith. 
 
 What we propose in this discourse is to show, that, as 
 saving faith is that which corresponds with God's record 
 concerning his Son ; so the only faith which corresponds 
 with that record, is that which includes in it a person's 
 appropriation of Christ, and his whole salvation, to him- 
 self in particular. 
 
 The former part of this proposition, we hope, will not 
 be disputed. At lea'st it must be sufficient to refer to 
 that definition of a believer which we have in John iii. 
 33, " He that receiveth his testimony, hath set to his 
 seal that God is true." 
 
 As to the latter part of the proposition, we shall now 
 proceed to show, that the faith which corresponds with 
 the Gospel record in each of the views in which we con- 
 sidered it in the former discourse, must be such an appro- 
 priating persuasion as saving faith has been asserted to be. 
 
 1. This record is a declaration that there is no salva- 
 tion in any other than Christ crucified. Now, the faith 
 that corresponds with this declaration must carry in it, 
 that the person has no hope or confidence of salvation 
 but what he has in Christ crucified ; and therefore if he 
 may have this faith, without any persuasion of his own 
 salvation by Christ crucified, he, may have it without any 
 hope or confidence of salvation at all ; he may have it, 
 and yet sink in despair ; which is absurd. When the 
 people of God renounce their idols, such as chariots and 
 horses, riches, beauty, strength, self-righteousness, they 
 transfer whatever confidence they placed in these vanities 
 to a God in Christ. Now, it is evident, that their con- 
 
60 ■ THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 fidence in these vanities included in it an appropriating 
 persuasion, however ill-grounded, of their safety and 
 happiness as thereby secured : " If I have made gold my 
 hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confi- 
 dence : if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and 
 because mine hand had gotten much." — Job xxxi. 24, 
 25. " Asshur shall not save us, we will not ride upon 
 horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our 
 hands, Ye are our gods." — Hosea xiv. 3. " He spake 
 this parable to certain who trusted in themselves that 
 they were righteous." — Luke xviii. 9. Now, what must 
 be the language of this regard that had been blasphe- 
 mously given to idols, when transferred from them to the 
 Loixl Christ, to whom alone it belongs ? It must be to 
 this purpose, A God in Christ is my God, my confidence, 
 in whom alone I will rejoice. I trust in Christ, that I 
 am righteous through his righteousness imputed to me. 
 Hence we find the people of God in Scripture, still ac- 
 companying their renunciation of creature confidences 
 with professions of their confidence in the Lord as their 
 God : " O our God, wilt thou not judge them ? We 
 have no might against this great company that cometh 
 against us : neither know we what to do ; but our eyes 
 are upon thee." — 2 Chron. xx. 12. " Truly in vain is 
 salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude 
 of mountains : truly in the Lord our God is the salvation 
 of Israel." — -Jer. iii. 23. " We do not present our sup- 
 plications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy 
 great mercies." — Dan. ix. 18. " Not having mine own 
 righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is 
 through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of 
 God by faith."_Phil. iii. 9- 
 
 2. The Gospel record is an exhibition of Christ cruci- 
 fied to every sinner of mankind, as an all-sufficient Saviour. 
 If a traveller, ready to faint with hunger, comes into a 
 house, and the head of the family, being acquainted with 
 his condition, causes proper food to be set before him ; 
 if the traveller, knowing the head of the family to be an 
 honest man, and of a generous hospitable disposition, 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 61 
 
 has also heard him declare, that the food set on the table 
 was for the use of hungry travellers, who might have 
 nothings wherewith to j3urchase a meal ; surely the tra- 
 veller, having a due esteem for that person's character 
 and word, and of the provision set before him, will be 
 fully persuaded that he has a right to the immediate use 
 of the food for his present refreshment. In like manner, 
 while the sinner sees himself to he an outcast, ready to 
 perish, he may say, I am persuaded Christ Jesus is set 
 forth to me, as having assumed the human nature into 
 personal union with his divine person, and as having-, 
 therefore, become the elder brother and kinsman-redeemer 
 of mankind sinners : I am persuaded, that the satisfaction 
 or surety-righteousness of Christ is set forth, as, in its 
 intrinsic nature, full payment of my debt to the law and 
 justice of God : I am persuaded that the offices of Christ, 
 as set forth in the Gospel, afford all that deliverance from 
 ignorance, guilt, and spiritual bondage, which I infinitely 
 need : I am persuaded, that the persons whose Saviour 
 Christ is, for whom he suffered and died, are described in 
 terms that are as applicable to me as to any other of 
 mankind ; he being called the Saviour of the world ; he 
 having suffered the just for the unjust; having died for 
 the ungodly, for enemies : I am convinced that the Lord 
 hath put the Bible into my hands, and that his ministers 
 are called and sent according to the rule of his Word, on 
 purpose to set before me this all-sufficient and suitable 
 Saviour : I remember, too, that he who makes such an 
 exhibition of Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, to me 
 a poor sinner, is a God who delighteth in mercy ; this 
 exhibition of Christ, being particularly for the praise of 
 the glory of his grace, which provides all that is here ex- 
 hibited, freely. Upon these grounds I am persuaded. 
 That Christ is my Saviour ; nor can I, without casting 
 reproach upon the wisdom, faithfulness, and mercy of 
 God in setting him forth, entertain any doubts about my 
 justification and salvation through his name. We have 
 many examples in Scripture of such an appropriating 
 faith being grounded upon the all-sufficiency of the name, 
 
G2 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 of the power, of the mercy, of the loving-kindness of 
 God in Christ : " They that know thy name will put 
 their trust in thee." — Psal. ix. 10. <' Our God whom 
 we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery fur- 
 nace, and he will deliver us out of thine hands, O king." 
 — Dan. iii. 17. " Abraham was strong in faith, giving^ 
 glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had 
 promised he was able to perform." — Rom. iv. 2 0^ 21.^ 
 " How excellent is thy loving- kindness, O God ! fliere- 
 fore do the children of men put their trust under the 
 shadow of thy wings." — Psal. xxxvi. '^. It is a sweet 
 name that was revealed to Abraham, " I am God Al- 
 mighty ;" or, as it might be read, " All-sufficient." His 
 all-sufficiency for the salvation of sinners, could not be 
 seen in all the law, nor in all the works of the old crea- 
 tion : It could nowhere be seen but in Christ ; in Him 
 whose name is the lord our righteousness. Who- 
 ever gets a spiritual discernment of this all-sufficiency in 
 Christ, will see ground to say unto God, in the language 
 of an appropriating faith, " Thou art my shield and ex- 
 ceeding great reward." 
 
 3. In this record of God concerning his Son, there is 
 a free gift and grant of Christ crucified, and of eternal 
 life in him, to sinners of mankind. We may endeavour 
 to represent the manner of the grant in a simile. Sup- 
 pose that a great and generous prince had made a grant 
 to a certain class of persons, therein described, of large 
 estates, including all things suitable to their condition ; 
 and had publicly declared, that whosoever of the persons 
 so described would believe such an estate, in virtue of the 
 grant now mentioned, to be his own, should not be dis- 
 appointed, but should immediately enter upon the pos- 
 session of the granted estate, according to the order 
 specified in the grant : suppose, too, that the royal donor 
 had given the grant in writing, and had added his seal, 
 and his oath, and his gracious invitation, and his most 
 earnest entreaty, and his authoritative command, to in- 
 duce the person, described in the grant, to accept of it : 
 it is evident, that any one of these persons, having had 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 63 
 
 access to read or hear the grant, must either be verily 
 persuaded that the granted estate is his own, or be charge- 
 able with an attempt to bring- dishonour upon the good- 
 ness, the veracity, the power, and authority, of the donor ; 
 on account of which attempt he is hable not only to be 
 debarred for ever from the granted estate, but to suffer 
 a most exemplary and tremendous punishment. 
 
 We have shown already, that God hath made a free 
 and unconditional grant of Christ and his whole salvation. 
 Indeed, what is the preaching of Christ as crucified, dead, 
 risen, ascended, and interceding within the veil, but a 
 proclamation of this grant ? For the preaching of Christ 
 is by no means (what some have supposed) one's giving 
 a recital of certain facts,* but rather his endeavouring- to 
 show how all the great and precious promises are in 
 Christ Yea, and in him Amen, to the glory of God by 
 us. The birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of 
 Christ, do not constitute the Gospel, or glad tidings of 
 great joy to sinners of Adam's family, as naked historical 
 facts, but as connected with the promise of pardon and 
 everlasting salvation : according to the example of the 
 Apostle's preaching- : " As concerning- that he raised him 
 up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, 
 he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of 
 David." — Acts xiii. 34. " He w hom God raised from 
 the dead saw no corruption : Be it known unto you, 
 therefore, men and brethren, that throug-h this man is 
 preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." — Acts v. 37? 
 38. " Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be 
 a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, 
 and the forgiveness of sins." — Acts v. 31. Thus, to 
 preach the three offices of Christ, is to show how, in these 
 offices, the promises are all yea and amen to us : how we 
 have the procuring of all the promised blessings in his 
 priestly office ; the saving knowledge of these blessings 
 in his prophetical, and the actual communication of them 
 in his kingly. 
 
 Now, what is the direct act of faith which corresponds 
 See Mr Wilson's Palemou's Creed Reviewed and Examined, vol. i. 
 
64 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 with the free unconditional grant of Christ and his salva- 
 tion, which is made to sinners of mankind in great and 
 precious promises ? Surely the language of such a faith 
 must be to this purpose : Faithful is he who hath pro- 
 mised ; he will do as he hath said ; God hath given to us 
 eternal life, and this life is in his Son. We are not to 
 wait for any recommending or predisposing qualifications, 
 but are immediately to apply to ourselves the benefit of 
 Christ's birth, death, resurrection, ascension, and inter- 
 cession, made over in the absolutely free promise to such 
 as belong to the world of mankind sinners, who are de- 
 scribed as unjust, lost, rebellious, stout-hearted, and far 
 from righteousness.* For thus it is written in the sacred 
 record : " We have seen and do testify, thou the Father 
 sent the Son in the character of the Saviour of the world. 
 It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, 
 That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. 
 The Son of man came to seek and save that which was 
 lost. He suffered for sins, the just One for the unjust, 
 that he might bring us to God. He ascended on high, 
 he led captivity captive, he received gifts for men, yea, 
 even for the rebellious. Hearken unto me, ye stout- 
 hearted, that are far from righteousness ; I bring near 
 my righteousness ; it shall not be far off, and my salva- 
 tion shall not tarry." Each of us should be setting to 
 our seal that God is true ; saying, These are faithful 
 words, worthy of all acceptation, and of my acceptation 
 in particular. Here I see, that they, to whom the pro- 
 mises are directed, are sinners, unjust, rebellious, stout- 
 
 " This is agreeable to the definition of faith, given in the first part of 
 the Marrow of Modern Divinity, ch. ii., sect, iii., § 2. "As Paul and 
 Silas said to the jailer, so say I unto you, Believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and thou shalt be saved ; that is, Be verily persuaded in your 
 heart, that Jesus Christ is yours ; that you shall have life and salvation 
 by him ; and that Avhatsoever he did for the redemption of mankind, he 
 did it for you." This treatise, when men come to relish the genuine 
 Gospel of Christ, the storms of Neonomian and Baxterian rage being 
 over, will be found to be a concise but judicious declaration, of those 
 articles of Bible-doctrine, which Luther, Calvin, and others of our first 
 Reformers, used chiefly to insist on ; and the preaching of which they 
 found most effectual for promoting that blessed work of reformation 
 they were engaged in. 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 65 
 
 hearted, and far from righteousness ; and therefore I, 
 being- such in myself, am hereby fully warranted to con- 
 sider them as directed to me : therefore it shall hence- 
 forth, through grace, be my concern to doubt no longer, 
 but to rest on these promises as in Christ Yea, that is, 
 belonging to me, and Amen, that is, sure to be per- 
 formed. I acknovvledge, that the promise as in Christ 
 meets with no other reception from my depraved nature, 
 than that of being disbelieved and rejected. But there 
 is hope in Israel concerning this thing, in regard that 
 faith itself, or security against the dominion of unbelief 
 and doubting, is in the promise : " In his name shall the 
 Gentiles trust. Thou shalt call me Ishi, that is, my 
 husband. I will say, It is my people ; and they shall 
 say, The Lord is my God." 
 
 As the grant is- peculiarly opposite to our corrupted 
 nature, and particularly to the legal bias of the heart, and 
 to what we are naturally prone to consider as the only 
 rational way of attaining any good thing at the hand of 
 God, — that is, not by believing-, but by doing ; a great 
 variety of means are employed to bring us to this appro- 
 priating persuasion, and to render our unbelief more inex- 
 cusable. The Lord urges us, with much importunity, to 
 accept of the free grant of eternal life in his Son Jesus 
 Christ. He invites, entreats, commands us to receive it. 
 He confirms it with his oath, and puts his seal to it in 
 the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper. He 
 declares that nothing is more pleasino^orglorifying to 
 him, than our belief of this grant. On the other hand, 
 when the disbelief of it prevails in his own people, it is 
 peculiarly grieving to his Holy Spirit, as being directly 
 opposite to his saving work, of which it is a principal part 
 to convince them of this blessed grant. As to others, 
 their rejection of it will not only exclude them from the 
 blessings it conveys, but will make their damnation far 
 more intolerable than that of the heathens, who never 
 heard of it. 
 
 This grant was formally made to the children of Israel, 
 and is now made to us, in the preface of the Ten Com- 
 
66 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 mandments: " I am the Lord thy God, who have brought 
 thee out of the land of Eg-ypt, out of the house of bond- 
 age." In order to the right understanding of this decla- 
 ration, we observe, that it is the same revelation of the 
 covenant of grace which God made to Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob. It is what the apostle calls " The Gospel, 
 which was preached to Abraham," — and which is now 
 preached to us Gentiles. This declaration was made to 
 the whole people of Israel, and is still made to all the 
 members of the visible Church, in such a manner as to 
 afford each of them as full a revealed warrant to believe 
 it, with application to himself, as the patriarch Abraham 
 himself had. In this preface the Lord is saying unto us, 
 " Be it known unto you, members of my visible Church, 
 whose deliverance from Pagan, Mahometan, or Popish 
 darkness, is no less wonderful than that- of Israel out of the 
 land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, that I am 
 now making the same gift and grant of myself to each of 
 you, — to thee, man, to thee, woman, — which I made to 
 my servant Abraham ; I said to him, and I say to thee, 
 I am thy God, I am thy shield, thy exceeding great re- 
 ward. Whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed." 
 
 This is not a conditional, but an absolutely free grant. 
 It is as if he had said, " I am not now making a proposal 
 of becoming thy God upon condition of some moral good 
 to be found in thee, or done by thee ; but I, Jehovah, am 
 pleased, in the sovereignty of my grace, to make a gift and 
 grant of myself to be thy God ; without the faith of this 
 grant it is impossible to please me, or to yield acceptable 
 obedience to any of my commands. According to the cove- 
 nant of works, doing, or perfect obedience, was to go be- 
 fore, in order that man might have a covenant-right or 
 claim to God, as his God or everlasting portion ; but 
 according to the covenant of grace, our covenant-right 
 or claim to God as our God, or everlasting portion, appre- 
 hended by an appropriating faith, goes before all acceptable 
 doing or obedience to his commands. An evangelical per- 
 formance of duty is not at all in order to, but necessarily 
 presupposes, his being our God in Christ. 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 6? 
 
 This preface, with the following commandments, being 
 addressed to the same person or persons (as is evident 
 from the connection), affords every member of the visible 
 Church the same g-round to make an application of both 
 to himself: and indeed there is no g-enuine or single re- 
 gard to the authority or glory of God in any of his com- 
 mandments, without that appropriating persuasion which 
 corresponds with this preface, — without a real persuasion 
 that God is our God and Redeemer in Christ. Teaching 
 men to attempt obedience to any of the commands, with- 
 out directing them to know and believe what is contained 
 in the preface, tends to the subversion of all true holiness. 
 
 It would remove a great prejudice against the appro- 
 priating persuasion of which we speak, if every Gospel 
 hearer would consider that the Lord Christ speaks as 
 particularly to him as if he spoke to him alone ; whether 
 it be in the Law, for his conviction, as when it is said, 
 " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself: how long shall 
 vain thoughts lodge within thee ?" or in the Gospel, for 
 discovering the way of relief, saying, " In me is thy help; 
 I am the Lord thy God ; I am the Lord that healeth 
 thee ; I that speak unto thee am he." 
 
 If the whole word of the Gospel consisted of general 
 propositions, like this, " He that believeth shall be saved," 
 though, even in that case, there would not be a solid 
 ground,* yet there might be some plausible pretence for 
 the opinion, that saving faith is only a general persuasion 
 of the mercy of God, and of Christ's ability and willing- 
 ness to save those that come to him ; but when the Lord 
 speaks to us in the form of a free, indefinite grant and pro- 
 mise, addressed to each of us in particular, with the con- 
 tinual use of the personal pronouns, Thou, Thee, Thine, 
 it seems strange that it can admit a doubt with any, that, 
 in our belief of this grant, there is an appropriation, which 
 is expressed by the corresponding pronouns, /, Me^ Mine.f 
 
 " Because "this general testimony was given out, just for every one's 
 faith to make it particular to himself." 
 
 t " The declarations and promises of the Gospel are made to men 
 with relative words, or terms suited for appropriation ; such as, You, 
 Your, Thou^ Thee, Thy ; and when these enter the ear of faith, they 
 E 
 
68 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 4. The record of God concerning his Son Jesus Christ- 
 considered as the ground of saving faith, is the Gospel as 
 contradistinguished from the Law. Saving faith, though 
 it set to its seal that God is true in all that he speaks, 
 can never rest till it come to the Gospel strictly taken. 
 Here is the beginning of our confidence; here is firm foot- 
 ing for eternity ; here nothing is commanded ; here is no 
 new law, requiring of us faith, repentance, or any other 
 previous condition or qualification. There is nothing here 
 but the infinite love and mercy of God abounding to sin- 
 ners of mankind through the blood and righteousness of 
 his beloved Son, and revealed to us in free and absolute 
 promises. Here all things are of God, who is in Christ 
 reconciling us to himself, not imputing our trespasses 
 to us. In the Gospel, thus understood, every one who 
 is enabled to believe to the saving of his soul, beholds a 
 sufficient, a present, an immediate warrant, to make a fidu- 
 cial application of this salvation to himself in particular. 
 
 It may tend to make the matter more plain, to give a 
 specimen of the answers which the Gospel, as contradis- 
 tinguished from the Law, affords to the objections which 
 a person under concern about his everlasting salvation is 
 apt to offer against this fiducial application. If he say, 
 " My sins are uncommonly heinous and aggravated, there- 
 fore I doubt whether God will pardon them :" we answer, 
 If thou meanest God absolutely considered, or as he re- 
 veals himself in the Law, thou hast no ground to believe 
 that he will pardon the least of thy sins ; but if thou 
 speakest of God as he reveals himself in the Gospel, a 
 promising God in Christ, thou canst not doubt of the for- 
 giveness of any of them, however great, without giving 
 the lie to such words, directed to thee, as these : " The 
 blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin," 
 — 1 John i. 7; " Come and let us reason together, saith 
 
 immediately point out or specify the person, as all holding true of him 
 in particular. Whenever the person is spiritually quickened, and thus 
 brought to the hearing of faith, immediately the word of grace strikes 
 the ear of faith, as spoken to him ; and he credits it with terms of appro- 
 priation, — Me^ My, Mine.'''' This and the preceding note are taken 
 Uova. the Present Truths vol. ii. pp. 179, 173. 
 
OP SAVING FAITH. 69 
 
 the Lord ; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
 white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they 
 shall be as wool," — Isa. i. 18; "I, even I, am he that 
 blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and 
 will not remember thy sins," — Isa. xliii, 25. According- 
 to the order of blessings in the Gospel promise, thou art 
 to believe the pardon of thy sins, as fundamental to thy 
 enjoyment of other saving blessings, such as the writing 
 of the Law in thy heart, and the increasing knowledge 
 of the Lord. " This is the covenant that I will make 
 with the house of Israel " (that is, the visible Church, 
 including all those to whom the Word of God comes), 
 " After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws 
 into their mind, and write them in their hearts ; and I 
 will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people ; 
 and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and 
 every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord ; for all 
 shall know me, from the least even to the greatest. For" 
 (the causal particle here is diligently to be observed) " I 
 will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins 
 and their iniquities will I remember no more." — Heb. viii. 
 10-12. If the person say, " I must find something pro- 
 mising like in my case, some good desires and resolutions 
 at least, before I may venture to apply so comfortable a 
 promise to myself:" we answer. That the Gospel, strictly 
 taken, requireth nothing as a condition, but is a free grant 
 of Christ and his whole salvation to sinners of mankind. 
 None of thy desires or resolutions will be truly good, 
 while thou believest not the Gospel. Beware of going 
 to the Law for a condition to warrant thy application of 
 the Gospel ; rather let thy immediate application of the 
 Gospel be thy preparation for essaying obedience to the 
 Law as a rule of life. Thou canst not take a right step 
 in the path of duty, till thy feet be shod with the pre- 
 paration of the Gospel of peace. — If the person say, " I 
 do not find that God speaks particularly to me in the 
 Gospel promise :" we answer, That this is to deny that 
 the Gospel is preached to thee ; though the Lord com- 
 missions his ministers to preach it to every creature, — to 
 
70 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 every man, to every woman, in every part of the world to 
 which Providence bring-s them. Thou art one of the mem- 
 bers of the visible Church, to whom pertain the promises. 
 The Lord speaks as particularly to thee as ever he did to 
 any, before their actual believing-. — If he say, " I may 
 perish, notwithstanding- this direction of the promises to 
 me :" we answer, If thou still obstinately persist in look- 
 ing- into thyself, into thy exercises or attainments, as 
 necessary to give thee a right to Christ as thy Saviour, 
 and in refusing to give credit to God's promise and record 
 concerning his Son, then the Law-covenant, which, in that 
 case, retains its full dominion over thee, and the threaten- 
 ings of which cannot fail to be executed at last, condemns 
 thee to everlasting destruction ; but the promise, believed 
 with application to thyself in particular, cannot fail to be 
 verified in thy experience, — for whosoever beheveth shall 
 not be ashamed. — If he say, " I have not, as yet, that 
 light which is necessary to the act of believing :" we an- 
 swer. Dost thou not know that the Gospel is preached 
 to thee ? Dost not thou understand that the Gospel is 
 an absolutely free grant of Christ and his whole salvation 
 to sinners of mankind, and to thee in particular ? If thou 
 dost, thou hast light for the immediate exercise of faith ; 
 if thou dost not, thou hast just cause to fear that thou 
 art shutting thine eyes upon the clear light shining unto 
 thee in the word of the Gospel, and that thou art hating 
 the Lord's instruction, and casting his words behind thy 
 back. It is true, the people of God have all a humbling 
 sense of their spiritual blindness ; but this they desire to 
 improve, as rather an incitement to the immediate exer- 
 cise of faith in Christ Jesus, as given to be a light to the 
 Gentiles, and to open the blind eyes, than as any excuse 
 for the delay of it. — If he say, " I have no strength to 
 beUeve :" we answer. Dost thou mean that thou canst not 
 help looking upon the Gospel record concerning Christ, 
 and the promise of eternal life in him, as a cunningly 
 devised fable, affording no real security for what it pro- 
 mises ? Or is it not rather thy case, that, though thou 
 art troubled with no doubts of the truth of the Gospel, 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 71 
 
 thou art entertaining a false notion of the Gospel, agree- 
 able to the legal bias of the heart, that it is a new Law, 
 requiring faith and repentance as terms or conditions, the 
 performance of which is necessary to give thee a right to 
 lay claim to the good of the promise. Thus, when thou 
 complainest that thou canst not believe, thy meaning is, 
 not that thou canst not believe the Gospel grant to be true, 
 but that thou canst not do or acquire something which 
 thou conceivest necessary to entitle thee to what is there- 
 in granted ; not considering that this grant is free and 
 unconditional, and that believing, as it is the mean of our 
 possession of promised blessings, is always opposed to 
 doing, and to every appearance of it : which is what the 
 apostle teacheth, when he opposes our seeking righteous- 
 ness by faith, to our seeking it, as it were, by the works 
 of the Law. — Kom. ix. 32. But a real, humbling sense 
 of our utter inability to believe, and of such a prevalence 
 of darkness and enmity in the heart, as nothing less than 
 almighty power can overcome, is so far from being incon- 
 sistent with true faith, that it is inseparable from it. As 
 under a sense of extreme guiltiness, faith is a persuasion 
 that in the Lord Jesus Christ we have righteousness ; so 
 under a sense of absolute weakness, it is a persuasion thj 
 in him we have strength. The language of faith is : " O 
 Lord, our strength, we have no might against this great 
 company that cometh against us ; but our eyes are to 
 thee." Allow not thyself in thinking that thou'^hast 'any' 
 ability or any faith to bring to the promise ; but rather 
 look that virtue may proceed from the promise itself (that 
 is, from a promising God in Christ), effectually determin- 
 ing thee to believe it ; and to this thou art the more en- 
 couraged, in regard that whatsoever is necessary to the 
 exercise of faith is expressly contained in the promise : 
 " When the poor and needy seek water " (seek light or 
 strength to believe), " and find none " (in themselves), 
 " and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear 
 them, and I the God of Jacob will not forsake them." 
 " He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no 
 might he increaseth strength." " The outcasts, and they 
 
72 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 that are ready to perish, shall come." This shall come 
 will be inexpressibly sweet to thee, who hast a suitable, 
 humbling sense of thy unbelief, and utter inability to with- 
 stand the power of those corruptions that oppose thy 
 believing- application of the promise, — such as spiritual 
 blindness, enmity, legahsm, carnality. — If he say, " How 
 can I believe, till I experience the saving work of the 
 Holy Spirit?" we answer. There would be much force 
 in this objection, if the consciousness of some previous 
 recommending qualifications were necessary to warrant the 
 application of the promise in Christ to thyself; because 
 all such qualifications must be included in the saving work 
 of the Spirit. But the Gospel, as contradistinguished 
 from the Law, being an absolutely free grant of Christ 
 and his salvation to sinners of Adam's family, as such, it 
 is plain that thou art to believe the free promise with 
 application to thyself, not as having already attained the 
 experience of a saving work of the Spirit, but rather as 
 wanting it : and this is the more evident, in regard that 
 that saving work is amongst the things specified in the 
 promise, and for which thou art to take it as good secu- 
 rity ; and in regard that the pretended experience, which 
 is supposed to be before believing, is but delusory, — all 
 genuine experience of a saving work being in or after 
 beheving. 
 
 But against what has been said concerning the founda- 
 tion of this appropriating persuasion in the record of God 
 concerning his Son, the following objection, in the words 
 of a late publication, may be considered : — 
 
 " The Scriptures nowhere call upon the sinner to be- 
 lieve that Christ died for him in particular, or that the 
 blessings of salvation are his. As soon shall a person, 
 whose understanding is deranged, and who, in the extra- 
 vagance of his folly, imagines himself a king, be advanced, 
 by virtue of this persuasion, to the throne, and to all the 
 ensigns and prerogatives of royalty, as a person shall be- 
 come an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ, who 
 founds his claim to these blessings upon this presumptu- 
 ous, confident persuasion. The constant, uniform tenor 
 
OF SAVIXG FAITH. 73 
 
 of Sacred Writ, is, that Christ died for sinners, and that 
 there is pardon, hfe, and salvation by the mercy of God, 
 through him, for all who will break off their sins by re- 
 pentance, accept of him as their Saviour, and of the offered 
 mercy through him." * 
 
 Answer 1. It is true the Scriptures nowhere call 
 
 upon a sinner to believe that Christ died for him, in this 
 sense, as if he were, in the first instance, to consider him- 
 self as among those for whom Christ intended to lay down 
 his life. We have already seen, that neither election nor 
 the intention of Christ in laying down his life could be 
 the ground of saving faith ; but surely the Scriptures call 
 upon the sinner to believe that the Gospel is preached to 
 him, — that therein Christ crucified is now freely given 
 to him in particular, — that the blessings of salvation are 
 his, by virtue of the promise directed to him ; even while 
 he has no sensible or sufficient evidence that they_are_ 
 in respect of actual possession. The actuarpossession of 
 them, however, is also sure to him that believeth. Ch risf_ 
 saith to him, "According to thy faith so be it unto thee.'y 
 Hence these expressions, " Christ crucified is mine,"Ms 
 whole salvation is mine," and the like, are always true in 
 the mouth of faith ; that is, to him who believeth upon 
 the footing of the Gospel grant or promise alone. But 
 they are most false in the mouth of unbelief; that is, to 
 him that rejects the Gospel grant, as judging it to be no 
 sufficient ground of such confidence. 
 
 2, It is, undoubtedly, an essential part of the charac- 
 ter of a believer, that he is a person who breaks off his 
 sins by repentance ; yet his doing so is neither faith nor 
 the previous condition of faith, or of a sinner's believing 
 application of the promise to himself ; for the promise 
 which the person applies to himself by faith, is a promise 
 of repentance, — and how absurd is it to make repentance 
 the condition of our application of the promise of repent- 
 ance ! Hereby the great Promiser is represented as say- 
 ing, " I will give thee the new, the penitent heart ; but 
 thou mayest not make any application of this promise to 
 * Mr M'Knight's Six Sermons on Faith, p. 88. 
 
74 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 thyself till thou hast got that new and penitent heart ; — 
 or, thou mayest give no credit to the promise till thou 
 art in actual possession of what is promised ; that is, thou 
 mayest give no credit to it at all." 
 
 3. The phrase, taking or accepting of Christ, is ambi- 
 guous. There is an accepting of Christ by way of trust- 
 ing or believing in him for all the good of the promise ; 
 and there is an accepting of him by way of resolution or 
 engagement to submit to his authority and government."^' 
 Both are essential to the Christian ; but the former is 
 only faith, and is, in the order of nature, before the latter. 
 In the former sense, the following proposition is entirely 
 agreeable to the doctrine we have stated concerning the 
 appropriation which is in the nature of saving faith : that 
 there is pardon, hfe, and salvation, by the mercy of God 
 through Christ, for all who accept of Christ as their Sa- 
 viour ; or rather, all such are partakers of these blessings. 
 
 4. The madman alluded to in the exception never 
 uttered any thing more extravagant or farther from com- 
 mon sense, than a representation of the old Protestant 
 doctrine as founding its claim to spiritual blessings upon 
 some presumptuous, confident persuasion ; since according 
 to that, which is, indeed, the doctrine of the Bible, faith's 
 claim and its persuasion are one and the same thing ; since 
 that claim has no other foundation than the Gospel pro- 
 mise ; and since this faith, as such, regards nothing but 
 the object of it, our Lord Jesus, — and the ground of it, 
 the record of God concerning him, — exclusive of reflec- 
 tion upon, or consciousness of, its own act. 
 
 Upon the whole, saving faith is not a speculative 
 notion of Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension ; 
 nor an abstract philosophic view of the moral excellence 
 therein displayed ; but it is a spiritual discernment of 
 such an exhibition of these mysteries of the kingdom of 
 heaven, in the Gospel grant and promise, as aifords a 
 solid ground for an application of Christ, and his whole 
 
 * Justifying faith (as the author of Luthems Itedcvivics, p. 129, inti- 
 mates) is not our taking Christ in all his offices, by way of promise or 
 covenant of obedience, or subjection to him; but our taking him, — that 
 is, our believing or trusting him, for the benefits of ever)' office. 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 75 
 
 salvation, to ourselves in particular. We do not rightly 
 believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, unless 
 we believe that we shall have life through his name. 
 There is no right or warrantable meditation on the death, 
 resurrection, or ascension of Christ, but that which in- 
 cludes in it this believing application ; or which is to this 
 effect : " He was delivered for our offences, and rose 
 again for our justification. He was wounded for our 
 transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. God the 
 Father made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that 
 we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 
 The forerunner is for us entered within the vail." 
 
 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 " And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the 
 name of his Son Jesus Christ," — 1 John iii. 23. 
 
 Having endeavoured to show that there is an appropria- 
 tion in the nature of saving faith, from its correspondence 
 with the record of God concerning his Son Jesus Christ ; 
 we now proceed to state the evidence of this truth arising 
 from other considerations. 
 
 1. To understand faith or believing in Christ as in- 
 cluding appropriation, is most agreeable to the sense in 
 which the word is used in Scripture. To believe is to 
 give credit to a testimony. The different acceptations of 
 the word arise from the different lights in which the tes- 
 timony is considered. Thus, when the matter of the 
 testimony is, or at least is accounted to be, something 
 wherein the person believing is nothing concerned, the 
 word must be understood of what has been called Histo- 
 rical Faith, or an assent to some general truth. But 
 when the matter of the testimony is some good thing to 
 be done or given by the Testifier to the person believing, 
 — faith or believing, in that case, always includes trust 
 
76 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 or confidence ; and, in Scripture, is commonly expressed 
 by believing- in the Testifier. So when Abraham be- 
 lieved the promise that God had given him of a son, he 
 is said to have " believed in the Lord." Hence it is 
 manifest, that to believe in Christ is to trust in him, or 
 to be verily persuaded, that he will give us the promised 
 salvation ; and is parallel to the expression used in Ephes. 
 i. 12, " Who trusted in Christ." Since the matter, 
 therefore, of the Gospel testimony, is everlasting salva- 
 tion, to be bestowed on us by the Testifier, surely when we 
 consider the faith of that testimony, as including confi- 
 dence or a real persuasion that salvation will be bestowed 
 on us in particular, we adhere to the usual acceptation of 
 the word in Scripture ; whereas it will be hard to produce 
 a single passage wherein it is necessary to understand the 
 term faith, or believing, of complying with proposals, 
 terms, or conditions, of coming under engagements, or of 
 submitting to rule or government. 
 
 2. There are several express descriptions and represen- 
 tations of saving faith in Scripture, which are necessary 
 to be attended to. Remarkable is that in Heb. xi. 1, 
 " Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evi- 
 dence of things not seen." In the first place, it appears 
 from this text, that, in believing, the sinner apprehends 
 the good presented to him in the Gospel as his own 
 good, his own salvation ; for we do not hope for salva- 
 tion otherwise than as our own. " Now, faith is the sub- 
 stance of things hoped for." In the next place, we learn 
 from these words, that there is, in the nature of faith, a 
 confidence or assurance of salvation, quite different indeed 
 from the assurance of sense. The original word here 
 translated substance, is the same which, in chap. iii. 14 
 of this book, is translated confidence. This confidence 
 necessarily arises from a spiritual and satisfying view of 
 good things to come, as already present in the promise ; 
 of things not seen, that are not yet matter of sense or 
 experience, as the greatest realities. So that the soul 
 can reckon upon them, as if they were already in its pos- 
 session, saying with the Psalmist, " God hath spoken in 
 
OP SAVING FAITH. 77 
 
 his holiness ; I will rejoice: I will divide Shechem, and 
 mete out the valley of Succoth." 
 
 There are several passages in which saving- faith, or 
 believing, having been first mentioned, is exemplified by 
 expressions of this appropriating persuasion ; such as the 
 following : " I trusted in thee, O Lord ; I said, Thou 
 art my God." — Psal. xxxi. 14. " Now, it was not writ- 
 ten for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him : but 
 for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on 
 him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who 
 was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for 
 our justification." — Rom. iv. 23, 24, 25. In these words 
 the apostle teacheth us what it is to believe in a true and 
 saving manner. It is to believe in God, as having de- 
 livered his own Son for our offences, and as having raised 
 him again for our justification, and as having thus de- 
 clared himself fully reconciled to us in Christ : " He that 
 believeth not God, 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 giren to us eternal life, 
 and this life is in his Son." — 1 John v. 10, 11. It is 
 evident, that, in the 1 1th verse, we have the language of 
 faith in opposition to that unbelief which makes God a 
 liar ; and therefore all true and saving faith, whether 
 weak or strong, as being opposite to unbelief, must have 
 this persuasion in it. That God hath given to us eternal 
 life ; in which words, the apostle speaks the language 
 which is common to himself, with all believers : " The 
 life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of 
 the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." 
 — Gal. ii. 20. In the last clause of this verse, the apostle 
 represents what sort of faith it was by which he lived in 
 the flesh, by which he was crucified with Christ, by which 
 Christ lived in him, and by which, being dead to the law, 
 he lived unto God. The assurance of sense is, indeed, 
 a most blessed attainment : there is a great deal of the 
 comfortable enjoyment of the spiritual hfe, a great deal 
 of heaven begun, in it ; but still it is a different thing 
 from the faith by which a Christian lives. The great 
 
78 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 appointed mean of Christ living in us, is that faith which 
 appropriates him as having- loved us and given himself 
 for us, — a faith which proceeds upon no other ground 
 than the free grant and offer of him in the Gospel. 
 
 We may farther observe, that when the Lord promises 
 faith, he continually represents it as an appropriating per- 
 suasion : " But I said, How shall I put thee among the 
 children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage 
 of the host of nations ? And I said, Thou shalt call me, 
 My Father, and shalt not turn away from me." — Jer. iii. 
 19. " Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righ- 
 teousness and strength." — Isa. xlv. 24. " And it shall 
 be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me 
 Ishi," that is, my husband: — Hosea ii. I6, and ver. 23, 
 " I will say to them who were not my people, Thou art 
 my people ; and they shall say. Thou art my God." 
 
 3. This appropriating persuasion makes faith differ spe- 
 cifically, or in kind, from whatever else bears that name.'"" 
 In the times of the apostles, some, who were destitute of 
 saving grace, had the faith of miracles. There was, in- 
 deed, in this faith, an application of a promise, or rather 
 prediction of some extraordinary work of God, in which 
 the person was to be instrumental. So Jehu appears to 
 have believed the threatening against Ahab's family with 
 application to himself. So Cyrus and Alexander, though 
 ignorant of the true religion, might have a belief of the 
 Scripture prophecies concerning their respective con- 
 quests. But this was only a carnal view of some tem- 
 poral event, which was quite different from that spiritual 
 and appropriating view which a believer has, in the pro- 
 mise of a present and everlasting salvation. In other 
 
 * " The distinction between justifying faith and special application 
 is absurd, wholly subverting the nature of true faith. A general faith 
 is not justifying, unless we would say, that devils and hypocrites who 
 tremble, are justified before God, because they are endued with such a 
 faith. Wheii God enjoins faith in the Gospel, he does not only require 
 that we believe in general that remission of sins is given to all the 
 faithful, but that every one should believe that it is given to him in 
 particular, in order that he may receive it to his salvation." — Rom. iv. 
 24, 25 ; viii. 35, 38 ; and xv. 4. Gal. ii. 16, 20. 1 Tim. i. 15.— ^en- 
 ricus Altingms on the JSeidelherg Catechism. 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 79 
 
 cases, wherein iinregenerate persons are said to believe, 
 there is manifestly either no application of the Gospel 
 salvation, or, if there seem to be any, it is upon some 
 other ground than tbe divine grant in the Gospel. Thus, 
 persons may be said to believe, when they only allow the 
 truth of certain doctrines, or facts recorded in Scripture. 
 In this sense we may understand the apostle, when he 
 says, in Acts xxvi. 27, " King- Agrippa, believest thou 
 the prophets ? I know that thou believest." Again, 
 they may be said to believe, who apply the promise of 
 life to themselves on account of some good frames, dis- 
 positions, or affections which they find to be or to have 
 been in themselves, or on account of, what they reckon, 
 their unblameable practice, or on account of the favour- 
 able outward aspect of providence. In this sense the 
 stony ground hearers are said to have received the word 
 with joy. But they had no root in themselves ; they 
 were destitute of regenerating grace, from which springs 
 another sort of faith, even that which rests upon the 
 Gospel grant of Christ and his salvation to sinners of 
 mankind, as the single and sufficient ground of its claim 
 to Christ and his salvation. Thus, if it be asked, How 
 saving faith, in its own act, is distinguished from that 
 belief of the truth concerning Christ, which may be found 
 in wicked men or even in devils ? it may justly be an- 
 swered, By appropriation, or tbe application of Christ to 
 ourselves in particular. Again, if it be asked. How saving 
 faith is distinguished from that presumptuous confidence 
 which is often found in those who endure but for a while? 
 it may still be answered. By the appropriation of Christ 
 crucified to ourselves, upon no other ground than the 
 Gospel grant. Saving faith is distinguished from what- 
 ever else is called faith, by the effectual relief which it 
 affords the soul from the reigning fear of Law condemna- 
 tion and wrath. But, in order to this relief, it is neces- 
 sary that the application of the Gospel in believing, be 
 as particular as the apphcation of the Law in conviction. 
 When the Law says. Pay me what thou owest ; the soul 
 is relieved when it can say, Christ is my Surety, Substi- 
 
80 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 tute, and Saviour, and his rig-hteousness is a full answer 
 to all the demands that law and justice have upon me. 
 When the Law says, Thou art a child of wrath : True, 
 says Faith, I am such by nature ; but Christ is my peace. . 
 Thy case is hopeless, says the Law : It would be so, says 
 Faith, if I had no hope but what creatures afford ; but 
 Christ is my hope. Faith is farther distinguished from 
 whatever else bears that name, by its hearty approbation 
 of, and acquiescence in, the whole device of salvation 
 through Christ crucified, as well-ordered in all things and 
 sure. But there is so much of the manifold wisdom and 
 grace of God manifested in that part of this device, which 
 makes a public and free grant of Christ and his salvation 
 to sinners of mankind, as such, that, in rejecting or ap- 
 proving that grant, we reject or approve the whole. 
 And indeed that part of this device by which Christ 
 crucified is exhibited as a free gift to sinners of mankind, 
 who have nothing to distinguish them from other sinners, 
 is peculiarly a stumbling-stone to natural men ; as it is 
 so directly opposite to the legal pride which possesses 
 their heart, and which the almighty power of divine grace 
 is necessary to subdue. No person has a just or spiritual 
 view of the grace and mercy of God in Christ, exhibited 
 in the Gospel, who does not see it extending even to 
 him in particular, though amongst the chief of sinners ; 
 a covering not too narrow, but abundantly large for him 
 to wrap himself in ; a covering not at a distance, but 
 brought to his hand : " The righteousness of faith speak- 
 eth on this wise, Say not in thine heart. Who shall ascend 
 into heaven ? (that is, to bring Christ down from above.) 
 But what saith it ? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth 
 and in thy heart ; that is, the word of faith which we 
 preach." — Rom. x. 6, 7, 8. Faith's view of the glory of 
 God in the face of Jesus Christ, is an applicatory view of 
 it ; a view of Christ Jesus as made of God unto us (to 
 me in particular, says faith), wisdom, righteousness, 
 sanctification, and redemption ; a view of God in Christ 
 as our God, and of all his infinite perfections, as exercised 
 and glorified in our salvation. It is another distinguish- 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 81 
 
 ing property of true faith, that it is effectual to animate 
 us to the cheerful performance of duty. But it is the 
 lively appropriating- persuasion of the love of Christ, as 
 manifested in his obedience unto death, even the death 
 of the cross, and not the abstract philosophical contem- 
 plation of moral beauty and excellence, that will constrain 
 us to live not to ourselves, but to Him who died for us 
 and rose again. We are to consider ourselves as not our 
 own, but bought with a price, that we may glorify God 
 in our bodies and spirits, which are his : We never 
 walk right, unless we walk in Christ, that is, under a 
 persuasion, grounded singly upon the Gospel grant, that 
 he gives himself to us to be our quickening head, and his 
 Holy Spirit to be our ever actuating guide. They only 
 have heart or hand for setting about the blessed exercise 
 of mortifying their corruptions, who know and believe that 
 '• their old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of 
 sin may be destroyed, that henceforth they may not serve 
 sin ;" and who " reckon themselves to be dead indeed 
 unto sin, and alive to God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." They who have a real persuasion that Christ is 
 such a merciful and faithful High Priest, that he will not 
 fail to confess them before his Father who is in heaven, 
 and that they have unsearchable riches in him, are the 
 only persons who will, honestly, and with singleness of 
 heart, confess him before men, and forego all they have 
 in the world, even their natural life, for his sake. The pre- 
 face of the Lord's Prayer, and the preface of the Ten Com- 
 mandments, are both expressed in such terms, that we 
 can neither heartily say the one, nor fully assent to the 
 other, without this appropriating persuasion, to teach us 
 that, without it, there is no such thing as acceptable 
 prayer, or suitable respect to any of the commandments. 
 Were we to enter into a particular consideration of the 
 various exercises of the Christian life, we would see this 
 appropriating persuasion running through and animating- 
 them all. 
 
 4. This appropriating persuasion is implied in the meta- 
 phorical representations which we have, in Scripture, 
 
82 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 of savings faith. Faith is called a " receiving." " To as 
 many as received him, to them gave he power to be- 
 come the sons of God, even to them that believe in his 
 name." — John i. 12. Faith being called a receiving, im- 
 plies that there is a giving on God's part, in the external 
 dispensation of his word, previous to our believing ; for 
 " no man can receive any thing, except it be given him 
 from heaven." We receive Christ when we believe, as in 
 1 John V. 11, that God "hath given to us eternal life, 
 and that this life is in his Son." Faith is called a re- 
 ceiving, from the nature of the testimony believed, or 
 because it is a testimony discovering Christ as a free gift, 
 of which, in the act of believing, we become real par- 
 takers. Faith is called a receiving, because its proper 
 and specific act lies, not at all in the persons offering or 
 bringing any thing to God, but in his taking home to 
 himself, as a poor sinner of Adam's family, a whole 
 Christ and his whole salvation, upon no other footing 
 than the Gospel grant.'"^ We have another metaphorical 
 representation of saving faith, in Isa. Iv. 1 : " Ho, every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that 
 hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy 
 wine and milk without money and without price." " He 
 that hath no money," that is, no good qualifications, no 
 performance of conditions ; he in whom nothing is to be 
 found but sin and misery, is called to " buy wine and 
 milk," that is, to take home to himself, Christ and his 
 benefits, unto actual possession and enjoyment ; just as a 
 person takes home to himself, for his own use, what he 
 hath lawfully bought in the market. But here it is re- 
 peated, as a thing chiefly to be attended to, that no price 
 is to be brought, no condition to be complied with, in 
 order to our appropriation of Christ and his salvation ; 
 for these are presented to us as a free gift, in such a man- 
 
 * Faith, which properly signifies an assent or persuasion, is called 
 a receivmg of Christ, because it is, in its own nature, an appropriating 
 persuasion ; as unbelief, which properly signifies the disbelieving of a 
 testimony, is a rejecting of Christ. — Palcemon's Creed Mevieived and 
 Examined. 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 83 
 
 ner as to warrant our immediate appropriation of them 
 to our own use and enjoyment, — without money and 
 without price ; for thoug-h it is a buying on our part in 
 respect of appropriation, yet there is no seUing- on God's 
 part ; no requiring of money, no prescribing of preyioi;s 
 terms or conditions. Faith is often represented as " rest^ 
 ing, leaning, or relying on the Lord Jesus Christ.y 
 These metaphors import a persuasion, that, in his name, 
 in the grant and promise of him in the Gospel, we have 
 sufficient, we have infallible security for pardon, peace 
 with God, deUverance from every evil work, and preser- 
 vation unto his heavenly kingdom ; and this persuasion, 
 so far as it takes place, excludes all doubting, uncertainty, 
 and perturbation of mind. When the inhabitants of Jeru- 
 salem saw the invading army of the Assyrians at the 
 walls of their city, it is said, " They rested themselves 
 upon the words of Hezekiah." They had such a per- 
 suasion of the truth of his words, as was effectual to set 
 their minds, which had before been greatly disquieted 
 with fear, at ease and rest with respect to the issue of 
 their present distress. So establishing to the heart is a 
 real persuasion, founded on the Gospel promise, that 
 through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be 
 saved. Faith is represented as our trusting in the Lord. 
 You know, that when we trust an honest man, it imphes 
 that he hath given us a promise, and that we are per- 
 suaded he will not fail to make it good. Surely there 
 cannot be less than this in a real trusting in the Lord. 
 The language of it is, that, on account of the faithfulness 
 of his word, and the liberality of his heart, I reckon upon 
 what he hath promised as my own. Again, faith is re- 
 presented as " a coming, or fleeing to Christ," for refuge ; 
 which implies that a person, as soon as he believes the 
 Gospel report, has no more confidence in outward worldly 
 advantages, in his own wisdom, righteousness, or strength, 
 or any lying vanity whatever, but immediately, or without 
 any delay, places his whole confidence in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ as his righteousness and salvation. Faith is re- 
 presented as " putting on Christ," as " eating his flesh, 
 
84 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 and drinking his blood," to signify, that as, in putting on 
 our clothes, we take them to ourselves for covering or 
 for ornament ; as, in eating or drinking what is set before 
 us, we take it to ourselves for our bodily nourishment ; 
 so, in believing, we make an application of Christ Jesus 
 to ourselves in particular, for wisdom, and righteousness, 
 and sanctification, and redemption. Saving faith, in each, 
 even the very first of its actings, is (according to our 
 Lord's discourse in the sixth of John) our eating the 
 riesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God ; and 
 therefore, in its very nature, it must include an appro- 
 priation of Christ to ourselves in particular. We can 
 have no saving benefit by Christ without this application 
 of him to ourselves, as we cannot be nourished by our 
 food without eating it. Faith is likewise represented as 
 a " looking to Christ." As the stung Israelites could not 
 look to the brazen serpent, in compliance with the divine 
 command, without a persuasion that they would be 
 healed by it ; so we cannot look to Christ, that is, believe 
 on him, without a similar persuasion, that, through the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by virtue of his death, 
 we shall be healed. So uniformly is this appropriating 
 persuasion held forth by the metaphorical representations 
 of faith in Scripture. 
 
 5. That this appropriating persuasion is of the nature 
 of saving faith, is manifest from those things which are 
 represented as opposite to it. For, that staggering at 
 the promise, or doubting, which is opposed to faith, Rom. 
 iv. 20, Matt. xxi. 21, James i. 6, is not a staggering at, 
 or doubting of, a general speculative truth, such as. That 
 the promise of eternal life will be accomplished to the 
 elect, or to them^ that truly believe ; but it is a person s 
 staggering at, or doubting of, his warrant to apply the 
 promise to himself, or to believe the accomplishment of 
 it in his own case. Thus, when it is said, that Abraham 
 did not stagger at the promise, the meaning is, that he 
 did not doubt that it was God's faithful word to him, and 
 that it would be performed. This is the more evident, 
 in regard that this doubting is sometimes expressed by 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. OO 
 
 the fear and perplexity that accompany it, as in Mark v. 
 36, and John xiv. 1. Now, if the opposite of faith be a 
 stag-gering- at the warrant which the Gospel affords us to 
 apply the promise to ourselves, or to believe the accom- 
 pUshment of it in our own case, then faith itself must be 
 an application of the promise to ourselves upon the foot- 
 ing of that warrant, and a persuasion of the accomplish- 
 ment of it in due time, such a persuasion, namely, as, 
 according to the measure of it, frees the mind from fear 
 or trouble with respect to our attainment of what is con- 
 tained in the promise. To the same purpose is the 
 Scripture account of unbeKef, as a putting away the word 
 of the Gospel, which is the free promise of eternal life, 
 from ourselves. — Acts xiii. 46. Now, if unbelief be the 
 putting away of the promise from ourselves, then faith 
 must be the application of it to ourselves. Men are con- 
 demned as unbelievers, not merely because they disbe- 
 lieve this general proposition, that God will give eternal 
 life to them that believe ; for that is a truth of which the 
 most desperate unbelievers, and even devils themselves, 
 may be convinced ; but the proper ground of their con- 
 demnation is, that they do not believe the record of God 
 concerning his Son, with application to themselves ; they 
 do not truly believe that the righteousness, salvation, and 
 kingdom of God, are brought to them in particular in 
 the Gospel grant. This account of unbelief we have in 
 1 John V. 10, 11 :" He that believeth not God, 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." 
 Therefore, we are always unbelievers, till we be brought 
 to a real persuasion, that God hath given to us eternal 
 life ; that he hath given it to us in his Son. 
 
 6. This doctrine concerning the appropriation of faith 
 is most consonant to other articles of Scripture truth. 
 It accords with the doctrine of man's natural inability for 
 any act or exercise that is spiritually good ; for, in set- 
 ting about the performance of any duty, v/e must either 
 see strength for the performance of it in ourselves or in 
 
8G THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 the promise. But to see it in ourselves is contrary to 
 the Scripture doctrine of our spiritual impotence. On 
 the other hand, to see it in the promise as our furniture 
 for the practice of duty, is to have the appropriating per- 
 suasion of which we speak. Such an appropriating faith 
 accords with the doctrine of justification by "free grace 
 through the imputed righteousness of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ ; for that righteousness, according to this doc- 
 trine, is imputed to men as having no inherent righteous- 
 ness, and therefore as sinners, as ungodly. Hence, when 
 men believe in a God in Christ, they " believe in Him 
 who justifieth the ungodly ;" they make an application of 
 the righteousness of Christ to themselves under the same 
 character under which they are considered in God's im- 
 putation of it. Surely the hearers of the Word may, 
 without presumption or delusion, apply the justice-satis- 
 fying and law-magnifying righteousness of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ to themselves as poor sinners, or as persons 
 who have no righteousness of their own ; since that is the 
 character under which God is pleased to grant it to them 
 in the Gospel, and under which he imputes it to them, 
 for their complete justification, in the moment of believ- 
 ing ! Again, this view of saving faith, as including in 
 its nature an application of Christ to ourselves in parti- 
 cular, is most agreeable to the light in which faith ought 
 to be considered in the matter of justification, that is, not 
 at all as a work or instance of obedience to the law. but 
 purely as a mean or instrument whereby we receive the 
 righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ into actual posses- 
 sion ! Thus, the alms that are offered to a beggar, come 
 into his possession by his act of stretching out his hand 
 to receive them. Now, there may be something com- 
 mendable, something agreeable to the giver, and becoming 
 the condition of the beggar, in his act of stretching out 
 his hand to receive ; but it is not the commendableness 
 of the act, nor its agreeableness to the giver, nor its suit- 
 ableness to the condition of the beggar, that puts him in 
 possession of the alms. There might be many other acts 
 equal or superior to it in all these respects ; but the only 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 87 
 
 thing in this act, that puts the heg-gar in possession, is 
 this, that it is a receiving of the alms. In like manner, 
 faith is itself an eminent instance of obedience, and dis- 
 poses a person to every other instance of it. Bat, in 
 these respects, it is of as little effect in the affair of our 
 justification, as any other work of the law ; under these 
 considerations, it is entirely excluded from that affair ; 
 for it does not justify, or put us in possession of the jus- 
 tifying righteousness, as it is an instance of obedience, or 
 as disposing to it, but merely as it is our " receiving the 
 gift of that righteousness,'" or our application of it to our- 
 selves. Farther, this appropriation is implied in another 
 Scripture doctrine, namely, that we never can set about 
 the practice of duty in an acceptable manner, unless we 
 do so in the persuasion of the Lord's acceptance of our 
 persons. This is evident from all those scriptures that 
 teach us to yield obedience, not as slaves, but as children, 
 as bought with a price. Indeed, for persons to attempt 
 any duty in order to the acceptance of their persons, or, 
 which is in effect the same thing, without essaying to 
 believe in Christ for the acceptance of them, is to go 
 about to establish their own righteousness, refusing to 
 submit to the righteousness of God ; it is an attempt to 
 act in their own strength, and even while they must con- 
 sider themselves as under the burden of God's everlast- 
 ing wrath and curse ; for, there is no middle state be- 
 tween being accepted with God, and being under the 
 curse. Now, there is no persuasion of the acceptance of 
 our persons, but what is either in the way of appropriat- 
 ing Christ as the Lord our righteousness, upon the foot- 
 ing of the Gospel, or in the way of the assurance of 
 sense. But it is absurd, and contrary both to Scripture 
 and to the experience of the Lord's people, to suppose, 
 that they are not accepted in their essays to discharge 
 what is present duty, even while they walk in darkness, 
 and have not the light of sensible assurance. But the 
 acceptable way of setting about present duty, which is 
 always competent to believers, whatever case or situation 
 they may be in, is that of a present application of Christ 
 
88 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 to themselves as the lord their righteousness, in 
 whom their persons and services are ever accepted. This 
 appropriating persuasion, is implied in the Scripture doc- 
 trine of Gospel holiness. This holiness is represented 
 as our living-, not to ourselves, but to him who died for 
 us, and rose again. We are to study it as knowing that 
 our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin 
 may be destroyed, that henceforth we may not serve sin. 
 This appropriating persuasion of the crucifixion of our 
 old man with Christ, is represented as essential to the 
 very beginning of the study of holiness ; and, conse- 
 quently, it is different from that assurance of sense, which 
 is founded on marks and evidences, and which supposes 
 some actual progress in holiness ; it is indeed that appli- 
 cation of Christ crucified to ourselves, which is, either 
 more or less explicitly, in the first and in every following 
 act of true faith. That there is such an appropriating 
 persuasion as we speak of in the nature of fairh, is most 
 agreeable to the Scripture doctrine of the covenant of 
 grace ; for the condition of that covenant having been 
 perfectly fulfilled by our Lord's obedience unto death, even 
 the death of the cross, it is to us a covenant of absolutely 
 free promise ; and therefore our taking hold of this cove- 
 nant must be in the way of the application of the pro- 
 mise to ourselves in particular. When we read, that 
 God will make this everlasting covenant with us, the 
 meaning is (as Isaiah Iv. 3 is explained in Acts xiii. 34), 
 that he is well pleased for Christ's sake, to give us poor 
 sinners the mercies promised in that covenant ; and faith 
 is our taking to ourselves freely what is freely given. 
 The last words of David may well be considered as the 
 language of faith in taking hold of this covenant : " He 
 hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all 
 things and sure ; this is all my salvation and all my de- 
 sire." This appropriating persuasion is agreeable to the 
 nature and design of the sacramental seals of that ever- 
 lasting covenant. In these ordinances the Lord deals 
 with the receiver, as a person would do if he should take 
 a quantity of earth and stone, and say to another, This 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 89 
 
 is such a valuable estate, which I give or convey to thee ; 
 take it, and doubt not of the validity of the conveyance. 
 Thus, in baptism, the Lord says to the soul, This wash- 
 ing with water signifies and seals my promise of washing 
 thee from the guilt and pollution of sin ; a promise which 
 is as sure to faith as this washing or sprinkhng with water 
 is to the outward senses. In like manner, in the Lord's 
 supper, he says to the soul. This bread is " my body, 
 broken for thee :" This cup is " the New Testament in 
 my blood, shed for thee, for the remission of thy sins." 
 Now, it must be remembered, that baptism and the Lord's 
 supper are designed for the weakest as well as for the 
 strongest believer ; and also, that the least measure of 
 true faith is answerable to what our Lord says to it in 
 these ordinances, as well as the strongest. As the ap- 
 propriation of which we speak is according to the analogy 
 of faith, so it is opposite to manifold and pernicious errors : 
 particularly to Legalism ; as this appropriation is just the 
 soul's going out of itself; its going away from all its own 
 qualifications, exercises, and attainments, to take up its 
 only rest upon the free grant and promise of Christ, and 
 of eternal life in him, as set forth in the Gospel to sin- 
 ners of mankind indiscriminately : to Antinomianism, as 
 it is an appropriation of Christ for sanctification as well 
 as justification ; and as it holds our reception of the pri- 
 vileges and comforts of the Gospel to be both necessary, 
 and, according to the measure of it, always effectual to 
 the production of a holy practice : to Enthusiasm, in re- 
 gard that the whole matter and ground of this faith are 
 contained in the written word ; and the revealed warrant 
 for this appropriation is the same to the believer and the 
 unbeliever, in opposition to the extravagance of enthu- 
 siasts, who found their high pretensions upon the peculiar 
 clearness of their imaginary ideas of Christ's human 
 nature, and of its appearance in suifering or in glory ; 
 upon their dreams, visions, and new revelations ; upon 
 the peculiar liveliness of their frames and feelings ; upon 
 extraordinary impressions of the divine wrath or of the 
 divine love; upon some sudden change of mind, which 
 
90 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 they call their conversion ; while they are strangers to 
 any suitable concern about the only saving conversion, 
 which is a turning from that unbelief " which makes God 
 a liar," to a cordial receiving of and resting upon his 
 record or testimony concerning his beloved Son. 
 
 7. We might show that there is an appropriation in 
 the nature of saving faith, from examples of the exercises 
 of it. Several of these examples have been already 
 taken notice of. To this purpose we might transcribe 
 almost all the professions of faith made by the saints 
 recorded in Scripture. Here it may suffice to produce 
 the two following : " I will say of the Lord, He is my 
 refuge, and my.fortress : my God, in him will I trust." — 
 Psal. xci. 2. Hence, it appears, that when a person, in 
 a scriptural sense, trusteth in the Lord, he has a real 
 persuasion that Jehovah, a promising and promise-per- 
 forming God, is his God. " And Thomas answered and 
 said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto 
 him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed." — 
 John XX. 28, 29. Though Thomas was now favoured 
 with a very clear and sensible manifestation, we cannot 
 allow that these words were merely the language of sense, 
 and not of saving faith ; because a sensible manifestation 
 may, and always ought to be improved as an occasion of, 
 and an encouragement to, the lively exercise of faith ; 
 and because our Lord's answer undoubtedly refers to 
 these words, and calls, what is expressed by them, be- 
 lieving. 
 
 But it has been said, that such instances represent 
 rather a high degree of the exercise of faith, than what 
 belongs to the essence of it. 
 
 We answer, by observing. That the appropriation of 
 which we speak, arises, as was shown in the former dis- 
 course, from the matter beheved, or from the nature of 
 the record that God hath given us concerning his Son ; 
 and not from the degree of strength or distinctness in 
 the act of believing ; whether faith be weak or strong, in 
 a higher or lower degree, the matter believed is still the 
 game, namely, '' the record of God concerning his Son." — 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 91 
 
 1 John V. 1 1 . If we had scriptural views of a strong faith, 
 we would find it to be that in which what belongs to the 
 nature or essence of faith most distinctly appears ; where- 
 as, what we call weak faith, is that which is obscured and 
 almost buried out of sight under a multitude of opposite 
 corruptions. The weakest faith, were it disentan^ 
 would be what we allow a strong faith to be. Strong faith, 
 according to Scripture, is that which proceeds most singly 
 upon the ground of God's word of promise, whilst every 
 thing, in experience and sensible appearances, are against 
 it. " Abraham against hope believed in hope ; and being 
 not weak in faith, he considered not his own body nowj 
 dead, nor yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: he st 
 gered not at the promise through unbelief, but was 
 strong in faith, giving glory to God." — Rom. iv. 1: 
 The truth is, the language of faith in all the Lord's 
 people, whether weak or strong, is the same ; only it is 
 spoken more distinctly and explicitly, and with less fal- 
 tering, by some of them than by others. 
 
 Here it may be observed, that we need not wonder to 
 find Christians backward to express themselves in the 
 proper language of this appropriating persuasion ; be- 
 cause their -doing so implies a distinct and comfortable 
 sense of their having believed, which is a different thing 
 from believing itself. This appropriating persuasion is 
 a very deep-laid and frequently hidden act of the soul. 
 The comfortable sense of it arises partly from the strength 
 and distinctness of it, and partly from the peculiar fruits 
 and effects of it. 
 
 When we are speaking of the example of the Lord's 
 people, it deserves particular notice, that we find expres- 
 sions of this appropriating persuasion mingling with their 
 complaints of desertion and prevailing corruption. " But 
 Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God 
 hath forgotten me." — Isa. xlix. 1 4. " Iniquities prevail 
 against me : but as for our transgressions, thou shalt 
 purge them away." — Psal. Ixv. 3. Heman begins his 
 mournful song with these words, " O Lord God of my 
 salvation." Faith still holds the same language in its hard- 
 
92 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 est conflicts with prevailing unbelief. '' Why art thou 
 cast down, O my soul ? why art thou disquieted within 
 me ? hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the 
 health of my countenance, and my God." — Psal. xliii. 5. 
 
 How often has a poor distressed soul, that could find 
 no satisfaction as to his gracious state in the way ot 
 reflecting- upon past exercises or present attainments, 
 found sweet peace, composure, and satisfaction in essay- 
 ing the direct act of this appropriating faith, and resting 
 upon the free promise of a God in Christ, as addressed 
 to sinners of mankind, even the chief. In which case 
 that word has been verified in Isa. xxx. 15, " Thus saith 
 the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and 
 rest shall ye be saved : in quietness and in confidence 
 shall be your strength." 
 
 We may add, that ministers dwelling upon the nature 
 and grounds of this appropriating faith in their pubhc 
 administrations, have been a blessed mean in the Lord's 
 hand, of reviving a work of reformation, of converting 
 sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort. 
 On the other hand, when this is neglected, and even 
 opposed, by many who are called Protestants and minis- 
 ters of the Gospel, it is a sign of grievous departure from 
 the faith, which had been so fully declared in most of 
 the confessions and other forms of sound words publicly 
 authorised in the reformed churches. It is also a dismal 
 sign, that whatever Gospel truth on other heads is taught 
 among us, we reap little spiritual profit from it, by rea- 
 son of ignorance or corrupt notions of that faith which is 
 the organ whereby the Word is received into the heart. 
 
 Upon the whole, this proposition. That saving faith 
 is a fiducial appropriating persuasion of our salvation 
 through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, founded 
 on the free grant and promise of the Gospel, manifestly 
 accords with the ordinary acceptation of the word ; with 
 the various representations in the Scripture, of the nature 
 and exercise of faith ; with other articles of Gospel doc- 
 trine ; and, finally, with the uniform experience of the 
 Lord's people. 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 93 
 
 Here it may be proper to take notice of some thing-s 
 which have been urg-ed against this doctrine. 
 
 Objection 1st. According to this notion, the thing to 
 be beheved is, That Christ died for me, that I am justified 
 and shall be saved through him ; and yet the persuasion is 
 supposed to be the very thing which gives me an interest 
 in the Saviour, and in the blessings of salvation through 
 him ; for, let this be what it will, nothing is more certain 
 from Scripture, than that he who believeth shall be saved, 
 but he who doth not, shall be damned. Must I not, 
 then, be interested in the Saviour, before I can know or 
 beheve that I am so ? How, then, can this persuasion 
 be the mean of giving me this interest ? Is not this to 
 make the effect to exist before the cause ? Is it not 
 to give existence to that which had no existence before, 
 by confidently believing that it doth already exist. ''^ 
 
 Answer, If, by a belief that Christ died for me, that 
 I am justified, and shall be saved through him, the ob- 
 jector means a persuasion that I am one of those for 
 whom Christ intended to lay down his life, or, which is 
 the same thing, one of the elect, or that I am already in 
 actual possession of justification and salvation ; then, as 
 was shosvn in the preliminary observations, what is ob- 
 jected is nothing to the purpose. We utterly deny that 
 such a persuasion can be saving faith ; because it cannot 
 be founded in the Word of God alone, and because it is 
 a persuasion of what God hath decreed from eternity, or 
 of some good which the person supposes himself to be 
 already possessed of; whereas, the faith of which we 
 speak, is a persuasion neither of what was God's decree 
 from eternity, nor yet of any good which we are already 
 
 * Mr M'Knighf s Six Sermons on Faith, pp. 92, 93. Similar to this 
 is the reasoning of Bellarmine. " Fides specialis misericordise," says 
 he, '• sequitur justificationem. Igitur fides specialis misericordiae non est 
 fides justificans. Fiducia qua quis confidet remissa esse peccata pendet 
 a bona conscientia, ac proinde prseexigit justificationem, non illam 
 efficit ; " — i. e.. The faith of special mercy follows justification. There- 
 fore the faith of special mercy is not justifying faith. The confidence 
 with w^hich a person trusts that his sins are forgiven, depends on a 
 good conscience, and therefore presupposes justification does not bring 
 it about. 
 
.94 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 possessed of, but merely of this truth, that God is now 
 in the Gospel dispensation, giving- us Christ crucified 
 and his whole salvation. 
 
 The inconsistency supposed in the objection vanishes, 
 when we consider that the death of Christ, justification, 
 and salvation, may, at the same time, be ours in one 
 respect, and not ours in another. They are ours in the 
 grant and promise of the Gospel ; but they are not ours 
 in actual possession, till we believe that grant and pro- 
 mise. In believing, we become actual partakers of them ; 
 because this believing is our receiving of them ; and, 
 therefore, faith is represented as receiving Christ, receiv- 
 ing the gift of righteousness, receiving the atonement. 
 
 Agreeably to what is now observed, we do hold, that, 
 in saving faith, there is a real persuasion that Christ and 
 his salvation are presently and infallibly ours, as existing 
 in the promise ; ours, so that we cannot fall short of 
 them ; before and in order to our consciousness and 
 experience of their being ours, as existing in our actual 
 possession. This is what all we have said goes to provj 
 and so we understand our Lord, when he says, " What-^ 
 soever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye 
 receive them," that they are presently and infallibly yours, 
 as existing in the promise, " and ye shall have them, 
 ye shall have the consciousness and experience of their, 
 being yours, as existing in your actual possession. Agaii 
 he says, " According to thy faith, so shall it be 
 thee." When a person beheves that Christ and his whole 
 salvation are his, as existing in the promise, — his, so as 
 he cannot fall short of them ; he believes what none but 
 a true believer, or one who hath heard and learned of the 
 Father, does or can believe. 
 
 Here a continual outcry of obscurity or absurdity is 
 raised. But the ground of it is no more than this, that 
 the way of coming to the possession of a benefit, by be- 
 lieving merely, is without any exact parallel in human 
 affairs; or, in other words, that "the natural man re- 
 ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; they are 
 foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 95 
 
 they are discerned spiritually," and not by reducing them 
 to the measure and standard of carnal things. 
 
 Objection 2c?. It is unreasonable to call reprobates 
 to believe what neither is nor ever will be true in their 
 case. 
 
 Answer. Though it appears from Scripture that the 
 greater part of the human race are included in the decree 
 of reprobation ; yet no man can warrantably think or 
 say of himself, or any other person, who is in the present 
 life, and hath not sinned the sin unto death (which is the 
 sin against the Holy Ghost) that he is a reprobate ; this 
 being one of the secret things which belong unto the 
 Lord our God. But the Gospel offers and promises are 
 things that are revealed to us — things that we have to 
 do with ; and they are directed to mankind sinners in- 
 definitely, in such a manner as warrants every person to 
 whom the Word of God comes, to make application of 
 them to himself. The elect are brought, through the 
 supernatural illumination and effectual persuasion of the 
 Holy Spirit, to make this appHcation ; each of them, in 
 his time, is brought to say. In the Lord have I righteous- 
 ness and strength. As to those who, in the issue, will 
 prove reprobates, they have the same warrant in the 
 Word of grace, and promise to believe in Christ as their 
 own Saviour, that any ever had before they believed. 
 But they refuse to be persuaded. The proper cause of 
 this unpersuadableness is not predestination, but their 
 spiritual blindness and enmity against the Lord Christ, 
 their obstinate attachment to self-righteousness and other 
 idols. The promise of eternal life is indeed left to them, 
 but since, instead of embracing it by faith, they put it 
 away from them, despise and reject it, making God a 
 liar, who but must see and acknowledge, that they justly 
 come short of the promised blessing ? 
 
 Objection Sd. This appropriating persuasion is pre- 
 sumptuous. 
 
 Answer. It is indeed an awful truth that security and 
 presumption are the ruin of multitudes in the visible 
 Church ; we never can be too much cautioned against it. 
 
96 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 But presumption, in every view, is far from the ap- 
 propriating- persuasion of which we speak. Presumption 
 IS always grounded upon some supposed privilege or 
 quahfication by w^hich the person supposes himself to be 
 distinguished from others ; — " I am not as other men are, 
 or even as this publican. We have Abraham to our 
 father;" — whereas the appropriating persuasion of which 
 we speak, is grounded upon the free grant which is made 
 of the Saviour to all people, even to the vilest of the 
 vile. The presumptuous conclude, upon imaginary or 
 insufficient grounds, that they are already believers, and 
 in a state of grace ; but, in the persuasion of which we 
 speak, a man regards himself no otherwise than as a poor 
 sinner of mankind, to whom that word comes, in which 
 God is making to him in particular a gift and grant of 
 his Son, Jesus Christ, unto eternal life. The ground 
 upon which the presumptuous apply the promises, is 
 always something that they see in themselves, in their 
 experiences or attainments ; but this persuasion appro- 
 priates the good of the promise as ours, for Christ's sake 
 alone, and because the promise is directed to all sinners 
 of mankind to whom the Word of God comes. Pre- 
 sumption is a groundless expectation of deliverance from 
 wrath, without holiness or deliverance from sin ; but 
 this is a persuasion of salvation from sin, as well as from 
 wrath, — a persuasion that we have sanctification as well 
 as justification in our Lord Jesus Christ. Presump- 
 tion puffeth up, and renders men secure in sin ; but the 
 more distinct and prevalent this persuasion is in any 
 person, he will be the more humble, self-denied, watchful, 
 and diligent in the study of universal obedience. 
 
 Objection Mh. If faith consisted in this confident per- 
 suasion, then all a person would have to do, would be, 
 by every possible means, to work himself up to, and 
 confirm himself in it, whatever evidence he might have 
 of the contrary. This is a faith which may do well 
 enough for fools and madmen, but which no wise man 
 can be satisfied with.* 
 
 * Mr M'Knight's Sermons on Faith, p. 88. To the same purpose, 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 97 
 
 Answer. What we speak of is a persuasion of this, 
 that in the Gospel offer and promise, God is now giving 
 us Jesus Christ, the true bread from heaven ; and we 
 have the same evidence of this, that we have of the Gos- 
 pel being preached to us. And surely what is opposite 
 to this is the most abominable of all falsehoods, as it con- 
 tradicts the best news that were ever heard in heaven or 
 on earth. Persons may, no doubt, come to some sort 
 of persuasion of all being well with them, by attempting 
 a compliance with terms and conditions, and by a conceit 
 of their own qualifications as undoubted evidences of their 
 state of grace and favour with God. But the appropri- 
 ating persuasion is of a quite different kind ; we are so 
 far from working ourselves up to it, that we naturally 
 hate it, and do all we can to fortify ourselves against it ;* 
 this continues to be the case in reality, whatever outward 
 professions we make to the contrary, till the Lord, the 
 Spirit, work this persuasion in us, by enlightening the 
 eyes of our understandings to apprehend the free grant 
 of Christ, of his righteousness and salvation, as what God 
 is presently making over to us poor sinners of mankind, 
 to each of us in particular. The opinion of many, that 
 they can easily work themselves up to this appropriating 
 persuasion, betrays their gross ignorance, not only of the 
 nature of that persuasion, but also of the spiritual blind- 
 ness, enmity, and legal bias of the heart, f 
 
 '■ Omnino temere," says Bellarmine, " tanquam ex verbo, possunt 
 homines credere, sibi remissaesse peccata;" i. e.,— "Men cannot believe, 
 as if warranted by the Word, that their sins are forgiven them, without 
 the utmost rashness/' The reason is, That, in the Word of God, sal- 
 vation is nowhere promised to this or the other individual, this being- 
 peculiar to a few who are expressly named. 
 
 * *•' As for hoping to be saved by faith only, as an humble relying 
 upon the promise in Christ, it is against the natural inclination of man, 
 till sanctified and subdued to Christ, his mind being ignorant of the 
 righteousness of faith, and his heart too proud to submit to it, 
 and his guilty conscience fearful to trust to it, without some works of 
 his own. As for the high-flowTi pretences of the Autiuomians and the 
 Familists, to faith without works subsequent, and w^orks being pre- 
 judicial, they are the irrational transport of an opinion, not the natural 
 inclination of the heart, or that which the conscience doth naturally 
 acquiesce in." — Lutherus Itedirivus, p. 161. 
 
 t " There is nothing about Christ Jesus, or about the whole mystery 
 
98 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 When the objector says, All a person would have to 
 do would be to work himself up to this confident per- 
 suasion : if he speaks of what unites us to Christ, we 
 own, that we are united to him, not by doing, but by 
 believing: but if he speaks of all that belongs to the 
 Christian life, and to the evidence of our union to Christ, 
 then there is a great deal more indispensably necessary : 
 love, repentance, the diligent study of universal obedience, 
 are fully as much so as faith. If they be accounted fools 
 who rest upon the Gospel grant of Christ, and of eternal 
 life in him, and are persuaded that, in doing so, they 
 shall not be disappointed, we desire to be such fools more 
 and more. 
 
 Objection 5th. There are various marks and characters 
 laid down in the Word of God for us to examine and 
 prove ourselves by. But to what purpose are those 
 marks and characters, if our satisfaction or assurance 
 respecting our gracious state were a mere confident per- 
 suasion, and not the result of a rational and scriptural 
 inquiry ? ^ 
 
 Answer. There is an assurance, a full assurance, in 
 the direct act of faith ; but this is different from what 
 is properly called our satisfaction or assurance respect- 
 ing our gracious state, or an assurance that we have 
 believed in a right manner ; or that we are already in 
 actual possession of Christ and his salvation ; for the 
 assurance of faith is neither an assurance of what we have 
 done, nor of what we already possess, but only of what 
 God is presently giving us in his word of grace and 
 promise. 
 
 of the Gospel, but is incredible to a natural man, and to a natural 
 reason. — ^Do not run away easily with an imagination, that it is a 
 common and ordinary thing to believe the truth of Gospel doctrine. 
 People will say, it is very easy to believe; — it is a hard matter to 
 believe, they may say, their own salvation ; and that one is a great 
 deal easier than the other. If there be a firm assent begotten by the 
 Spirit of God upon the heart, as to the foundation-truth of the Gospel, 
 the particular application of that to thy soul for thy salvation, will be 
 found an easy thing." — TraiWs Third Sermon on the stedfast Adher- 
 ence to the Profession of our Faith. 
 * Mr M'Knight's Six Sermons, p. 92, 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 99 
 
 The Lord hath enjoined us to endeavour after satis- 
 faction as to our gracious state, or the assurance of sense. 
 " Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make 
 your calHng and election sure." — 2 Peter i. 10. Self- 
 examination is a principal mean of obtaining this satis- 
 faction. *' Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the 
 faith." — 2 Cor. xiii. 5. In order to a true knowledge of 
 our state, it is necessary to examine, not only whether 
 we have done what is materially right, but whether it 
 has flowed from a pure heart ; whether our purity of 
 heart has flowed from a good conscience ; whether our 
 good conscience has flowed from faith unfeigned, or 
 that faith which makes an application of Christ to our- 
 selves in particular, upon no other footing than that of 
 the word of grace and promise. This order is pointed 
 out by the apostle in 1 Tim. i. 5 : — " Now the end of 
 the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of 
 a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." 
 
 Supposing our spiritual condition to be peculiarly dan- 
 gerous, self-examination is the appointed mean of our 
 coming to such a true knowledge of it, as will put us 
 upon an immediate believing application of Christ for our 
 spiritual healing ; that our experience may be like that 
 of the woman who had the bloody issue, when she touched 
 the hem of his garment. 
 
 On the other hand, supposing that, in the exercise of 
 self-examination, the Lord has been pleased to grant us 
 some distinct view of his own work in our souls as cor- 
 responding with the marks and characters of it in his 
 word ; in that case, instead of doating on our attainment, 
 which is peculiarly dangerous, we should improve it as 
 an encouragement to the immediate renewed acting of 
 this appropriating faith ; that our faith, like that of the 
 Thessalonians, may grow exceedingly.^ 
 
 Objection 6th. Such a representation of faith is dis- 
 couraging to the weak and doubting, who may be a true 
 Christian. 
 
 Ansiver. This doctrine must discourage the vain con- 
 fidence that men have in themselves, that they are righ- 
 
 G 
 
] 00 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 teous, and that they have good quahfications ; it must 
 disconrag-e their attempts to work out or find something 
 in themselves which may give them a right to lay 
 claim to Christ and his salvation as their own. But 
 to those who know the plague of their own heart, and 
 who can see nothing in themselves hut sinfulness and 
 misery, these good news from a far country must be as 
 cold water to a thirsty soul ; namely, that they, not as 
 believers, not as persons so and so qualified, but as poor 
 sinners of mankind, are called to look to Christ as the 
 Lord their righteousness, and to look to the promises as 
 "in him Yea," that is, directed to them, and "in him 
 Amen," that is, sure to be performed, " to the glory of 
 God by them." 
 
 The doubts that professing Christians labour under, are 
 either such as respect their own attainments ; as, whether 
 they have truly believed ; or such as respect their war- 
 rant in the Gospel to make a present, an immediate, ap- 
 plication of Christ to themselves in particular. There 
 may be too much ground for doubts of the former sort ; 
 for men are naturally prone to think themselves to be 
 something, while they are nothing, and so to deceive 
 themselves. But with respect to doubts of the latter sort, 
 they are the workings of that unbelief which makes God 
 a liar ; and therefore the principle of true faith, even in 
 the weakest believer, will maintain a conflict with them 
 as belonging to the flesh or depraved nature : " For the 
 flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the 
 flesh." Now of two schemes of doctrine, which is the 
 more favourable and helpful to the Christian in this war- 
 fare ? whether is it that which palliates and excuses these 
 doubts, which are some of his worst enemies ; or that 
 which sets the evil and malignity of them in the strong- 
 est light ? Surely the latter ; for he will make head 
 against these doubts, only in proportion as he is enabled 
 to see, in the glass of the Lord's Word, the vanity and 
 vileness of them. We have many examples to this pur- 
 pose in Scripture, particularly in the Psalms : " Why art 
 thou cast down, O my soul ? why art thou disquieted 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. lOl 
 
 within me ? hope in God : for I shall yet praise him, 
 who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Will 
 the Lord cast off for ever ? and will he be favourable no 
 more ? Is his mercy clean gone for ever ? Hath God 
 forgotten to be gracious ? Hath he in anger shut up his 
 tender mercies? And I said, This is my infirmity." 
 Thus the Psalmist struggled against his doubts of salva- 
 tion in the promise ; as seeing them to be quite ground- 
 less, as seeing that they rose from the sinful haste and 
 infirmity of his depraved nature. 
 
 Attempting to comfort persons under perplexing doubts 
 of their salvation, by insisting upon some favourable 
 things in their character and exercise as proofs of their 
 being already true believers, is frequently very dangerous, 
 and, in some cases, proves a healing of the wound of the 
 soul slightly ; a crying " peace, peace, while there is no 
 peace ;" but it never can be improper or unseasonable to 
 set before the person the free grant of an all-sufiicient 
 Saviour, in the Gospel offer and promise ; for, supposing 
 the worst as to the person's real case, this Gospel de- 
 claration is consistent with the most plain, particular, 
 and faithful dealing with him concerning the heinousness 
 and aggravations of his sins ; nay, it is absolutely neces- 
 sary to any dealing with him at all about, that which is 
 chiefly the ruin of souls in the visible Church, the sin of 
 unbelief. This was still the method of the Apostles. 
 " Be ii known unto you, men and brethren, that through 
 this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins : 
 Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which was 
 spoken by the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, 
 and perish." It was the method of the Master himself: 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, not because 
 ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, 
 and were filled. My Father giveth you the true bread 
 from heaven." On the other hand, supposing the best 
 in the doubting person's case, nothing can be more proper 
 than such a Gospel declaration ; for, if he have grace in 
 the root or habit, this is the appointed mean of calling 
 it forth to lively and vigorous exercise, if he have the 
 
102 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 marks and characters of one who is not almost, but 
 altogether a Christian, a present believing- application of 
 this word of life is the way to have them brightened and 
 corroborated. 
 
 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 " This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name 
 of his Son Jesus Christ."— 1 John iii. 23. 
 
 We may sum up what has been delivered in the preced- 
 ing discourses concerning the object and the act of saving 
 faith. 
 
 With respect to the object of faith, we observe, that 
 Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is the immediate 
 object of it. By faith we behold him as " the Lamb of 
 God, who taketh away the sin of the world," as our 
 sacrificing and interceding High Priest, who deals with 
 God on our behalf ; and as our Prophet and King, who 
 deals with us on God's behalf. 
 
 God is the ultimate object of faith. In believing on 
 Christ, we believe on God : — " Who by him do believe in 
 God who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, 
 that our faith and hope might be in God." — 1 Pet. i. 21. 
 Hence, when the Philippian jailer believed in Christ, he 
 is said to have " believed in God." Christ is our way 
 to God : — " No man cometh to the Father but by me." — 
 John xiv. 6. He is " the door" of our access to God. 
 
 The Word of God, particularly the Gospel promise, is 
 the matter believed. It is, no doubt, the property of 
 faith to believe whatever God reveals ; but it could not 
 be saving faith, if it were not a belief of the free promise 
 of salvation by Jesus Christ. " This is the rest and the 
 refreshing." 
 
 With respect to the act of saving faith, it is a real 
 and unfeigned persuasion. Many say, they have faith, 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 103 
 
 who have it not. The Apostle James deals with such 
 in the second chapter of his epistle. 
 
 It is a sure persuasion. The most probable notion or 
 opinion about the infinitely important affair of our ever- 
 lasting- salvation, would afford nothing- but perplexity and 
 heart-wavering. Faith could not establish the heart, if 
 there were no assurance in its nature. 
 
 It is a supernatural persuasion, wrought in us by the 
 Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
 knowledge of Christ. He enlightens the eyes of our 
 understanding to know Christ as the only Saviour, and 
 our Saviour. 
 
 It is an appropriating persuasion : it is a persuasion 
 that Christ crucified is ours, upon no other ground than 
 the free grant and promise, which God is now making in 
 the Gospel to sinners of mankind indefinitely. In this 
 respect faith is just an echo to the joyful sound of the 
 GospeL The Gospel says of Christ, He is the Saviour 
 of sinners,— the Saviour of the world. He is my Sa- 
 viour, says Faith, for I belong to the world of sinners, of 
 whom he bears the character of the Saviour. The Gos- 
 pel says, " This is the name whereby he shall be called, 
 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." He is the Lord my 
 righteousness, says Faith. His voice in the Gospel is, 
 " I am the Lord thy God." Faith returns, Thou art my 
 Lord and my God. 
 
 We come now to inquire into the import of faith being 
 God's commandment. 
 
 Here two points are to be considered ; namely. That 
 believing on the name of Jesus Christ is one of God's 
 commandments ; and, That it is his commandment by 
 way of eminence. 
 
 Since believing on the name of Jesus Christ is one of 
 God's commandments, it must be our duty. This, how- 
 ever, is perfectly consistent with its being God's work of 
 grace. A great part of that which, in the covenant of 
 grace, he promises to work in us, is our duty. Thus he 
 promises to " put his fear into our hearts, and to circum- 
 cise our hearts to love him ; to put his laws into our 
 
1 04 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 minds, and to write them in our hearts." Again, Faith 
 is that whereby we are made actual partakers of Christ, 
 of his righteousness and salvation. In this respect, faith 
 is not considered as our work or duty, but merely as a 
 mean or instrument of God's appointing and giving, 
 whereby we receive Christ and his benefits into actual 
 possession. In this sense the apostle says, " It is of 
 faith that it might be of grace." This, however, does 
 not hinder faith from being justly considered as our duty 
 in another respect, namely, as it is required in the first 
 commandment of the moral law. 
 
 We may here point out some things evidently included 
 in the duty of believing. 
 
 1. Endeavouring to attain the knowledge of what is 
 taught in the Word concerning Christ. They who are 
 neglecting to seek the true knowledge of what the Scrip- 
 tures testify of Christ, are neglecting to believe in him. 
 Knowledge is so necessary to faith, that the former is 
 often put for the latter : " By his knowledge," that is, by 
 the faith of him, " shall my righteous servant justify 
 many." — Isa. hii. 11. Let such as would believe in the 
 name of Christ, use dihgence to know what the Scripture 
 teaches concerning- their unspeakable need of him, con- 
 cerning his person and offices, concerning the making, 
 the proper condition, the promises, and the administra- 
 tion of the covenant of grace, concerning their sinful and 
 miserable condition under the broken covenant of works, 
 and the way and manner of their happy instatement in 
 the covenant of grace. Let not the precious moments, 
 in which they have an opportunity of attaining a com- 
 petent knowledge of the things which belong to their 
 eternal peace, be criminally squandered away in the vain 
 pursuits and amusements of this world. It will be more 
 tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judg- 
 ment, than for persons in the visible Church that live and 
 die without the saving knowledge of Christ. God says 
 concerning such, " They are a people of no understand- 
 ing ; and therefore he that made them will not have mercy 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 105 
 
 on them, and he that formed them will show them no 
 favour." 
 
 2. Endeavouring- to have a deep impression of, and 
 subjection of heart unto, the authority of God speaking- 
 in his Word. We do not truly receive the testimony of 
 God concerning his Son, unless we receive it on account 
 of the authority of the Testifier. People may seem to 
 have an esteem of many articles of Gospel truth, because 
 they can somehow contrive to reconcile them to their 
 natural understanding-, or because they appear agreeable 
 to their natural desire of happiness. But surely true 
 faith is a different thing : it is a receiving what God says, 
 for the best of all reasons, namely, because it is God that 
 says it. Such was the reception which the Gospel met 
 with among the Thessalonians. " For this cause," says 
 the apostle to them, " thank we God without ceasing, 
 because, when ye received the Word of God which ye 
 heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, ImL 
 (as it is in truth) the Word of God." Hence faith is not ) 
 so much our saying any thing-, as our silent acquiescence 
 in what God says. 
 
 3. Another thing, included in this duty of believing 
 is, that we should be exercised in applying and taking 
 home the word of the Gospel to ourselves, as a word 
 directed to us in particular. As the word of the Law can 
 be of no use for reproof or conviction, without applica- 
 tion to ourselves ; neither can the word of the Gospel 
 afford us any relief without as particular an application. 
 When the Lord says, " The word of salvation is sent to 
 you. The promise is to you," each of us ought to be say- 
 ing, To me, to me. Wherefore is Christ lifted up, " as 
 Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness ?" Each 
 of us should be saying, That I, a poor sinner of Adam's 
 family, may look to him as my Saviour. Whom is he 
 calling and inviting so tenderly, so importunately, to 
 " take the water of life freely ?" Each of us should still 
 be saying, Me. Whom does he command to trust in him 
 for everlasting salvation ? Me, hell-deserving me.* 
 
 * Considering our natural aversion to the believing application of 
 
106 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 4. Another thing- that belongs to the duty of believing, 
 is, that we should essay to avow or profess to God, to 
 our own souls, and also, as there is occasion, to men, that 
 we do believe, and that we desire to be delivered from 
 our unbelief. Though this avowal may not be necessary 
 to the existence, it is so to the distinctness, of the exer- 
 cise of faith. We should especially make this avowal or 
 profession unto God ; as the Psalmist frequently does : 
 " But I trusted in thee, O Lord : I said, Thou art my 
 God." — Psal. xxxi. 14. "I cried unto thee, O Lord, I 
 said, Thou art my refuge, and my portion in the land of 
 the living." — Psal. cxlii. 5 ; and as the father of the child, 
 in Mark ix. 24, did ; who " cried out, and said with tears. 
 Lord I believe ; help thou mine unbelief." Indeed our 
 Lord enjoins us to make this avowal in our prayers, when 
 he directs us to say to God, " Our Father ;" and that we 
 shall be brought to this avowal, is matter of promise, 
 " Thou shalt call me, My Father : Thou shalt call me 
 Ishi, my husband." We should also make the same pro- 
 fession of faith to our own souls, as a mean of stirring 
 them up to the more lively exercise of faith. We have 
 examples of this in the Psalms : " Why art thou cast 
 down, O my soul ? why art thou disquieted within me ? 
 hope in God : for I shall yet praise him, who is the health 
 of my countenance, and my God." Again, " My soul 
 wait thou only upon God ; for my expectation is from 
 him. He only is my rock, and my salvation." We are 
 also, as there is occasion, to make this profession before 
 men ; for, we are not to be ashamed of Christ, " who is 
 our hope," before men ; lest he be ashamed of us, " when 
 he Cometh in the glory of his Father, with his holy angels. 
 
 5. Another thing included in this duty of beheving in 
 the name of Jesus Christ is, that we should be careful to 
 
 Christ to ourselves as sinners, upon no other footing than the free grant 
 of him in the Gfospel, there is great propriety in the following exhorta- 
 tion of Luther, in his commentary on these words, in Gal. ii. 20, " He 
 loved me, and gave himself for me." " Who is this me.''" says he, 
 " Even I, a \sTetched and damnable sinner, was so dearly beloved of 
 the Son of God, that he gave himself for me. O print this word ME in 
 your heart, and apply it to your own self, not doubting but that you are 
 one of those to whom this me belongeth." 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 107 
 
 continue in this faith. For this end it is necessary that 
 we learn to distinguish between truth and error in doc- 
 trine ; that we may be established in the former, and that 
 we may give no sort of countenance to the latter ; for 
 the Holy Spirit saith, " Cease from the instruction which 
 causeth to err from the words of knowledge." And 
 again, " Beware lest ye also, being led away by the error 
 of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness." To abide 
 in the faith, is to abide in the truth which faith receives, 
 and on which it relies. We are also to struggle against 
 the remaining unbelief of the heart, which is always 
 working to make us give up our confidence in the pro- 
 mise ; sometimes representing other seeming supports, 
 such as, worldly riches, wisdom, strength, or self-righ- 
 teousness, as better than it ; sometimes taking occasion, 
 from a distressing sense of the guilt and power of sin, or 
 from the discouraging aspect of providence, to suggest 
 that the promise does not belong to us, and that we shall 
 never see it verified. In this case, we are called to hold 
 fast the confidence and rejoicing of hope firm unto the 
 end. Our Lord is saying .to us, as he said to Jairus, 
 Fear not, only believe. The more that Satan, the world, 
 and unbelief, vilify this way of making the Lord's pro- 
 mise in Christ the single and sufficient ground of our 
 confidence, we should study to commend and magnify it 
 the more ; and to be the more resolute in saying with the 
 Church, He will turn again, he will have compassion 
 upon us ; he will subdue our iniquities ; and he will cast 
 all cur sins into the depths of the sea. " It is good that 
 a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salva- 
 tion of the Lord." Such is the conflict by which faith is 
 tried and proved to be genuine. 
 
 6. Another thing included in our obedience to this 
 commandment is, that we should study to grow in^ith. 
 True believers are far from resting in what faiththe 
 hare already attained ; but are still pressing towards a 
 greater measure of it ; they are keeping up the cry of the 
 disciples, " Lord, increase our faith." They see that th 
 cannot have more stedfastness in the way of duty, more 
 
1 08 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 success in work or warfare, more spiritual strength or 
 comfort, but in the way of their having- more faith. 
 
 7. The dihgent use of means is also inchided in the 
 duty of beheving in the name of Jesus Christ. They 
 that hear the voice of wisdom, or beheve the word of 
 Christ, are " watching daily at his gates, waiting at the 
 posts of his doors." The commandment of God to be- 
 lieve in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, bindeth us to 
 acquaint ourselves with those things contained in the 
 Scriptures ; because they were written for this very end, 
 " that we may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and 
 that, believing, we may have life through his name." 
 The Word of God, contained in the Scriptures of the 
 Old and New Testament, is both what we are to believe, 
 and the mean of bringing us to believe ; for faith cometh 
 by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Let them, 
 therefore, that would have saving faith, be diligently en- 
 gaged in reading and hearing the word of faith, in laying it 
 up in their memories, and in meditating upon it. Let them 
 never suffer it to depart from their minds, but let them 
 have it dwelling in them in all wisdom. Another mean, 
 the use of which is especially required by this command- 
 ment, is prayer. -Natural men are utterly averse from, 
 and incapacitated for, prayer, as it is a real offering up of 
 their desires to God for things agreeable to his will, in 
 the name of Christ. They have no desire of what is 
 truly and spiritually good ; no faith by which to make 
 use of Christ's name. Yet, while they have been at- 
 tempting this duty, from no better principle than self- 
 love, the Lord, who will countenance and honour his own 
 ordinance, has given them faith, and enabled them to 
 pray in deed and in truth. In this case, that word is 
 verified, " Before they call, I will answer." While they 
 remained in unbelief, whatever name themselves or others 
 might give to their exercise, there was no calling, not a 
 syllable of prayer, in God's account ; yet, in a way of 
 sovereignty, he gives them faith. Thus, he answers the 
 cry of their need ; he answers the design of his own 
 ordinance ; he answers the petition, which, upon obtain- 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 109 
 
 ing the grace of faith, they immediately offer up ; for 
 faith, as soon as it is bestowed, discovers itself, by an 
 ardent and unextinguishable desire of faith. In prayer, 
 we are to make much use of such promises as this, " In 
 his name shall the Gentiles trust," saying-, '' Do as thou 
 hast said." We should think highly of the season of our 
 attendance on Gospel ordinances, as a blessed opportunity 
 of hearing Christ's voice ; as the day of his power, 
 wherein he " makes his people willingnesses," or free 
 will offerings ; as the happy " hour which cometh and 
 now is, in which the dead shall hear the voice of the Son 
 of God, and they that hear shall live." Thus, we are 
 diligently to use the word, sacraments, and prayer, as 
 means of our estabhshment and growth in faith. 
 
 8. It is included in obedience to this commandment, 
 that we should ascribe the work of faith, in the begin- 
 ning, the continuance, the increase, and the finishing of 
 it, to the almighty agency of the Holy Spirit. Faith i^ 
 not of ourselves ; nay, we are naturally full of aversion 
 to it. What Christ said to the Jews, he says to all men 
 in their natural state : " Ye will not come to me, that 
 ye might have life." The habit or disposition to believe 
 is created in us by the power of the Holy Spirit enlight- 
 ening us to discern spiritually what God is giving us in 
 the Gospel, and determining us to make application there- 
 of to ourselves. With respect to Christ and his salvation, 
 brought nigh to us in the Word, we are naturally in the 
 same case that Hagar was in with respect to the well of 
 water: she could not see it, till the Lord opened her 
 eyes. Whatever believing views we get, or desire to get, 
 of Christ, of his righteousness and salvation, or of the 
 great and precious promises in him, they are wholly to be 
 ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Hence he is called " The 
 Spirit of faith." It is no less necessary to regard the 
 Holy Spirit as the worker of faith in us, than it is to 
 regard Christ as the purchaser of it for us. Hence the 
 promise of the Holy Spirit should be unspeakably precious 
 to uSj — his indwelling, and all his saving and effectual 
 operations, should be unspeakably precious. We should 
 
110 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 be habitually long'ing and looking; for more and more 
 experience of these operations, saying, with the spouse, — 
 "Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon 
 my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." 
 
 Here, however, it is necessary to remember, that our 
 experience of the work of the Holy Spirit is in no respect, 
 in no degree, the rule of duty, or our warrant for setting 
 about the performance of it. The whole saving work of 
 the Holy Spirit lies in conforming us to the Word, — in 
 making us know what is revealed in the Word, — in mak- 
 ing us yield a ready compliance with the calls and com- 
 mands of the Word. The perfection of the Holy Spirit's 
 work within us lies in its exact correspondence with the 
 absolutely perfect plan of it in his own Word without us. 
 The Gospel that came to the Thessalonians in the Holy 
 Ghost, was no other than that which came to them in the 
 Word. The wonders which the Psalmist desired to see 
 by the Lord's opening his eyes, were no other than what 
 are declared in his Law. The conduct of the Spirit which 
 the Psalmist desired, was the ordering of his steps in his 
 Word. Thus we say, the Word of God, contained in the 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is the only 
 rule of duty, and our only warrant for setting about the 
 performance of it. Hence, while we depend wholly uporA 
 the Holy Spirit for his enabling us to believe in Christ, j 
 we are to look to his Word alone, and not at all to oup-^ 
 own experience of the Spirit's work, as our warrant to 
 believe : we are now to essay the exercise of faith, be- 
 cause the Word is now calling us to it. Surely it is one 
 of the vilest suggestions of the corrupt heart, to allege 
 the want of experience of the Spirit's work as an excuse 
 for refusing the present call which he himself is giving 
 us in his Word. 
 
 We shall only add, that the great aim of our obedience 
 to this commandment is, to give God the praise of the 
 glory of his grace. The mouth of faith is filled with the 
 praises of grace reigning through righteousness unto eter- 
 nal life : faith ascribes the whole of our salvation to free 
 and sovereign grace. That which ascribes any part, be it 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. Ill 
 
 ever so small, of our salvation to the free will, sufficiency, 
 or exertions of the creature, is not the faith in Jesus 
 Christ of which we speak, but is directly contrary to it. 
 
 We now proceed to the consideration of the other point 
 which is here to be considered, namely, that this com- 
 mandment, that we should believe in the name of Jesus 
 Christ, is the commandment of God, by way of eminence, 
 — it is his great commandment. 
 
 1 . It is so, because our obedience to this commandment 
 lays the foundation of our obedience to all the other com- 
 mandments. Believing- in Jesus Christ the Son of God 
 is the first and immediate duty of every Gospel hearer. 
 In believing, the person puts on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and so is furnished and prepared unto every good word 
 and work. By faith we abide in Christ. " But," saith 
 Christ, " he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same 
 bringeth forth much fruit : for, without me, that is, while 
 yon are not abiding in me, ye can do nothing," In a 
 word, faith in Christ is the first instance of genuine obe- 
 dience to God's commandments that is ever found in any 
 of fallen mankind ; and the diligent study of acceptable 
 obedience to all his commandments necessarily follows, as 
 the effect follows its cause. 
 
 2. It is so, because our obedience to it in so peculiar 
 and signal a manner gives glory to God. The glory that 
 faith gives to God, is that of the highest manifestation of 
 his name and perfections that was ever made to his crea- 
 tures, namely, the manifestation thereof in the obedience 
 and death of his eternal Son. Saving faith is the " light 
 of the knowledge of the glory of God," not in the works 
 of the old creation, but "in the face of Jesus Christ." 
 Again, faith in a peculiar manner gives glory to God, by 
 its stedfast adherence to his revealed truths, that are fool- 
 ishness to natural men ; and by its firm persuasion and 
 hearty embracing of those promises which, to the eye of 
 sense, appear most unlikely, or even impossible, to be ful- 
 filled. " Abraham, not considering his body now dead, 
 nor yet the deadness of Sarah's womb, staggered not at 
 the promise, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God." 
 
112 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 Faith is remarkable, as it is, of all the graces of the Spirit, 
 the most self-emptying- ; its constant and invariable lan- 
 guage is, that it has nothing in itself, or in the creature ; 
 but all in Him whom it looks to and apprehends. Some 
 would have it to be a term or condition, giving- us a claim 
 or title to Christ and his salvation. But faith itself ab- 
 hors the arrogant pretension. Like the natural eye, it 
 regards not itself, — it regards nothing but its glorious 
 ol)ject. " Talk they," says Faith, " of the performance of 
 terms or conditions ? God forbid that I should glory, save 
 in the fulfilment of the condition of the covenant of grace 
 by Him who said, when he was dying on the cross, ' It 
 IS FINISHED.' This is that finished work by which God 
 was so eminently glorified on earth, and from which I 
 alone expect pardon and peace with God, grace and glory, 
 and every good thing." Thus faith falls in with the great 
 design of the Gospel, which is, " that the loftiness of men 
 may be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men made 
 low ; and that the Lord alone may be exalted." 
 
 We may now add some short improvement of the sub- 
 ject :— 
 
 1. From what has been said, we may learn how preci- 
 ous and necessary faith is, as it is our obedience to God's 
 great commandment. By it we are made partakers of 
 precious Christ, and of the precious promises. Hence 
 the apostle calls it " precious faith." " Simon Peter, a 
 servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have 
 obtained " (or, to them who receive by inheritance) " like 
 precious faith, through the righteousness of our God and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ." — 2 Pet. i. 1. You need not won- 
 der, then, that the ministers of the Gospel insist so much 
 upon the duty of believing on the Son of God, — upon the 
 absolute necessity of it, — upon the nature, the grounds, 
 and warrants of it. We only desire you to judge by the 
 following text in what degree this subject ought to en- 
 gage your attention : "He that believeth on the Son hath 
 everlasting life ; and he that believeth not the Son shall 
 not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." — 
 John iii. 36. 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 1 ] 3 
 
 2. Hence we see what is our great business under a 
 Gospel dispensation, — it is, to believe on the name of 
 Jesus Christ the Son of God, — it is, to accept of the free 
 grant of eternal life in him. You are this moment either 
 believing, or despising and rejecting it. If you now be- 
 lieve, you will be studious of those things which we have 
 considered as included in the duty of believing. Ye will 
 be endeavouring to know what is taught in the Word 
 concerning Christ and his salvation ; to have your hearts 
 subjected to the authority of God speaking in his Word ; 
 to make a believing application of Christ to yourselves in 
 particular ; to make a profession of your faith to God, to 
 your own souls, and before the world ; to have your faith 
 estabhshed and increased ; to be diligent in the use of 
 means ; and yet to ascribe the beginning, the continuance, 
 and the increase, of your faith, entirely to the almighty 
 operation of the Holy Spirit, — acknowledging that the 
 praise of all belongs to rich, free, and sovereign grace. 
 To you that believe Christ is precious : ye are like the 
 merchant " seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found 
 one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and 
 bought it." Ye are counting all things but " loss and 
 dung, that ye may win Christ, and be found in him, not 
 having your own righteousness, which is of the law, but 
 that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteous- 
 ness which is of God by faith." But we have too much 
 cause to apprehend that, to the bulk of persons under the 
 outward dispensation of the Word, Christ is " a stone of 
 stumbling and rock of offence." This has been the case 
 in former ages ; and surely we have reason to fear that it 
 is very much so at present, when there is such a manifest 
 declension from the Word of Christ, both in profession 
 and practice. Wherefore there is too much ground to 
 address ourselves to unbelievers, as being the greater part 
 of our hearers. Well, Sirs, since you persist in despis- 
 ing and rejecting the Son of God, we must deal faithfully 
 and plainly with you, — we must tell you that we have 
 heavy tidings to you : you are " condemned already ; the 
 wrath of God abideth on you." Because ye " set at 
 
114 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 nought all his counsel, and will have none of his reproof," 
 he is threatening- that he will " laugh at your calamity, 
 and mock when your fear cometh." But you will say, 
 " Wherein have we despised Christ ? " Some of you are 
 not ashamed to proclaim that you do so, by your open 
 profanity, by your horrid oaths, your Sabbath-breaking, 
 drunkenness, and the like. " But," say you, " we have 
 none of these things to reproach ourselves with, — we are 
 sober, honest people." But if ye can habitually behold 
 such transgressors, without feeling either compassion for 
 their souls or concern for the Hagrant dishonour they do 
 to God, alas ! what are ye better than they ? Are not 
 many of you in your hearts mere worldlings, who, pro- 
 vided you can get such worldly things as your hearts are 
 set upon, care nothing for the Word and ordinances of 
 Christ ? You are called honest ; but you are not truly 
 so, unless you are studying to give God his due as well 
 as your neighbour. " If I be a Father," says God, "where 
 is mine honour ? and if I be Master, where is my fear ? " 
 Do not many of you neglect secret prayer ; that is, retir- 
 ing to a secret place, and employing some time in prayer 
 every evening and every morning ? Do not tnany of you, 
 who are heads of famihes, neglect family worship ? But, 
 say you, " We perform these duties, and are regular 
 Church members. Outward Church membership is no 
 certain evidence of true faith ; and many go the round 
 of duties outwardly, whose hearts are otherwise engaged. 
 " This people draw near me with their mouth, and v/ith 
 their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far 
 from me." — Isa. xxix. 13. But say you, " We have had 
 great convictions and concern about our guilt and danger." 
 So had Cain, Judas, and many others who are now in 
 hell. But you add, that your heart is wonderfully changed. 
 You may get another heart, like Saul, and yet never 
 get the new heart. The stony-ground hearers, no doubt, 
 thought they had undergone a wonderful change, when 
 they received the Word with joy, and endured for a while; 
 but they were strangers to a saving change. But you 
 insist, that you cannot help thinking, that since you have 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 1 1 5 
 
 SO many g-ood things about yon, it is hard that you should 
 not be allowed to be true believers. Take heed lest what 
 you call your good things be not, like the young- man's 
 g;reat possessions, the fatal occasion of an eternal parting 
 between Christ and you. You have been brought not 
 only to civility and sobriety, but to the practice of religi- 
 ous duties, to conviction, and to some delight in hearing 
 the Word. All this is well in itself; yet you lack one 
 thing, — you have not been brought to quit and forsake 
 all, in point of trust or dependence, and to come away 
 stript of all your duties, convictions, frames, and good 
 qualifications, as poor sinners, to take up your rest in the 
 name of Christ, as the Lord your Righteousness. You 
 allow that you ought to renounce the sins you are con- 
 scious of; but you cannot think of renouncing your own 
 righteousness as " filthy rags." You have been troubled 
 about several sins, but not about unbelief, or your not 
 believing the record of God concerning his Son, whereby 
 ye have made God a liar.* You are entertaining a con- 
 ceit of your own abilities to believe at any time ; and 
 hence you delay the work of believing from day to day ; 
 yet, after all your obstinacy in rebellion, the voice of the 
 Son of God is to you, — the Gospel grant of himself and 
 his whole salvation is to you, — " to you is the word of 
 this salvation sent." Christ is saying to you, " My Father 
 giveth you the true bread from heaven, that each of you 
 may eat thereof, and not die. Hearken to me, ye stout- 
 
 * " Unbelief refuseth the only remedy, and therefore must needs 
 cause destruction. ' He that hath not the Son, hath not life.' — 1 John 
 V. 12. Besides, unbelief is a sin against the moral law, — not believing 
 the veracity nor trusting in the promise of God. He that believeth not 
 God, hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that 
 God gave of his Son. It is contrary to love and thankfulness, despising 
 the riches of the grace of God. It is contrary to repentance ; naj^, im- 
 plieth the greatest love of, and obstinacy in, sin. It carrieth the greatest 
 contempt of God, his Son, and spiritual things ; and showeth that men 
 choose their lusts and creatures rather than God, though with the loss 
 of their souls. It therefore greatly aggravates man's other sins, and 
 hastens his condemnation : so that unbelief doth not condemn as being 
 disobedience to a new command, but as it is a breach of the moral law, 
 as it binds on all other sins, and as it refuseth pardon."— See Lutherus 
 Jiedivivus, p. 125. 
 
 H 
 
1 ] 6 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 hearted, that are far from righteousness ; I bring near my 
 righteousness, and my salvation shall not tarry. Behold 
 me as the propitiation for your sins, — behold me as the 
 LORD YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. I am Stretching forth my 
 hand all the day long to a disobedient and gainsaying 
 people : I am still saying to you, Behold me ! Behold 
 me ! I would gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens 
 under her wings. Come, then, to trust under my wings. 
 Whether you have been more gross sinners, such as those 
 Corinthians had been, mentioned in 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, or 
 more specious, as Paul had been before his conversion, — 
 whatever you are or have been, being sinners of Adam's 
 family, that now hear this call, you are welcome to me. 
 Believe that I will not cast you out. Believe that I am 
 and will be that to you which I am declared to be in the 
 word of the Gospel : that I am and will be to you a 
 Priest, to bear all your iniquity, that you may never have 
 to bear it, — that in me ye may have peace : that I am 
 and will be to you a Prophet, to make you wise unto sal- 
 vation : that I am and will be to you a King, to slay the 
 enmity of your hearts, — to make you my willing people, 
 to make you free indeed. Unless ye beUeve that I am 
 and will be to you what I am declared to be in the Word, 
 ye shall die in your sins, ye shall perish eternally. Hear, 
 and your souls shall live." 
 
 Thus you see Christ is very hearty in making a free 
 offer and grant of himself and all salvation to you, as sin- 
 ners : and it is the great commandment of his Father, 
 which was proclaimed by a voice from the excellent glory, 
 that ye should hear him. A voice out of the cloud, on 
 the Mount of Transfiguration, said, " This is my beloved 
 Son, in whom I am well pleased : hear ye him." " And 
 this is his commandment. That we should believe on the 
 name of his Son Jesus Christ." The Holy Spirit also 
 sayeth, " To-day, if ye will hear his voice." " And the 
 Spirit and the Bride say, Come ; and let him that heareth 
 say. Come ; and let him that is athirst come ; and who- 
 soever will, let him take the water of life freely." It is 
 true, a day of supernatural, almighty power, is necessary 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 117 
 
 to believe in a saving manner ; but we are to distinguish 
 between the real putting forth of that power in our case, 
 and the distinct or comfortable sense or feeling of it. O 
 sinner ! if thou art at length verily persuaded that God, 
 in this Word of faith which we preach, which is in thy 
 mouth, and in thy heart, is at this moment giving thee 
 his well-beloved Son, and all his salvation ; and if thou 
 art now taking up thy eternal rest upon this blessed gift 
 and grant ; know assuredly, that there is a real putting 
 forth of that supernatural power towards thee ; there is 
 a cord cast forth from the heart of everlasting love, for 
 drawing thee to itself, whether it be sensibly felt or not. 
 But hold on in essaying the exercise of this faith, looking 
 up to Him who alone is the strength of thy life ; and, by 
 the fruits, thou shalt know that it is the true grace of 
 God wherein thou standest. 
 
 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 " This is his commandment, That -vve should believe on the name of 
 his Son Jesus Christ," — 1 John iii. 23. 
 
 The doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ Jesus has 
 often been objected to, as relaxing our obligation to good 
 works. Some have thought the most proper way of ob- 
 viating this objection was, to represent faith itself as being, 
 in its formal nature, a cordial subjection to the laws and 
 government of Christ, and as a compound of holy tempers 
 and qualifications. But this is only pretending to ob- 
 viate an objection by a gross misrepresentation ; for if the 
 Holy Spirit had meant such a subjection, or such a com- 
 pound, he would have used some other word or phrase, 
 such as love, repentance, the fear of the Lord ; any of 
 
1 1 8 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 which are much better adapted to such a meaning than 
 faith, or believing- ; and then, according- to such a repre- 
 sentation, faith could never be opposed, as it is, to all our 
 works of obedience. " By grace are ye saved, through 
 faith, — not of works." The Scripture takes a quite dif- 
 ferent way of answering the objection under considera- 
 tion ; which is, not by representing faith as, in its formal 
 nature, a subjection or obedience to the laws of Christ, 
 but by showing that faith, while it is itself one instance of 
 obedience, is sufficient, by virtue of the grace of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, which it apprehends, to bring us to every 
 other instance of obedience ; and that the several branches 
 of holiness are fruits of faith, — fruits which, in their place, 
 are no less necessary to our seeing the Lord than faith 
 itself. The Apostle James, in the second chapter of his 
 Epistle, teacheth us the necessity of good works, not by 
 representing them as constituting faith, or included in it, 
 but by showing that they are inseparable fruits and evi- 
 dences of it. " I will," says he, " show thee my faith by 
 my works." It is not more necessary that faith should 
 be at all, than that it should be productive of the fruits 
 of new obedience. You may as well suppose that, accord- 
 ing to the established course of nature, the sun may rise 
 upon our hemisphere without diffusing light, as suppose 
 that true faith can be in any soul without being accom- 
 panied with such fruits or effects as we are now going 
 to enumerate. 
 
 1. Wherever this faith is, it produceth peace, hope, 
 and joy. There is no genuine or lasting peace to the 
 soul of man, but what is attained by the faith of Chris^t. 
 Persons may seem for a time to have peace of mind, aris- 
 ing from some conceit, or vain opinion of their own righ- 
 teousness ; but since this pretended righteousness of theirs 
 is, in reality, no righteousness, but a want of conformity 
 to the law, particularly in the principle from which it 
 proceeds, and in the end to which it is directed ; since 
 their supposed peace is grounded on a false notion that 
 God will account that righteousness which his law does 
 not account such, and that he will adjudge them to life 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 119 
 
 whom his holy and righteous law adjudges to death ; 
 since they think that God is altogether such a one as 
 themselves ; they will find in a httle, when conscience 
 shall he awakened, and they will no longer be able to shut 
 out the truth concerning- the holiness and inflexible jus- 
 tice of God from their minds, that what they called their 
 peace was but a delusive and fatal security, under which 
 they flattered themselves in their iniquity, and "treasured 
 up to themselves wrath against the- day of wrath and 
 revelation of the righteous judgment of God." But the 
 righteousness of Christ, apprehended by faith, affords true 
 and everlasting peace with God, and peace of conscience ; 
 for well may that give us peace of conscience which gives 
 full satisfaction to the demands of law and justice, which 
 removes all the grounds of difference between God and us, 
 and with which God has, by the most glorious demon- 
 strations, declared himself well pleased. The righteous- 
 ness of Christ, apprehended by faith, affords also the hope 
 of " eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised 
 before the world began." Faith says concerning^Chiist, 
 " He is our peace, — our hope." While faith sees the pro^ 
 mise, and is persuaded of it, and embraces it ; hope waitv' 
 and looks for its accomplishment. While faith regards 
 eternal life as already ours in the promise ; hope regards 
 it as what will be ours in the accomplishment of the pro- 
 mise. Faith and hope, according to their measure, cause 
 joy to spring up in the heart. " Now, the God of hope 
 fill you with joy and peace in believing." — Rom. xv. 13. 
 *' In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye 
 rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." — 1 Pet. 
 i. 8. There is a joy resulting immediately from faith's 
 views of eternal life as ours in the promise, as well as from 
 the sensible experience of the begun accomplishment of the 
 promise. Faith, appropriating faith, being ever produc- 
 tive of peace and joy, is opposed to all trouble and pertur- 
 bation of mind. Hence the disciples, under perplexity, are 
 directed to this faith : " Let not your heart be troubled ; 
 ye believe in God, believe also in me." — John xiv. 1. By 
 this faith the Psalmist struggled against all his disquieting 
 
1 20 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 thoughts : " Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? why 
 art thou disquieted within me ? Hope in God ; for I shall 
 yet praise him : he is the health of my countenance, and 
 my God."— Psal. xlii. 11. 
 
 2. Wherever this faith is, it produceth true holiness 
 in heart and life : we are " sanctified by the faith that is 
 in Christ." Faith in the blood of Christ, by purging- the 
 conscience from dead works, and making it good, puri- 
 ties the heart unto the unfeigned love of God and man. 
 " Now, the end of the commandment is charity" (or love), 
 " out of a pure heart ; and of a good conscience ; and of 
 faith unfeigned." — 1 Tim. i. 5. Faith, by the view that 
 it gives us of the I>aw as in Christ reconciled to us, re- 
 conciles us to the Law, and makes us take it for our com- 
 panion, our guide, and our familiar friend. Again, faith 
 unites us to Christ, and opens a communication between 
 the inexhaustible fulness of grace in him and our empti- 
 ness, which is to be continued till our souls be entirely 
 conformed to the image of Christ. Faith is the mean of 
 continuing as well as of beginning this communication ; 
 for Christ dwells in the hearts of his people by faith ; and 
 by the exercise of faith they attain more and more expe- 
 rience of this supernatural and heavenly communication, 
 enabling them to say, according to their various measures, 
 " Out of His fulness have all we received, even grace for 
 grace ;" that is, grace in us answerable in nature or kind 
 to that grace of which there is an unmeasurable fulness 
 in Him; as we have by nature corruptions in us answer- 
 able to all that corruption which appeared in the first 
 Adam's breach of the covenant of works. 
 
 But, to be more explicit, we may take a view of some 
 parts of that disposition and practice which necessarily 
 belong to true holiness, and which never can be attained 
 but by faith on the Son of God. 
 
 1. Love to Christ is the immediate effect of this faith ; 
 because faith is such an apprehension of the love of Christ 
 to us poor sinners as cannot fail, according to the mea- 
 sure of it, to make us love him who first loved us, — so 
 the poor woman's believing apprehension of much being 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 121 
 
 forgiven her, caused her to love much ; and because the 
 believer sees him in his beauty and loveliness, and has 
 also got a new capacity, a new heart to relish that loveli- 
 ness and beauty : " Whom having not seen," otherwise 
 than by faith, " ye love." — 1 Pet. i. 8. This love is ex- 
 ercised in a superlative esteem of him : " To you who 
 believe he is precious," — 1 Pet. ii. 7 ; and in our desire 
 being towards him, towards more and more acquaintance 
 with him, towards more and more manifestations of his 
 love, towards more and more conformity to his image : 
 " The desire of our souls is to thy name, and to the re- 
 membrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee 
 in the night, and with my spirit within me will I seek 
 thee early." — Isa. xxvi. 8, 9. This love is exercised in 
 spiritual-mindedness. Love to Christ, as an object appre- 
 hended by faith only, is quite a different thing from that 
 love which persons may pretend to have for him, result- 
 ing from imaginary ideas or representations in the mind 
 of his human nature, whether in a state of suffering or of 
 exaltation ; resulting from the agreeable sensations that 
 are excited by music or pictures, any way employed in 
 devotional exercises ; or resulting from the presumptuous 
 and blasphemous notion, that through Christ it is become 
 safe or without danger to continue in any sin; or result- 
 ing from a carnal prospect of worldly profit, ease, plea- 
 sure, or preferm.ent, under the profession of his name. 
 Pretended love to Christ under any of these notions is, in 
 reality, nothing but the carnal mind's attachment to its 
 own idol. But they that truly love Christ are spiritually 
 minded. They love Christ according to the whole of his 
 blessed name, — according to the whole representation that 
 he gives of himself in his own Word ; the eyes of their 
 understanding being enlightened by his Spirit, to appre- 
 hend that representation in a spiritual manner. They 
 love him as Immanuel, — God in their nature ; they love 
 him as made of God to them wisdom, and righteousness, 
 and sanctification, and redemption. The soul that loves 
 him is seeking his face; no worldly enjoyments, no duties, 
 
122 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 means, or outward privileges, will content that soul, — 
 nothing but Christ himself. 
 
 2. Another inseparable attendant of true faith in Christ, 
 is our love to one another. Hence they are joined to- 
 gether in the text: "This is his commandment, That 
 we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, 
 and love one another, as he gave us commandment." The 
 person who has truly believed the truth of the Gospel, 
 has got such a view of it, in its nature, beauty, and lustre, 
 as has effectually captivated his heart ; so that now he 
 cleaves to the truth in love, and to the brethren " for the 
 truth's sake, which dwelleth in them." — 2 John 4. This 
 love is exercised in delighting in any conformity to Christ 
 that we observe in others, on the believing consideration 
 of their relation to Christ ; in taking delight to show 
 them kindness on that account ; and in our sympathy 
 with them in their trials and temptations. 
 ' 3. Another inseparable attendant of true faith is re- 
 pentance, or the soul's turning from sin unto God. Christ 
 is set forth in the Gospel as a Saviour from sin as well 
 as from wrath ; and the promise, which is in him " Yea, 
 and in him Amen," is a promise of deliverance from sin ; 
 and therefore, by the appropriating faith of Christ as our 
 Saviour, and of the promise in him, the soul truly departs 
 from sin. Faith's views of the reconciled face of God in 
 Christ fill the soul with shame and self- abhorrence on 
 account of sin : " That thou mayst remember and be con- 
 founded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of 
 thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that 
 thou hast done, saith the Lord God," — Ezek. xvi. 63 ; 
 and xxxvi. 31 : " Then shall ye remember your own 
 evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall 
 loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniqui- 
 ties, and for your abominations ;" — and also with godly 
 sorrow for sin : " They shall look upon me whom they 
 have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one monrn- 
 eth for an only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as 
 one that is in bitterness for a firstborn," — Zech. xii. 10. 
 According to our faith in the death of Christ for us, as 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 1 23 
 
 meritoriously and virtually the crucifixion of our old man, 
 and the death of sin in us, so will we be dilig-ent and 
 successful in the exercise of mortifying- sin. The fight of 
 the Lord's people against sin is " the good fight of faith ;" 
 their enemies are lusts that " war against the soul," aided 
 and stirred up by Satan and the world. Believers are in 
 themselves without strength, and an easy prey to the least 
 of these enemies; but, by faith in Him who is the Captain 
 of their salvation, they are made strong out of weakness, 
 wax valiant in the fight, and turn to flight the armies of 
 their spiritual enemies. Thus faith makes the soul turn 
 from sin, treat it as its worst enemy, and employ the 
 grace and strength of Christ for putting it to death, or 
 for its utter destruction. 
 
 4. Patience under the cross is also the fruit of this 
 appropriating faith. By that faith which rests on the 
 promise, and embraces the good things of it as the greatest 
 realities ; w^hich makes distant things near, and future 
 things present ; the soul waits with composure and tran- 
 quillity under sensible discouragements and delays of the 
 answer of prayer. " He that belie veth shall not make 
 haste." Under affliction, it is by the faith of the pro- 
 mise in Christ that the Lord gives his people more and 
 more of that patience wherein they possess their souls ; 
 with Moses, " they choose rather to suffer affliction with 
 the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin 
 for a season ;" wherein they choose rather to be " of an 
 humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil 
 with the proud," — rather to have their spirit brought 
 down to their lot, than to have their lot brought up to 
 their spirit. There is no true patience but what is the 
 fruit of this appropriating faith ; and we can have no more 
 of the former than we have of the latter. Hence we find 
 them frequently joined together : " Be not slothful, but 
 followers of them who through faith and patience inherit 
 the promises," — Heb. vi. 12 ; " Here is the patience and 
 faith of the saints." — Rev. xiii. 10. 
 
 5. Another fruit of true faith is a due esteem of the 
 Word, as indeed the Word of God : " I have esteemed 
 
124 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." — 
 Job xxiii. 12. The Word is more necessary to faith, 
 than outward food is to the subsistence of our natural life 
 or health. This esteem of it is evidenced by commend- 
 ing and magnifying- the Word above all other things in 
 the world, because there is more of God to be seen in the 
 Word than in all other things, — by seeking to have our- 
 selves and others brought to a wilhng subjection to its 
 authority, — by desiring and endeavouring to attain more 
 and more knowledge of it, and conformity to it, — by our 
 using it as the only rule to direct us how to glorify and 
 enjoy God, as affording the only medicine for the heahng 
 of our souls, the only armour for our defence against our 
 spiritual enemies, and the only effectual comfort in our 
 affliction. 
 
 6. Another fruit of true faith is prayer. As soon as 
 a person believes on the Son of God, it may be said of 
 him, as it was said of Paul at his conversion, " Behold 
 he prayeth." Before he believed, his praying was but a 
 lifeless form ; but now he prays indeed, — he now comes 
 to God as his Father in Christ. Faith's view of the 
 mercies of the new covenant, as suitable to his case, as 
 sure, and as his own mercies in Christ, makes him con- 
 tinue to wrestle with God for the actual enjoyment of 
 them. Faith kindles a desire that will never be satisfied 
 with any thing short of the King's immediate presence. 
 
 7. Another fruit of true faith is a single regard to 
 God's declarative glory. While a man is an unbeliever, 
 all he does proceeds from natural self, as its principle ; 
 and, as the stream cannot rise higher than the fountain, 
 it returns to self, as its end. But, being united to Christ 
 by faith, he begins to act from a supernatural principle, 
 and to a supernatural end, — even to the glory of God. 
 So far as he is a believer, he is delivered into the mould 
 of the exhortation in 1 Cor. vi. 20 : " Ye are not your 
 own ; ye are bought with a price : therefore, glorify God 
 in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." They 
 who live by Christ will live to him. " For the love of 
 Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that if 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. l25 
 
 one died for all, then were all dead : and that he died for 
 all, that they who live should not henceforth Hve unto 
 themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose 
 again." — 2 Cor. v. 14. And here we may observe, that 
 an honest desire and endeavour to glorify Christ, by a 
 suitable confession of his name, of his truths and ordi- 
 nances, especially of those that are peculiarly disregarded 
 and trampled on by the generation among whom we live, 
 are also the effect of this appropriating faith. As soon as 
 a man believeth with the heart unto righteousness, he 
 maketh confession with the mouth unto salvation. As 
 soon as the thief on the cross became a believer, he be- 
 came a confessor of Christ. David's faith made him one 
 too : " Thou art my God, and I will praise thee ; my 
 God, I will exalt thee." — Psal. cxviii. 28. 
 
 But who can recount the noble acts of this precious 
 faith ? We have an illustrious group of them in the 
 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which you 
 may peruse in this view at your leisure. There never 
 was, nor is, nor shall be, in any of the fallen posterity of 
 Adam, in all their generations, the least spark of genuine 
 love to God, or to man for his sake, or any saving grace, 
 or act of new obedience, but what is to be regarded as 
 proceeding from this heavenly and supernatural principle. 
 
 Here we may add a word in answer to the question, 
 When does faith bring forth these fruits ? 
 
 1. It begins to bring forth fruit as soon as it exists in 
 the soul. It is ever attended with all the other graces 
 of the Spirit, such as love, humility, the fear of the 
 Lord, godly sorrow for sin, patience. Each of these is in 
 the believing soul, if not in actual and sensible exercise, 
 yet in the habit and disposition towards that exercise ; 
 and that habit or disposition, as soon as implanted, will 
 (except perhaps in the case of infants) be carried forth 
 into some acts, more or less. Hence the apostle says to 
 the Colossians, "The gospel bringeth forth fruit in you 
 from the day that ye heard, and knew the grace of God 
 in truth." When a person is brought to a real faith in 
 Jesus Christ, he no longer delays repentance, and the 
 
126 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 Study of close walking- with God. He makes haste, and 
 delays not to keep God's commandments. 
 
 2. It perseveres in bearing- these fruits unto the end. 
 As the being of true faith, wherever it is, can never fail, 
 by reason of our Lord's preservation of it, and interces- 
 sion for it, John vi. 40, Luke xxii. 31 ; so it shall never 
 altogether cease to bear fruit. " Blessed is the man that 
 trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is. For he 
 shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spread- 
 eth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when 
 heat Cometh, but her leaf shall be green ; and shall not 
 be careful in the year of droug-ht, neither shall cease 
 from yielding fruit." — Jer. xvii. 7, 8. It brings forth 
 fruit in prosperity, as it did in Jehoshaphat, when his 
 heart was lifted up in the righteous ways of the Lord ; 
 in adversity, Hab. iii. 17, 18 ; in desertion, Isa. viii. 17 ; 
 under a sense of the power and prevalency of indwelling 
 sin, Rom. vii. 23-25 ; under the assaults of Satan's 
 temptations, Ephes. vi. 16 ; under the enjoyment of 
 public ordinances, Ezek. xx. 40 ; Heb. x. 25 ; under the 
 want of them, Psal. Ixxxiv. 1-3 ; in living. Gal. ii. 20 ; 
 and in dying, Heb, xi. 13. 
 
 From what has been said, we may learn, that the only 
 genuine faith is that which brings forth good fruit. O 
 Christian ! though you may not understand how to 
 answer all the objections of an artful disputer of this 
 world, yet you may certainly know that your faith is 
 unfeigned, and of the right sort, if it be the case, that, 
 according to the measure of your faith, you love Christ, 
 and delight in his Word, and in his people for his sake ; 
 you are resolute in striving against sin, and patient under 
 affliction ; you are eyeing self less, and God's declarative 
 glory more. " He that abideth in me," says Christ, 
 " and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." 
 
 We have also seen that true peace of conscience is 
 attained by faith in the blood of Christ, and inseparably 
 accompanied with the fruits of holiness. Let us remem- 
 ber that true peace of conscience is not attained by our 
 duties, by resolutions, or endeavours to do better. This 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 127 
 
 is only attempting to get the wound of our souls healed 
 by the law. Whatever closing of the wound may seem 
 to be attained in ihis way, we may be sure it will break 
 out again in a more terrible and desperate manner than 
 ever. All that is ever attained in this way, is but a heal- 
 ing of the wound shghtly, — a saying Peace, peace, while 
 there is no peace ; nor can it be otherwise, since the 
 pretended righteousness on which it is attempted to be 
 built, is no righteousness. " Israel, which followed after 
 the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of 
 righteousness. Wherefore ? because they sought it not 
 by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law. Going 
 about to establish our own righteousness " is justly to be 
 accounted the most heinous of all provocations, as it is a 
 saying. That Christ is dead in vain ; God's curse is upon 
 all the peace, or rather presumptuous security, which 
 men attain in this legal way. For as many as are of the 
 works of the law are under the curse. But we say, true 
 peace of conscience is attained by faith in the blood of 
 Christ, or by resting in this Gospel declaration. That 
 Christ is our peace, who hath made peace by the blood 
 of his cross. And this peace cannot take effect on the 
 conscience, without bringing us to the study of universal 
 obedience to God's commandments. For the blood of 
 Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself 
 without spot unto God, purgeth our conscience from 
 dead works to serve the living God : from dead works, 
 that is, from the charge which the law brings against 
 us of works deserving eternal death. Nothing is to be 
 accounted the purgation of the conscience by the blood 
 of Christ alone, which does not lead to the diligent and 
 delightful service of the living God. Let us be on our 
 guard against a false peace ; it is the ruin of multitudes 
 in the visible Church ; and never in any period of the 
 Church was it a more epidemical plague than in our day. 
 The high-minded carriage of professors, and their con- 
 tempt of the means of reformation, proclaim this to be the 
 case. Their obstinacy in backsliding courses declares 
 that they hold fast deceit. 
 
128 THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 From what has been said we may learn, that we are 
 to account that only to be true holiness which is a fruit 
 of faith in Christ, and which is received by faith out of 
 His fulness. A believer does not account himself to 
 have already attained ; he can see nothing- in his attempts 
 to perform duties, but deficiency and defilement ; while 
 legalists are ostentatiously displaying- their seeming attain- 
 ments, — their knowledge, their frames, their experiences, 
 the rectitude of their conduct, and the benevolence of 
 their hearts. When they hear a person bewailing the 
 bitter experience he has of the deep-rooted and prevail- 
 ing enmity against God and his ways that is still in his 
 heart, they are ready to bless themselves, thinking that 
 it is not so bad with them. But, behever, let not this 
 tempt thee to return to them ; that is, to go back to the 
 law of works. So far as you are seeking holiness in the 
 way of believing in Jesus Christ for it, or trusting that 
 he will give it you freely for his name's sake, you are in 
 the only way in which God will ever bless any of the 
 children of fallen Adam with true holiness. Stumble 
 not at the proud boasting of legalists ; for, when they 
 talk of holiness, they understand neither what they say, 
 nor whereof they affirm. Thy groans on account of in- 
 dwelhng corruption, thy eager looks to the promise in 
 Christ as all thy hope, thy feeblest (being honest) endea- 
 vours to strive against sin, and to adhere to all the truths 
 and ways of God without exception, are assuredly ac- 
 cepted in the Beloved, while the most splendid and cele- 
 brated virtues of the self-righteous are an abomination to 
 the Lord. 
 
 From what has been said, we may learn the indispen- 
 sable necessity of holiness, or good works, in Church- 
 members. God is looking for holiness, or a regard to all 
 his ordinances and commandments, as the fruit of all that 
 he does for them, and works in them. Gospel hearers ! — 
 take heed lest he have nothing to say of you at last, but 
 that, when he looked that you should have brought forth 
 grapes, he found that you had brought forth wild grapes. 
 Remember that the Husbandman is taking away such as, 
 
OF SAVING FAITH. 129 
 
 being- in Christ by profession only, bear no fruit. Let 
 the case of the barren branches, which are to be cast into 
 the tire and burned, stir you up to seek union and fellow- 
 ship with the Son of God, " that ye may be filled with 
 the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to 
 the glory and praise of God." 
 
THE 
 
 ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 OPENED AND APPLIED. 
 
 ERRATUM. 
 
 Page oS, line ll,/"- any communication, read^xsy such com- 
 munication. 
 
 " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood 
 of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through 
 the vail, that is to say, his flesh ; and having an high priest over the house of 
 God : let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith," &c. — 
 Heb. X. 19-22. 
 
THE 
 
 ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 OPENED AND APPLIED. 
 
 BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF SEVERAL DISCOURSES ON 
 HEBREWS X. 22. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. EBENEZER ERSKINE, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT STIRLING. 
 
 " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the hoHest by the blood 
 of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through 
 the vail, that is to say, his flesh ; and having an high priest over the house of 
 God : let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith," &c. — 
 Heb. X. 19-22. 
 
THE 
 
 ASSUEANCE OF FAITH, kc 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CONTAINING AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MAIN PURPOSE, 
 WITH THE METHOD OF THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE. 
 
 These verses contain the apostle's transition from the 
 doctrinal to the practical part of the epistle. Having at 
 great length discoursed upon the priestly office of Christ 
 in the foregoing part of the epistle, he sums up, in a few 
 words, the ^cope and substance of all he had been saying, 
 ver. 19-21, and then deduces a very natural inference 
 from the whole : " Let us draw near with a true heart in 
 full assurance of faith," ver. 22. Like a wise builder, 
 he first digs till he come to the foundation, and then calls 
 himself and others to build upon it with confidence. 
 
 That we may have the more distinct view of the words, 
 it is expedient that we observe in general, the apostle 
 here very elegantly expresses New Testament privileges, 
 in an Old Testament style and dialect. The highest 
 privilege of fallen man is to have access into the presence 
 of God, his offended Lord and Sovereign : the only way 
 of access is Christ, of whom the temple of Solomon was 
 an illustrious type. And with allusion unto that typical 
 temple, Christ is presented to our faith under a threefold 
 view, ver. 19-21. 
 
4 THE ASSURA^X•E OF FAITH 
 
 I.Asa gate or door, by which we may enter into the 
 holiest, and that with boldness, by virtue of his atoning 
 blood, ver. 19. Under the Mosaic dispensation, Aaron 
 alone, and not the Israelites, could enter into the holi/ of 
 holies, and that but once a-year, with the blood of beasts 
 sacrificed for himself and them. But now, under the 
 New Testament, through the death and satisfaction of 
 the Son of God, the way of access to friendship and fel- 
 lowship with a holy God, both here and hereafter, is 
 made open and patent to every sinner, who by faith comes 
 in under the covert of the blood of Jesus. No sooner 
 had Adam sinned, but the door of access to the majesty 
 of God was bolted against him, and all his posterity ; the 
 cherubim with the flaming sword stood in his way. But 
 now the flaming sword of justice being quenched in the 
 blood of the Surety, the door of access is again wide 
 opened. I remember, the woman of Tekoah, 2 Sam. xiv. 
 14, in her parabolical address unto David, on Absalom's 
 behalf, makes use of this argument with David, to per- 
 suade him to bring home his exile son : — " God," says she, 
 "doth devise means, that his banished be not expelled from 
 him." This is remarkably true in the case in hand : 
 God, in his infinite wisdom, has devised a way how his 
 banished may be brought home again to his? presence ; 
 and that is, through the blood and satisfaction of Christ. 
 — John X. 9, and xiv. 6. 
 
 2. To encourage us in our approaches to God through 
 Christ, he is presented to us under the notion of •' a new 
 and living way, consecrated for us, through the vail, that 
 is to say, his flesh," ver. 20. The inner vail, that sepa- 
 rated between the holy place, and the hohestof all, in the 
 temple of Jerusalem, was a type of that body of flesh 
 assumed by the Son of God, whereby his Deity was 
 vailed ; and through the breaking or rending of this by 
 his death on the cross, the way to God and glory becomes 
 open and patent. And this is called a new way, either 
 in opposition to Adam's way by a covenant of works, 
 which is shut up ever since the fall of man ; or because 
 it never waxes old, but is ever fresh, green, and fragrant 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. fi 
 
 unto the believing- soul. And it is called a living ivay^ 
 because, though Christ was once dead, yet now he is 
 alive, and lives for evermore, to give life to every soul 
 that comes to God through him. And then, he is a way 
 consecrated for usy he is dedicated for the use of sinners 
 in their dealings with God : " For their sakes," says he, "do 
 I sanctify myself." And O, what can be more encourag- 
 ing- to a lost sinner, to make use of Christ by faith, than 
 to know that he is just devoted for this work of saving 
 that which was losi ! 
 
 3. Whereas the sinner might object, That though the 
 door be opened, and the new and living- way consecrated ; 
 yet he is either so ignorant, that he knows not this way ; 
 or so impotent, that he cannot walk in it ; or so guilty, 
 that he dares not venture to go into the holiest : there- 
 fore, to obviate all these, Christ is presented to us as " a 
 great High Priest over the house of God," ver. 21. O 
 what noble encouragement is here for believing! Christ, 
 as a High Priest, " is ordained for men in things pertain- 
 ing to God." — Heb. v. 1, And seeing he is ordained for 
 men, may not men make use of his mediation with con- 
 fidence and boldness? — Heb. iv. 14, 16. And then, by 
 his office, he is obliged to execute the duties of his office 
 toward every soul that employs him therein : he is obliged, 
 as a High Priest, to instruct the ignorant, to strengthen 
 the weaiv, to confirm the feeble, and " to make reconci- 
 liation for the sins of the people." And therefore let us 
 take courage to employ and improve him, especially con- 
 sidering that he is both " a merciful and faithful High 
 Priest," — Heb. ii. 17 ; and also a High Priest who is 
 " over the house of God," i. e., he has full power and 
 authority from his eternal Father to negotiate our affairs, 
 and to render both our persons and performances accept- 
 able unto him. In a word, the whole management of the 
 offspring and issue, and of all the vessels of cups and 
 jiagons, is committed to him ; yea, " all the glory of his 
 Father's house hangs upon him, as upon a nail fastened 
 in a sure place." — Isa. xxii. 24. And therefore, " seeing 
 we have a High Priest (of such authority and interest), 
 
I> THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 let US come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may 
 obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." — 
 Heb, iv. 14-16. Whenever we have any business with 
 God, whenever we would enter into the secret of his pre- 
 sence, or enjoy fellowship with him, let us go in at the 
 back of our great High Priest, who has led the way be- 
 fore us, and is appearing in the presence of God for us. 
 
 Now, 1 say, the apostle having thus presented Christ 
 under the most encouraging views, as the object of our 
 faith, trust, and confidence in our dealings with the 
 majesty of God, he proceeds to recommend and inculcate 
 a correspondent duty in the words of my text : " Let us 
 draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, 
 having our hearts sprinkled," &c., ver. 22. 
 
 Before we proceed to the more particular consideration 
 of the words, it is very much worthy of our notice, to ob- 
 serve the apostle's order and method of doctrine, and how 
 he knits the believer's privilege and duty together. He 
 would have the privilege first believed, and then the duty 
 performed ; he would have us first believe that " the 
 door of the holiest is opened by the blood of Jesus," that 
 there is " a new and living way consecrated for us," that 
 " we have a High Priest over the house of God," ready 
 to introduce us into his presence ; and upon these grounds 
 of faith, he presses and inculcates the duty, " Let us 
 draw near," &c. It is pleasant hence to observe, how the 
 method and order of the covenant of works is just in- 
 verted in the covenant of grace. In the covenant of 
 works, duty was the foundation of our privilege ; man 
 was first to perform duty, and upon his doing of that, 
 might expect the privilege in a way of pactional debt. 
 But now, I say, the very reverse of this is God's order 
 and method in the covenant of grace ; for here we are 
 first to believe the privilege, or to receive it as a grant 
 of sovereign grace, and upon that ground we are to go 
 on to duty. This is a thing that needs to be adverted 
 to with the utmost attention, in regard the very bensil of 
 nature runs in the way of the covenant of works, namely, 
 to expect the privilege on the force of duty, and to fancy 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 7 
 
 that God is a debtor to us, when we have done this and 
 the other duty required in the law : whereas the stream 
 of nature runs quite cross to the order and method laid 
 in the covenant of grace, namely, first to receive the pri- 
 vilege in a way of grace, like beggars receiving God's 
 alms ; and then to perform duty, as a testimony of grati- 
 tude for the privilege received, without expecting any 
 thing from the Lord upon the account of duty done by 
 us« This is what proud nature spurns against with the 
 utmost reluctancy. What ! To take all freely, " without 
 money, and without price," and to reckon ourselves un- 
 profitable servants when we have done alL, is what de- 
 praved nature cannot yield to, till the heart be new 
 moulded by sovereign and eflScacious grace. " Will the 
 Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten 
 thousands of rivers of oil?" &c. " Wherefore have we 
 fasted and prayed, and thou takest no knowledge?" is 
 expressive of our natural way of thinking. But though 
 this way lie cross unto nature, yet this is the way in which 
 God will have sinners saved, or else they shall never 
 share of his salvation : he will have them to receive 
 eternal life begun here, and consummate hereafter, as "the 
 gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord," without 
 regard to any of our doings as a foundation of our claim 
 or title thereunto. Boasting must be for ever excluded, 
 that the glory of our salvation may redound allenarly unto 
 grace, which " reigns through imputed righteousness unto 
 eteriTal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." And therefore, 
 I say, study to rivet upon your minds the order and 
 method laid by God in the covenant of grace, where pri- 
 vilege received by faith is made the foundation of duty, 
 and not duty the foundation of our claim to the privilege. 
 This is the scheme or order laid in our Lesser Catechism, 
 by the Westminster Assembly ; where, in answer to the 
 3d question, we are told, that " the Scriptures principally 
 teach, first, what man is to believe concerning God," and 
 then, " what duty God requires of man." And, accord- 
 ing to this order, we have, first, the objects of faith, and 
 privileges of believers, explained ; and then, the duties of 
 
8 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITfl 
 
 the moral law inculcate upon that ground. And if this 
 order of doctrine be inverted, we destroy the covenant of 
 grace, and return to a covenant of works. So much for 
 the connection. 
 
 I proceed to the words themselves. Where we may 
 notice, 1. The grand duty the apostle urges upon the 
 foregoing grounds, " Let us draw near." 2. He gives 
 particular directions how we are to manage in our ap- 
 proaches unto God, through the new and living way, viz., 
 " With a true heart, in full assurance of faith," &c. 
 
 As for the first, viz., the general duty that is pressed, 
 " Let us draw near." The apostle does not tell us ex^ 
 pressly, whither, or to whom, we are to draw near ; 
 but it is plain from the whole drift of the text and con- 
 text, that he invites us to draw near to God ; not to God 
 absolutely considered, for thus he is inaccessible by guilty 
 sinners; but to "God in Christ, reconcihng the world 
 unto himself." This is that " throne of grace" to which 
 he had invited us to " come with boldness, that we may 
 obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need," 
 chap. iv. 16. The Greek word is the very same both 
 there and here. 
 
 It is considerable, in the manner of the apostle's ex- 
 hortation, that, when he is calling others to draw near, 
 he comprehends himself ; it is not, " Do ye draw near," 
 but, " Let us draw near." Ministers of the Gospel, when 
 dispensing the truths of God, must preach home to their 
 own souls, as well as unto others. Sirs, we do not de- 
 liver truths or doctrines to you, wherein we ourselves 
 have no manner of concern ; no, our own souls are at the 
 stake, and shall either perish or be saved eternally, as we 
 receive or reject these precious truths which we deliver 
 unto you. And truly, it can never be expected that we 
 will apply the truths of God with any warmth or liveli- 
 ness unto others, unless we first make a warm application 
 thereof to our own souls ; and if we do not feed upon 
 these doctrines, and practise these duties, which we de- 
 liver to and inculcate upon you, though we preach unto 
 others, we ourselves are but cast-awavs. 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. V 
 
 The exhortation, '• Draw near," supposes our natural 
 distance and estrang-ement from God : '• All we like 
 sheep have gone astray," says the prophet Isaiah, chap, 
 liii. b'. When Christ would describe our apostate and 
 lapsed state, he doth it under the notion of a " prodigal 
 going into a far country." — Luke xv. There are three 
 things we all lost and forfeited in the first Adam, viz., 
 the image of God, the favour of God, and fellowship 
 2vith God ; yea, so much have we lost them, that the 
 apostle plainly tells us, that we are " alienated from the 
 very life of God" in our natural state. This God inti- 
 mated unto Adam immediately after the fall, in that ques- 
 tion he propounded to him, when hiding himself from his 
 presence among the thickets of Paradise, " Adam, where 
 art thou?'-' — Gen. iii. 9. Non es uhi prius eras, as 
 Austin, one of the ancient fathers, glosseth it : " Thou 
 art not where thou wast before." What is become of 
 the late friendship and fellowship that was betwixt me 
 and thee ? Of a son of God, thou art become a child of 
 the devil ; of an ally of heaven, turned a confederate of 
 hell. Thus the breach and rupture is wide like the sea. 
 Can ever parties betwixt whom there is such a natural 
 and moral distance be brought together again ? Yes ; 
 the apostle's exhortation to draiv near plainly bears, that 
 the oifended and affronted Majesty of heaven is accessible 
 " by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way." 
 It was the great plot of heaven from eternity, to bring 
 fallen man back again into fellowship with his Maker. 
 Infinite wisdom, animated by infinite bowels of mercy, 
 has found the way, and the way is Christ — John xiv. 6. 
 The main intent of his incarnation, and of the whole of 
 his mediatory work, was to " bring us to God." — 1 Pet. 
 iii. 18. To bring- strangers and enemies to jimity and 
 unity, is a great and mighty work ; yet this work he ac- 
 complishes and brings about by the ransom he has paid 
 for us, and by the operation of his Spirit in us. 
 
 This drawing near to God does not consist in any 
 approach unto the essence of God ; for, essentially con- 
 sidered, " he is not far from every one of us : in him we 
 
J THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 live, and move, and have our being." Neither does it lie 
 in an external or bodilv attendance upon him in the duties 
 of his worship, " Bodily exercise profitetli little:" many 
 draw near to God with their mouths and lips, while their 
 hearts are far removed from him. Neither does it con- 
 sist in a moral seriousness ; though, alas ! it is much to 
 bring some people even that length. People may be 
 morally serious about eternal concerns, in a legal way, 
 like the Pharisee, who came to Christ, saying, " Good 
 Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Yea, 
 Heathens, and Mahometans, and Jews, may be morally 
 serious in their own way, but they cannot be said to draw 
 nigh to God. What is it then, say you, to draw near to 
 Gad ? I answer, It is an act of the heart or mind, 
 whereby the soul, under the influence of the Spirit, 
 sweetly and irresistibly returns to a God in Christ as its 
 only centre of rest. Tiie poor soul having tried Adam's 
 way of access, and finding that door bolted by the law, 
 justice, and holiness of God, despairs of ever entering 
 thereby. At length the man, when he has wearied him- 
 self in the greatness of his wav, finding the door of the 
 holiest opened by the blood of Jesus, the new and living 
 way being discovered to him in the light of the Word and 
 Spirit, he cries out at the sight of it, " O ! this is the 
 gate of God," by this door will I enter into his presence ; 
 yea, " this is my rest, here will I dwell, for I desire and 
 like it well." O what a sweet acquiescence of soul is 
 there in God's device of salvation through Christ ! The 
 man cannot but applaud and approve of it, as a device 
 every way worthy of infinite wisdom, crying out with the 
 apostle, " O ! it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
 acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
 sinners." This ordinarily is the soul's exercise, both in 
 its first and after approaches unto God, in any duty of 
 worship. There is a constant improvement of the merit 
 and mediation of Christ in every address the man makes 
 to the Majesty of heaven ; he, as it were, fixes himself 
 in the clefts of the Rock of ages ; he gets into the secret 
 places of that blessed stair by which we ascend unto 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 11 
 
 heaven ; and then he shows his countenance, and lifts up 
 his voice, in drawing- near to God, by the new and living 
 way. We, as it were, take up the propitiation which 
 God has set forth, in the hand of faith hold it up to God, 
 saying-, " Behold the blood of the covenant ; behold, O 
 God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine Anointed^. 
 We go quite out of ourselves, when we draw near to the 
 holiest by the blood of Jesus ; we overlook our own^ 
 duties, graces, frames, attainments, grounding our hope^ 
 of access and success only upon the merit and raoyen of 
 our great High Priest, God having " made us accepted in 
 the Beloved." And, in this view of things, the soul will 
 readily express itself, as David did in the like case, say- 
 ing, " I will go unto the altar of God, unto God my 
 exceeding joy." And if God hide his face, the soul will 
 wait, and bode good at his hand, saying, " Hope in God, 
 for I shall yet praise him : He will command his loving- 
 kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall 
 be with me." And if the Lord smile, and grant an an- 
 swer of peace, he will not ascribe his success to his own 
 faith, frame, fervency, but unto Christ alone, saying, 
 " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name 
 be the glory." Thus much for the main duty of draw- 
 ing near. 
 
 The apostle next proceeds to direct as to the manner 
 of our approach. And, 
 
 Firsts he directs us to draw near " with a true heart " 
 This is a word fitly spoken. If he had required us to 
 draw near with a heart perfectly clean and pure, he might 
 as well have bidden us fly without wings ; but he bids us 
 draw near with a true hearty i. ^., with a heart truly 
 concerned about acceptance with God, a heart truly 
 approving of and acquiescing in the new and living way. 
 In short, a true heart here is opposed to a double, doubt- 
 ing, distrusting, and hypocritical heart. All dissimula- 
 tion is to be avoided in our dealings with him, who 
 " trieth the hearts and reins, and whose eyes are as 
 a tiame of fire, searching Jerusalem as with candles." 
 " Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts," — Psal. 
 
I 2 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 li. 6 ; whereas the hypocrite, who draws near with his 
 mouth, and honours God with his Hps, while his heart is 
 far removed from him, shall not stand in his presence. 
 Take care, then, that your hearts be honestly minded 
 toward God when you draw nigh to him. But I pass 
 this also, and go on to that which I have principally in 
 view, viz.. 
 
 The second direction or advice the apostle gives, in 
 order to our successful approach unto God by the new 
 and living- way, and that is, to draw near in ruJLL as- 
 surance OF FAITH. The original word signifies to be 
 fuUi/ persuaded^ or assured of a thing ; and is opposed 
 to tcavering, doubting^ and imcertainty. The apostle 
 having laid a firm foundation of access in the preceding 
 verses, he bids us trust to it, and rest upon it, with an 
 unshaken confidence, and certain persuasion of success. 
 What farther is necessary by way of explication, will 
 occur in the prosecution of the following doctrine. 
 
 DocT. " It is the will of God, that they who approach 
 to him in Christ, should draw near in full assurance of 
 faith, or with a certain persuasion, and confident expecta- 
 tion of success and acceptance." 
 
 The foundation of this doctrine is obvious. It is plain 
 the apostle here is not speaking of that assurance of grace 
 and salvation which follows upon believing, and is the 
 result of the soul's reflection upon the operations of the 
 Holy Spirit within ; but of an assurance lying in the 
 very direct act of faith ; for the apostle's scope here is 
 not to give the marks and evidences, but to present the 
 object of faith, viz., Christ, as the door and waij to the 
 holiest, and as a High Priest ready to introduce us ; and 
 thereupon exhorts to a correspondent act of believing, in 
 drawing near to God, namely, " with full assurance of 
 faith." 
 
 In discoursing this doctrine, I shall, through divine 
 assistance, endeavour to speak, 
 
 I. Of faith in general, 
 
 II. Of the assurance of faith. 
 
 III. Of the full assurance of faith. 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 13 
 
 IV. Of the grounds that faith builds its assurance 
 upon, in drawing near to God. 
 
 V. Apply the whole. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF FAITH IN GENERAL. 
 
 Befoue I go on to discourse these heads, I shall only 
 premise, that the practical and experimental understand- 
 ing of this subject is a matter of the highest importance 
 and concern, in regard, as the apostle tells us expressly, 
 " Without faith it is impossible to please God." — Heb. 
 xi. 6. Without some degree of faith we can never make 
 a successful approach unto a throne of grace. What 
 was said of the Israelites with relation to the earthly 
 Canaan, that " they could not enter in because of unbe- 
 lief," the same may be said of the greatest part of pro- 
 fessors under the Gospel, they cannot enter into the 
 holiest of fellowship with God here, or of immediate en- 
 joyment hereafter, because of unbelief . And therefore, 
 I say, the right understanding and uptaking of this sub- 
 ject must be of the greatest concern to them, who have 
 any concern anent their acceptance with God. This pre- 
 mised, I proceed to, — 
 
 I. The first thing proposed in the method, which was, 
 to discourse a little of faith in general. I shall not stand 
 upon the different kinds of faith that are commonly men- 
 tioned, such as, a historical^ miraculous^ and temporary 
 faith, which may be found in reprobates and temporary 
 believers : our inquiry at present is particularly anent the 
 faith of GocVs elect^ which is well described in our 
 Shorter Catechism thus : 
 
 " Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we 
 receive and rest upon him alone, for salvation, as he is 
 offered to us in the Gospel." 
 
14 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 For clearing- of which description, I offer the (ew fol- 
 lowing- considerations : — 
 
 1. That faith is a saving grace. And it is so de- 
 signed, because it is the free gift of God, Eph. ii. 8. It 
 is not the product of free will ; such a flower never 
 sprung out of the soil of depraved nature ; no, it is one 
 of the prime operations of the Spirit, in effectual calling-, 
 upon the souls of God's elect. It is not bestowed upon 
 any upon the account of good dispositions or qualifica- 
 tions antecedent to itself ; faith is the first grace, or the 
 first act of spiritual life, and, as it were, the parent of the 
 other graces, because it roots and graifs the soul in Christ, 
 of whom alone our fruit is found. Before the implanta- 
 tion of faith, nothing- but atheism, enmity, ignorance, 
 and unbelief, overspreads the face of the soul, " being- 
 alienated from the very life of God, through the ignorance 
 that is in us." And therefore, faith must needs be a 
 grace^ oy free gift of God^ bestowed without any ante- 
 cedent merit, good disposition, or qualification in us. 
 Faith is a saving grace ; because, wherever true faith is, 
 there salvation is already begun, and shall certainly be 
 consummate in due time. There is an inseparable con- 
 nection stated, by the ordination of heaven, between faith 
 and salvation : " God so loved the world, that he g-ave 
 his only beg-otten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
 should not perish but have everlasting life." — John iii. 16. 
 " He that beheveth shall be saved." — Mark xvi. 16. 
 When we preach the everlasting Gospel, making offer of 
 Christ and his salvation unto every creature, we are at 
 the same time to declare, that whosoever he be that gives 
 faith's entertainment unto this Gospel of the grace of 
 God, shall be saved. So that this promise, establishing- 
 the connection between faith and salvation, is as exten- 
 sive as the offer of the Gospel, and is not made to be- 
 lievers exclusively of others. It is certainly true of every 
 son of Adam, lying within the joyful sound of a Saviour, 
 that if he believe, he shall be saved. And this we are 
 allowed to declare in the name of God, as an encourage- 
 ment to every sinner to receive and entertain our messag-e. 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. lb 
 
 2. I remark from this description of faith, that it hath 
 Christ for its main and principal object ; for it is a faith 
 in Jesus Christ. There is such a sibness betwixt Christ 
 and faith, that they cannot be separate. Take away^ 
 Christ from faith, then faith is but a cypher, arid stands \ 
 for nothing ; nothing-~can fill the eye or hand of faith^ — 
 but Christ only. ^Christ is the bread of life, faith is the 
 mouth of the soul that eats and feeds upon him : Christ 
 
 is the mystical hrozen serpent, faith the eye of the soul 
 that looks to him for healing : Christ is the stronghold 
 cast open to the prisoners of hope, faith the foot of the 
 soul that runs in to him for shelter : Christ is our living 
 altar, his satisfaction and intercession like the two horns 
 of the altar, and faith fees in thither for safety from the 
 law and justice of God, which pursue the sinner for his 
 life : Christ is the bridegroom, and faith, like the bride, 
 takes him by the hand, saying, "Even so I take him." 
 In a word, faith slights and overlooks every thing else to 
 be at Christ, saying with David, " Whom have I in 
 heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I 
 desire besides thee," — Psal. Ixxiii. 25 ; and with Paul, 
 " I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him 
 crucified. Yea doubtless, I count all things but loss, for 
 the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my 
 Lord." 
 
 3. I remark, that faith is here described to be a re- 
 ceiving of Christ, according to what we have, John i. 12 : 
 " But as many as received him, to them gave he power 
 to become the sons of God," &c. For understanding 
 this, you would know, that Christ, the ever-blessed object 
 of faith, is presented to us in the Gospel under a great 
 many different views and aspects, in a correspondence 
 unto which faith receives its denomination. For instance, 
 is Christ presented under the notion of meat to the 
 hungry soul ? then faith is expressed by eating. Is Christ 
 held out under the notion of living waters ? then faith 
 is called a drinking. Is he held out as a refuge 9 then 
 faith is called Ql feeing to him. — Heb. vi. 1 8. Is he held 
 out as a garment to the naked ? then faith is a putting 
 
16 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 him on for clothing-. Thus, I say, according to the 
 aspect in which Christ is presented, faith receives its 
 name ; as the sea receives its names according- to the 
 different countries or shores it vv'ashes. Just so here, 
 when Christ is presented under the notion of a gift, then 
 faith is called a receiving him ; for giving and receiving 
 are correlates, as you see, John iii. 27 : "A man can 
 receive (or as in the margin, take unto himself) nothing, 
 except it be given him from heaven/'* Receiving or 
 taking of a thing is but stealth or robbery, where it is 
 not warranted by an antecedent giving or granting ; so 
 our receiving Christ would be but presumption, and a 
 vitious intromission, if he were not given of God to be 
 received. And this giving of Christ in the revelation 
 and offer of the Gospel, is common to all, and warrants 
 all to receive him. Says Christ unto a promiscuous mul- 
 titude, the far greater part of v/hom were unbelievers, as 
 is evident from Christ's character of them, " My P'ather," 
 says he, " giveth you the true bread from heaven," mean- 
 ing himself. — John vi. 32. We read, Psal. cxv. 16, that 
 " God hath given the earth to the sons of men," i. e., he 
 made a grant of it unto them, to be used and possessed 
 by them ; and by virtue of this deed of gift or grant, 
 before the earth came to be fully peopled, or stocked with 
 inhabitants, it was lawful for a man to take possession of 
 it, and use it as his own. Just so here, — " God hath so 
 loved the world" of lost mankind, " that he hath given his 
 only begotten Son, that w^hosoever" of lost mankind " be- 
 lieveth in him," or receiveth him, " should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life." — John iii. 16. This will not infer 
 an universal redemption ; for I do not now speak of the 
 purchase or application of redemption, which, without all 
 doubt, is peculiar to the elect ; but of that giving of 
 Christ in the Word, which warrants our receiving of him. 
 And this, past all peradventure, is common to the whole 
 visible Church, yea, to all to whom the revelation of 
 Christ comes ; for if there were not such a giving of 
 
 * "• When Christ is received by us, he must he tendered, given, granted, 
 or communicated unto us." — 0?re?i on the Glory of Christ, p. 123, 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 17 
 
 Christ as warrants all to receive him, the unbeheving 
 world could not in justice be condemned for rejecting' 
 him. O, then, " let Mount Zion rejoice," and " let the 
 daughters of Judah (I mean the visible Church) be glad," 
 and receive it as " a faithful saying, and worthy of all accep- 
 tation," that " unto us a child is born, unto^us a son is 
 given, whose name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, The 
 Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, the Prince of 
 Peace;" for these are "good tidings of great joy to all 
 people." — Isa. ix. 6 ; Luke ii. 10. Receive this Saviour 
 who is given to you ; and receive him with gratitude and 
 praise, warbling out that doxology with heart and lip, 
 " Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." And 
 if you do not, remember I tell you, you will follow after 
 lying vanities, and slight your own mercy. 
 
 4. Upon this description of faith, I remark, that faith 
 is called not only a receiving, but a i^esting upon Christ : 
 " Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him." — Psal. 
 xxxvii. 7. We are not, in my opinion, to think, that 
 receiving is one act of faith, and resting another act of it ; 
 they are only different expressions of the same apphca- 
 tory, justifying, faith, or (as some will have it) the rest 
 of faith is a continuation of the reception. There are a 
 great many denominations of faith, of the same divine 
 authority with these two mentioned in the answer of the 
 Catechism, such as eating, drinking, fleeing, entering, 
 coming, trusting, &c. Bat these are not different acts, 
 but only different expressions of the saving act of faith, 
 making use of, or applying Christ in a suitableness unto 
 the view wherein he is presented in the Word of God. 
 Now, as to this expression of ^^esting, it leads us to con- 
 ceive of Christ as a rock, or a strong foundation, upon 
 which we may, and still ought to lay the weight of our 
 everlasting concerns, with the greatest confidence. When 
 we lay our weight )jpon a rock, we are not afraid that the 
 rock sink or fail underneath us ; so, in believing, the 
 poor, weary, burdened soul, finding itself unable to stand 
 upon its own legs, leans and rests upon this Rock of 
 ages, being confident that this Rock will not fail. Or 
 
 K 
 
1« THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 the expression of resting may allude unto a man's rest- 
 ing upon a charter for an estate, a bond or bill for a sum 
 of money ; he rests upon it as g-ood and suflScient secu- 
 rity ; so the soul, in believing-, rests upon the fidelity and 
 veracity of a God in Christ, pawned in the covenant of 
 g-race, and promises thereof. He looks upon the fulness 
 of g-race and truth, of merit and spirit treasured up in 
 Christ, as they are laid out in the word of faith, saying-, 
 with David, " This is all my salvation, and all my de- 
 sire." On which account, faith, Heb. xi. 1, is called 
 " the substance of things hoped for ;" because it rejoices 
 in the promise, as though it had the thing promised. 
 This resting is equivalent unto trusting, as is evident 
 from all these Scriptures cited in the Catechism upon 
 this head. I shall notice farther, before I leave this point, 
 that both these expressions of receiving and resting, 
 whereby faith is here described, do, in the very nature of 
 the thing intended, carry an application and appropria- 
 tion in them ; for when I receive a gift, I take it as my 
 own property ; and when I rest upon a charter or bond, 
 I rest on it as my security ; and if this be not allowed, 
 the relieving and supporting nature of faith is in a great 
 measure lost; without it we could never be " filled with 
 joy and peace in believing." I shall only add, that both 
 these expressions, pointing out the nature of faith, do so 
 describe it, as to put it out of the rank or category of 
 works ; for when a poor man receives his alms, or when 
 a weary man rests him, he cannot in any propriety of 
 speech be said to work. God will have man saved, under 
 the new covenant, by such a mean instrument, that so 
 works and boasting may be for ever excluded, and grace 
 alone for ever exalted. 
 
 5. I remark, that faith receives Christ, and rests upon 
 him alone. The poor soul, before the saving revelation 
 of Christ, was grasping at empty shadows, trusting in 
 lying refuges ; and, like the men of the old world, when 
 the waters of the deluge were upon the increase, was 
 running to this and the other mountain, where he might 
 be safe from the swelling deluge of God's wrath ; but 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 19 
 
 finding the waters to overflow hiding places, he quits 
 them, and flees to the Rock of ages, saying, " In vain is 
 salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multi- 
 tude of mountains : in the Lord only is the salvation of 
 his people. There is none other name under heaven 
 given among men whereby to be saved, but the name of 
 Jesus." Every man by nature being married to the law 
 in Adam, is attempting to cHmb up to heaven upon the 
 broken ladder of the covenant of works, and to pass the 
 deluge of God's wrath by the fallen bridge of the law. 
 But as sure as the Lord lives, your attempts this way will 
 fail you ; for " by the works of the law no flesh living 
 shall be justified." God has established a bridge of com- 
 munication between heaven and earth, by the obedience, 
 death, and intercession of his eternal Son ; and every 
 other passage to heaven but this, is stopped by the justice 
 and holiness of God. John xiv. 6, says Christ there, 
 " I am the way, and the truth, and the life : no man 
 cometh unto the Father but by me." 
 
 6. Faith receives Christ, and rests upon him alone ybr 
 salvation. This points at the end the sinner has before 
 him, in his first closing with Christ ; he flees unto him 
 for salvation : " We believe that, through the grace of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved." — Acts xv, IL 
 By salvation here, we are not simply to understand an 
 eternity of happiness in the enjoyment of God after time, 
 but a salvation begun in this present life, — salvation from 
 the beginning of it in regeneration, till it be consummate 
 in glory. The soul, in believing, rests upon Christ for 
 pardon, which is salvation from the guilt of sin, and con- 
 demnatory sentence of the law : it rests on him for sanc- 
 tification, which is a salvation from the filth and power 
 of sin ; for glorification, which is a salvation from the 
 very inbeing of sin. Alas ! the greatest part of the visible 
 Church have no other notion of Christ, but only as a 
 Saviour to keep them out of hell, and to deliver them 
 from vindictive wrath. It is true, indeed, our Jesus saveth 
 from the wrath that is to come ; but how does he that ? 
 He does it by saving from sin, in the first place. " His 
 
20 THE ASSURANCE OF PAITH 
 
 name," saith the angel, " shall be called Jesus ; for he 
 shall save his people from their sins." His first and great 
 business was, to condemn sin, that arch-traitor, and first- 
 born of the devil, — Rom. viii. 3 ; "to finish transgression, 
 and make an end of sin." And therefore it is a salvation 
 from sin, in the guilt, and filth, and power of it, for which 
 faith receives Christ, and rests upon him. 
 
 7. I remark, that faith receives and rests upon Christ 
 " as he is oflfered to us in the Gospel." This qffh' of 
 Christ, though it be last named in this description of faith, 
 yet it is the first thing, in the order of nature, that faith 
 believes ; for unless one beheve that Christ is offered to 
 him in particular, as the gift of God, and as a foundation 
 of hope and help, he will never receive him, or rest on 
 him for salvation. This is a believing in order to be- 
 lieving, — a believing that Christ, and salvation in him, is 
 really offered, in order to his being accepted and received : 
 and therefore be verily persuaded that Christ is yours in 
 the offey^, and " that God hath given to you eternal life in 
 his Son ; for this is the record of God." — 1 John v. 11 . 
 And unless you believe this, you "make God a liar, be- 
 cause you believe not the record that God hath given of 
 his Son." — Ver. 10. O Sirs, beheve it, that "unto you 
 a child is born, unto you a son is given, whose name is 
 called Wonderful," &c. ; and that God hath given him to 
 a lost world, in the Gospel offer and revelation, " that 
 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life." — John iii. 16. 
 
 Next, you may observe, that it is in the Gospel that 
 this offer is made, and this gift of God is presented unto 
 you. What is the Gospel, but a word of grace, a word 
 of promise, a word of faith, a word of life and salvation ? 
 — and " to you is the word of this salvation sent." And 
 in this word, Christ and his everlasting righteousness, and 
 all-sufficient fulness, is brought near to you, in order to 
 your receiving and applying him to your own souls by 
 faith. You need not climb up to heaven, or dig into hell, 
 in quest of a Saviour ; for " the word is nigh thee " (and 
 Christ in the Word), " even the word of faith which we 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 21 
 
 preach." — Rom. x. 6-9. As a sum of money is brought 
 nigh to a man in a bond that is offered him, so is Christ 
 brought nigh in the word of promise unto us : " The 
 
 promise is unto you," &c Acts ii. 39. And without 
 
 this word of grace and promise, believing were a thing 
 impossible, in regard faith could never fasten on Christ, 
 or on God in him, without this word of faith. If I should 
 bid you believe that such a man will give you a sum of 
 money, you would think me ridiculous, unless he had 
 given his word that he would do it ; your faith or trust 
 could not fasten upon him, without his word or writ as 
 the immediate ground thereof: so here, our faith, trust, 
 or confidence, could never find a foundation without God's 
 word of grace and promise ; and in receiving his word, 
 you receive himself, and all the treasures of his grace laid 
 up in Christ, and laid out to your hand in the word. 
 
 Next, it is considerable in this branch of the descrip- 
 tion, that faith's reception and application of Christ must 
 be regulated by, and bear a proportion unto, the oifer that 
 is made of him in the Gospel ; for here we are told that 
 faith is a receiving and resting upon him as he is offered, 
 &c. This qualifies our reception of Christ, and distin- 
 guishes the faith of true believers from that of hypocrites 
 and formalists ; and therefore, notice this as a thing of the 
 last moment and consequence, whether your faith comes 
 up to the offer, and corresponds thereunto. I shall illus- 
 trate this in the four following particulars : — 
 
 1^^, Christ \^ freely offered in the Gospel: "Ho! every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; and he that 
 hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy 
 wine and milk without money and without price." — Isa. 
 Iv. 1. " Whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
 freely." — Rev. xxii. 17. So faith receives and embraces 
 him as ih^ free gift of God. Beware of thinking to buy 
 the pearl with the money and price of your works, duties, 
 and good qualifications ; as if by these you were fitted for 
 receiving Christ, or as if God made you the more wel- 
 come, on the account of these, to receive his unspeakable 
 gift. No, no ; remember that, in the matter of believing. 
 
22 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 you are to shake your hands from holding of such bribes ; 
 for the pearl of great price cannot be bought in such a 
 way. It is true, believing is called a buying^ — Isa. Iv. 1 ; 
 Rev. iii. 18 ; but then, let it be remembered what sort of 
 a buying it is, — it is a buying without money and ivith- 
 out price. God's price in the market of the Gospel is 
 just nothing ; and yet this is so great a matter with man, 
 that the pride of his heart will not allow him to tell it 
 down. We cannot think of coming up, I should rather 
 say, cannot think of coming down, to God's price ; I mean, 
 of taking Christ, and salvation in him and through him, 
 for nothing. Many said to God, as Abram said to the 
 king of Sodom, " I will not take any thing that is thine, 
 from a thread even to a shoe latchet, lest thou shouldst 
 say, I have made Abram rich." — Gen. xiv. 23. Just so 
 does the proud self-righteous sinner upon the matter say 
 unto God. God comes in a Gospel dispensation, saying, — 
 " Come, sinners, I see you are wretched, miserable, poor, 
 blind, and naked ; you have nothing to give me as an 
 equivalent for life, righteousness, and salvation, and there- 
 fore I seek no money or price from you, but make a free 
 gift of my Son, and his whole fulness, for nothing : only 
 take him as my free gift, and he and all that comes along 
 with him is your own for ever." " No," says the pride 
 of the heart, " I am rich, and increased with goods, I 
 stand in need of nothing at God's hand. If God will give 
 me life upon the terms of the first covenant, as it was 
 granted to Adam ; or if (because I am already a sinner, 
 and incapable of yielding a perfect and sinless obedience) 
 God will lower the terms of the covenant of works, and 
 grant me an interest in Christ, and salvation for my act of 
 believing, or on the score of my honest aims and good 
 meanings, or sincere endeavours, I am well content." But 
 to take Christ and eternal life for nothing is what the 
 proud legal heart cannot stoop to. O what a cursed aver- 
 sion is there in the heart of man against his being a debtor 
 unto grace, and grace only ! To buy without money and 
 ivithout price is a mystery which the selfish heart of man 
 cannot comprehend. But, Sirs, faith is a grace that comes 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 23 
 
 to get, and not to give ; or if it give any thing, it is the 
 ills of the soul ; but nothing of good does it pretend to 
 give. The sinner, in believing, upon the matter says, — 
 " Lord, I give thee my folly ^ and take thee for my only 
 wisdom; I give thee ray guilt, that thou may be the 
 Lord my righteousness ; I give thee my defilements, and 
 take thee for sanctification ; I give thee my chains and 
 fetters^ that I may be indebted to thee for redemption 
 and liberty ; I give thee vay poverty^ and take thee for 
 my only riches ; I give thee my tvicked, luandering^ 
 hard, and deceitful heart, that thou mayst give me the 
 new heart and new spirit promised in thy covenant." — 
 Thus, I say, Christ is freely offered, and must he freely 
 received. 
 
 2dly, Christ is offered icholly, — an undivided Christ 
 is offered ; and thus, also, he must be received. There 
 are some who, in their professed and pretended way of 
 believing, do, as it were, halve and divide Christ. Some 
 do so far receive him as a Prophet, that they submit io. 
 the teaching of his Word, and thereby come to acquire 
 a great deal of speculative knowledge in the things of 
 God ; but, being unacquainted with the teaching of his 
 Spirit, they never come to the knowledge of the truth as 
 it is in Jesus. And hence it comes that they never flee 
 to him as a Propitiation, or submit unto his authority as 
 a King and a Lawgiver ; for the execution of the pro- 
 phetical office paves the way for his reception both as a 
 Priest and King. Some, again, professedly receive Christ 
 as a Priest, to save them from hell and the curse ; but, 
 by continuing in their ignorance under a Gospel revela- 
 tion, and walking according to the course of this world, 
 and not according to the laws of Christ, they do evidently 
 reject him, both as a Prophet and King. Others, again, 
 and I fear too many in our day, do professedly receive 
 Christ as a King and Lawgiver, to the prejudice of his 
 priestly office, while they imagine, by their obedience to 
 his law, particularly the new Gospel law of faith and re- 
 pentance (as some call it), to purchase a title to salvation ; 
 by which means they either totally exclude the righteous- 
 
24 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 ness of Christ, or mingle in their own acts of faith and 
 repentance with the righteousness of Christ, in the aiFair 
 of acceptance and justification before God ; in both which 
 cases " Christ can profit them nothing ; they are fallen 
 from grace," as the apostle expressly declares. Gal. v. 
 2, 4. Thus, I say, many pretended believers halve and 
 divide the offices of Christ. But " is Christ divided ? " No ; 
 a whole, an entire, an undivided Christ, must be received, 
 or no Christ at all ; there is nothing of Christ that a be- 
 lieving soul can want. It is true, indeed, the first flight of 
 a poor awakened soul, fleeing from the face of the law and 
 justice of God, is to Christ as a Priest ; because here, 
 and here only, it finds relief and shelter under the covert 
 of everlasting righteousness. But at the same moment 
 in which it receives him as a Priest for justification, it 
 submits unto his kingly authority, saying, as the men of 
 Israel did unto Gideon, " Rule thou over us ; for thou 
 hast delivered us out of the hands of our enemies." " O 
 Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion 
 over us ; but by thee only will we now make mention of 
 thy name." 
 
 3f%, Christ is offered particularly unto every one of 
 the hearers of the Gospel ; and accordingly, faith receives 
 him with particular application. The general call and 
 offer reaches every individual person ; and God speaks to 
 every sinner as particularly as though he named him by 
 his name and sirname. " Remission of sin is preached to 
 you ; we beseech you to be reconciled ; the promise is 
 unto 7/ow." And, for my part, I do not know what sort 
 of a Gospel men make who do not admit this. Now, I 
 say, faith, which is the echo of the Gospel off"er and call, 
 must needs receive an offered Christ and salvation, with 
 particular application to the soul itself. For a person to 
 rest in a general persuasion that Christ is offered to the 
 Church, or off'ered to the elect, or a persuasion of God's 
 ability and readiness to save all that come to Christ, is 
 still but a general faith, and what devils, reprobates, and 
 hypocrites may have. Man ! woman ! — Christ stands at 
 thy door ; thou in particular, even thou, art called and 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 25 
 
 commanded to believe in the name of the Son of God. 
 Here lies the great pinch and strait of believing. The 
 convinced and awakened soul, through the policy of Satan 
 and the workings of a deceitful heart, thrusts away the 
 word of grace and faith, as not pertaining unto it; till God, 
 by the power of his Spirit, irradiate the word and irra- 
 diate the mind of the sinner, letting the man see that to 
 him the word of this salvation is sent ; and then he be- 
 lieves with particular application, — not only good-will to 
 man upon earth, but good-will to me ; Christ is offered 
 to me, and therefore I take him for my own Saviour ; 
 the promise and covenant is directed unto me, and there- 
 fore I embrace it as my security. But perhaps more of 
 this under the second general head. 
 
 "^thly, God is hearty and in good earnest in his offers 
 of Christ and his salvation. O Sirs ! do not think that 
 a God of truth dissembles with you, when he makes offer 
 of his unspeakable gift ; or that he offers a thing to you 
 which he has no mind to give. He says, yea, he swears 
 with the greatest solemnity, by his very life, that he is in 
 good earnest, and has no pleasure in your death. And 
 after this, to think that he is not in earnest, what else is 
 it, but to charge a God of truth with lying and perjury ? 
 There cannot be a greater affront offered to a man of 
 common veracity. How criminal, then, must it be to 
 impute such a thing to Him, for whom it is impossible 
 to lie, and who hates all fraud and dissimulation in others 
 with a perfect hatred ! Thus, I say, God is in good ear- 
 nest in his offers of Christ ; so faith is hearty and in good 
 earnest in receiving and applying him. " With the heart 
 man believeth unto righteousness." God's whole heart 
 and his whole soul is in the offer and promise of the 
 Gospel, — Jer. xxxii. 41 ; and is it not reasonable that we 
 should give him a meeting, by believing with the whole 
 heart and soul ? It is not one faculty, but all the powers 
 of the soul do jointly concur in this business of believing ; 
 ■ though, indeed, to speak accurately, with the learned and 
 judicious Dr Owen, " Faith is in the understanding, in 
 respect of its being and subsistence ; in the will and heart. 
 
26 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 in respect of its effectual operation." This much shall 
 serve for the first thing proposed, namely, some account 
 of the nature of faith in general. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 
 
 II. The second thing in the method was, to speak a 
 little of the assurance of faith ; and what I have to offer 
 upon this head I shall endeavour to reduce under these 
 five propositions following : — 
 
 Pi'oposition 1 is this, That in this faith which I have 
 been describing, there is a twofold certainty or assurance, 
 viz., of assent and application. The former necessarily 
 supposes an assurance of understanding, or of knowledge. 
 — Col. ii. 2. The apostle there speaks of the full assur- 
 ance of understandings which every Christian ought to 
 breathe after, and which every believer hath in a greater 
 or lesser measure ; for it is only " they that know his 
 name that will put their trust in him." — Psal. ix. 10. 
 This assurance of understanding, as I take it, lies in an 
 uptaking of the reality and excellency of things divine 
 and supernatural : there is a beam of the glorious Sun of 
 Righteousness darted in upon the man's soul, who before 
 was sitting in darkness, and in the regions of the shadow 
 of death, whereby he that was darkness in the abstract 
 becomes light in the Lord. He comes now to see things 
 spiritual in another light than formerly ; he enters, as it 
 were, into a new world of wonders, upon which account 
 we are said to be " called out of darkness into God's mar- 
 vellous light." Perhaps the man had, before this, some 
 dreaming, floating, superficial notions of these things, — 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 27 
 
 he heard of them by the hearing of the ear ; but now his 
 eyes see them ; and he sees as great reality in things in- 
 visible and eternal as though he saw them with his bodily 
 eyes. This is called by the apostle, " The evidence of 
 things not seen." — Heb. xi. 1. There is such a certainty 
 here as amounts to a demonstration ; so that you may as 
 soon persuade a man that it is midnight when the mid- 
 day sun is shining upon him in full splendour, as persuade 
 a man in the lively exercise of faith, that there is not a 
 reality and excellency in things supernaturally revealed. 
 This is so essential to faith, that very commonly under 
 the Old Testament, and frequently also under the New, 
 faith receives its denomination therefrom. — Isa. liii. 1 1 ; 
 Jer. xxxi. 34 ; John xvii. 3. 
 
 But, to come a little more close to the purpose in hand : 
 \st, There is, I say, in faith an assurance of assent, where- 
 by the man assuredly believes whatever God has said in 
 his Word to be true ; and that not upon the testimony 
 of men, of ministers, or angels, but upon the testimony 
 and authority of the God of truth, for whom it is impos- 
 sible to lie, speaking in his own Word, and saying. Thus 
 saith the Lord. But in a particular manner the soul 
 gives its assent unto the truth of the Gospel, and the 
 revelation of the Word, concerning the person, natures, 
 offices, undertakings, and performances, of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, as the Redeemer, Surety, and Saviour, of lost 
 sinners. The man's understanding being enlightened with 
 the knowledge of Christ, and having got a view of him 
 by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, he finds it to be 
 all true that God has said of Christ in the Word ; so that 
 he cannot shun, in this case, to join issue with the apostle, 
 " This is indeed a faithful saying, That Christ Jesus 
 came into the world to save sinners." — 1 Tim. i. 15. He 
 sees the truth and veracity of God so much engaged in 
 the covenant and promises thereof, that they are more 
 firm than the everlasting mountains and perpetual hills. 
 — Isa. liv. 10. Now, this certainty of assent is, in Scrip- 
 ture dialect, called a " believing the report of the Gos- 
 pel," — Isa. liii. 1 J a " receiving the record of God," — 
 
28 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 1 John V. 10, 11; a "setting to the seal that God is 
 true,"— John iii. 33. 
 
 2dly, There is in faith an assurance of applicatioti, 
 or ap2^ropriation, expressed frequently in Scripture by a 
 resting, a trusting, or confiding in the Lord, and the 
 veracity of his word of grace and promise. By this act 
 of faith, the soul takes home the promise, and embraces 
 it as a good and sufficient security to itself. It is said of 
 the Old Testament worthies, that they were " persuaded 
 of the promises, and embraced them." — Heb. xi. 13. Their 
 faith in the promise was a persuasion or assent, with ap- 
 propriation thereof to their own souls, insomuch that 
 they looked upon the promise as their substance ; and 
 hence is that which we have in the 1 st verse of that chap- 
 ter, — "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." This 
 applicatory act of faith, wherein the very life, soul, and 
 sweetness of faith lies, is pleasantly expressed and illus- 
 trated in David. God had made a promise to him of 
 the crown and kingdom of Israel, which bore up his 
 spirits, when, through the rage and fury of Saul, he was 
 hunted like a partridge upon the mountains ; and, view- 
 ing the promise, and the fidelity of the Promiser, he 
 cries out, " God hath spoken in his holiness, I will re- 
 joice ;" and because I have the security of his promise, I 
 dare say it with confidence and assurance, " Gilead is mine, 
 and Manasseh is mine." — Psal. Ix. 6. In like manner, 
 true faith appropriates the mercy of God in Christ to the 
 soul itself in particular, upon the ground of the free and 
 faithful promise of God. I might here demonstrate, that 
 the stream of our best Protestant divines concur in their 
 sentiments as to this matter ; I shall only at present quote 
 the definition of faith given by the great and judicious Dr 
 Owen, in his Catechism, or " Principles of the Doctrine 
 of Christ ;" where, having moved the question, " What 
 is justifying faith?" his answer is, ''A gracious resting 
 on the free promises of God in Christ Jesus for mercy, 
 with a firm persuasion of heart that God is a reconciled 
 Father to us in the Son of his love." For proof of which 
 he cites, 1 Tim. i. l6; John xiii. 15, xix. 25; Rom. iv. 5 ; 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 29 
 
 Heb. iv. 16; Rom. viii. 38, 39; Gal. ii. 20; 2 Cor. 
 V. 20, 21. And on the margin he has these words : " Of 
 this faith the Holy Spirit is the efficient cause ; the Word, 
 the instrumental ; the Law indirectly, by discovering- our 
 misery ; the Gospel immediately, by holding- forth a 
 Saviour. Faith," adds he, "is in the understanding-, in 
 respect of its being- and subsistence ; in the will and heart, 
 in respect of its effectual working." According to this 
 account of faith, this assurance I speak of, viz., a persua- 
 sion of the promise, with appropriation (as the judicious 
 Calvin speaks), can no more be separate from faith than 
 light can be separate from the sun. It takes home the 
 grace and mercy of God to the soul in particular, which 
 before lay in common in the offer of the Gospel. And 
 without this particular application, the offer and promise 
 of the Gospel can stand us in no stead ; but is like a price 
 put in the hand of a fool, who has no heart to it. Our 
 meat set before us will never feed us, unless it be apphed 
 by eating it ; so, " except we eat the flesh and drink the 
 blood of the Son of man," by an applying faith, we have 
 no life in us. Whatever excellency there be in Gilead's 
 balm, it will never recover the hurt of the daughter of 
 Zion, unless it be used by faith. Faith answers and cor- 
 responds unto the word of faith, as the seal and the wax 
 answer to one another. " I will say. It is my people ; 
 and they shall say. The Lord is my God." — Zech. xiii. 9. 
 Faith will not quit its my's, though all the world should 
 say against it. The marrow of the Gospel (as Luther ob- 
 serves) is in these pronouns, meum, nostrum, — m?/ and 
 ou7\ He bids us read these with great emphasis. ToUe 
 oneurriy et tolle Deum^ says another, — " Take away pro- 
 perty, and you take away God, take away Christ." It is 
 the common dialect of faith in Scripture, to vent itself in 
 words of appropriation ; it has a peculiar pleasure and 
 satisfaction in these words, my and ow\ and rolls them 
 in its mouth Hke a sweet morsel. See how sweetly David 
 harps upon this string; no less than eight times in a breath 
 does he repeat his appropriating my : " My strength, my 
 rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength, 
 
30 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 my buckler, the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." 
 — Psal. xviii. 1, 2. Yea, so tenacious is faith in this mat- 
 ter, that it will maintain its mys in the face of a hiding 
 and frowning- God : " My God, my God, why hast thou 
 forsaken me?" — Psal. xxii. 2. My is a word of faith, 
 says Flavel on the text. So Isa. xlix. 14: " Zion said, 
 The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgot- 
 ten me." But I need not stand to offer more instances 
 of this kind, seeing, as one observes, faith in Scripture 
 expresses itself by these two words, my and our^ no less 
 than about three hundred times. 
 
 Thus you see what kind of assurance there is in faith, 
 namely, an assurance or certainty of assent and applica- 
 tion. The first may be found in a great measure, and in 
 some sort, in devils and reprobates. The last is of a dis- 
 tinguishing nature, and peculiar only to the faith of God's 
 elect, and of his operation ; though, indeed, some shadow 
 of it also may be found in the presumptuous faith of hypo- 
 crites, — of which w^e may speak afterward. Knowledge 
 and assent are preparatory toward that application, where- 
 in the very soul of saving and justifying faith doth lie ; 
 and when we speak of them one after another, it is not 
 as if they were really separate in the soul's exercise, for 
 I take them up as one complex undivided act of the soul. 
 In the very first view and relation of Christ by the Word 
 and Spirit, the soul cannot shun to cry out with Thomas, 
 My Lord, and my God. I do not mean that the soul 
 always, in the very first moment of believing, runs that 
 length, as to express itself so with the mouth ; but I 
 mean, this is what faith would say, could it get up its 
 head from under the load of unbelief and indwelling cor- 
 ruption, wherewith it is overpowered. 
 
 Proposition 2, I offer, is this, That there is a great 
 difference betwixt the assurance o^ faith (which I have 
 now described), and the assurance of sense, which follows 
 upon faith. The assurance of faith is a direct, but the 
 assurance of sense is a rejiex, act of the soul ; the assur- 
 ance of faith has its object and foundation from without, 
 but that of sense has them tvithin. The object of the 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 31 
 
 assurance of faith is a Christ revealed.^ promised^ and 
 offered in the Word ; the object of the assurance of sense 
 is a Christ formed luithin us hy the Holy Spirit. The 
 assurance of faith is the cause, that of sense is the effect ; 
 the first is the root, and the other is the fruit. The 
 assurance of faith eyes the promise in its stability, flow- 
 ing- from the veracity of the Promiser ; the assurance of 
 sense eyes the promise in its actual accomplishmerit. 
 By the assurance of faith Abraham beHeved that he should 
 have a son in his old ag-e, because God, who cannot lie, 
 had promised ; but by the assurance of sense he believed 
 it when he got Isaac in his arms. By the first, Noah 
 was sure that he and his family should not perish in the 
 waters of the deluge ; but by the last he was assured of 
 it, when the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat, and 
 the waters were withdrawn again into their proper chan- 
 nels. By the former, the behevin^ Israelites were as- 
 sured that Canaan should be in their possession, because 
 God had made a grant and a deed of gift of it to them in 
 his promise ; by the latter, they were assured of it, when 
 they passed Jordan, overthrew the old inhabitants, and 
 divided the good land by lot, as the inheritance of the 
 tribes of Israel. Time would fail me to illustrate this 
 matter by instances that stand upon record in the Sacred 
 Oracles. Faith asserts its interest in ^future good, be- 
 cause promised ; sense asserts its interest in b. present 
 good, because possessed. Faith says, " My God will hear 
 me ;" Sense says, " My God hath heard me." Faith says, 
 " He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold 
 his righteousness ;" Sense says, " He hath brought me 
 forth to the light, and I do behold his righteousness." 
 Again, faith is conversant about things that are not seen, 
 and hoped for ; sense is conversant about things seen, 
 and actually enjoyed. Faith says, " He is my God; 
 because he has said in the covenant, I will be their God." 
 Sense, again, says, " He is my God ; because I know mv 
 soul has said unto the Lord, He is my Lord.'' Faith 
 assures the soul of the remission of sins in the blood of 
 the Lamb, because God has said, " I will be merciful to 
 
32 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 their unrig-hteousness, and their sins and their iniquities 
 will I remember no more." Sense, again, assures the soul 
 of remission, because of the intimations of pardon in some 
 sensible smiles of the Lord's countenance, and some sav- 
 ing- operations of his grace. By faith I believe my salva- 
 tion, because it is purchased, promised^ and possessed, 
 by my glorious Head, Christ Jesus ; but by sense I be- 
 lieve by my salvation, because I find this salvation already 
 begun in a work of regeneration, and advancing in a 
 work of sanctification ; " being confident of this very thing, 
 that he which hath begun the good work, will perform it 
 until the day of Jesus Christ." 
 
 Proposition 3. The assurance of faith will stand its 
 ground, when the assurance of sense is quite lost and gone. 
 A clear instance of this we have in Christ. When there 
 was a total eclipse of sensible manifestations, yea, no- 
 thing but a lowering cloud of vindictive wrath surround- 
 ing and breaking upon him, as our Surety ; yet, at that 
 same time, the assurance of faith maintains the claim, and 
 repeats it, saying, My God, my God; upon the ground not 
 only of his eternal Sonship, but of the promise the Father 
 had made to him : " He shall cry unto me. Thou art my 
 Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation." — Psal. 
 Ixxxix. 26. And lest you should think this was a thing 
 pecuHar unto the Head, see an instance of it also in the 
 Church, which is his body : " Zion said, The Lord hath 
 forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." — Isa. xlix. 
 14. Upon which the holy Rutherford sweetly glosses to 
 this purpose : " He may be a forgetting and withdrawing 
 God to my feeling ; and yet to my faith, my God, and my 
 Lord ; even as the wife may believe the angry and for- 
 saking husband is still her husband." Heman is so far 
 deserted as to sensible presence, that he is, as to his own 
 feeling, " laid in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps." 
 — Psal. Ixxxviii. 6. Yea, he adds (ver. 7), " Thy wrath 
 lieth hard upon me ; and thou hast afflicted me with all 
 thy waves." And (ver. 15-17), " While I suffer thy 
 terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over 
 me, thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 33 
 
 me daily like wafer, they compassed me about together." 
 What lower could a child of God be brought, on this si ie 
 of hell ? and yet faith, amidst all these clouds, steps in 
 with its appropriating mij, " O Lord God of my salvation." 
 — Ver. 1. And truly, if there were not some exhilarat- 
 ing certainty in faith, acting upon the unalterable cove- 
 nant, in such cloudy and dismal dispensations, I know 
 not what could keep the believer from running into utter 
 despair. But the grace of faith will venture the soul's 
 safety upon the strong plank of the promise, even when 
 sensible consolations are quite dashed to pieces, by the 
 angry billows of outward and inward trouble, like two 
 seas, meeting upon the believer. David had the expe- 
 rience of this : " I had fainted, unless I had believed to 
 see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." 
 — Psal. xxvii. 13. Hence also it is that the Lord directs 
 his people to the exercise of faith in such a case : " Who 
 is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice 
 of his servant, that walketh in darkneSs, and hath no 
 light ? let him trust in the Lord, and stay upon his God." 
 — Isa. 1. 10. 
 
 Proposition 4. When we speak of the assurance of 
 faith, it is not to be so understood, as if every one that 
 has faith were perfectly free of doubting. This, I appre- 
 hend, is what scares many at this doctrine of the assur- 
 ance of faith. They think, that if there be an assurance 
 in the essence of faith, then it would follow, that every 
 true believer behoved always to have such assurance as to 
 be free of doubting ; which lies cross to the experience 
 of the generation of the righteous. But this objection 
 goes upon a palpable mistake, — as if faith and a believer 
 were one and the same thing. We do indeed assert, that 
 there is no doubting in faith ; for faith and doubting are 
 commonly in Scripture directly opposed one to another : 
 but though there be no doubting in faith, yet there is 
 much doubting in the believer, by reason of prevailing 
 unbelief and indwelling sin. If it were true that assur- 
 ance is not of the nature of faith, because the believer is 
 not always assured, by the same way of reasoning it would 
 
34 THE ASSURA^X'E OF FAITH 
 
 follow, that resting is not of the nature of faith, because 
 the believer is not always actually staying- and resting- 
 himself on the Lord ; or that trusting is not of the nature 
 of faith, because the believer is not always trusting. It 
 may be as well argued, that seeing is not of the nature of 
 the eye, because sometimes the eye-lids are closed ; or 
 that heat is not of the nature of tire, because its heat is 
 not perceptible by reason of the ashes wherewith it is 
 covered ; or that light is not of the nature of the sun, be- 
 cause sometimes it is eclipsed by the interposing- moon. 
 Remove the ashes, and the heat of the fire will appear ; 
 remove interposing bodies, and the sun will have light ; 
 open the eye-lids, and the eye will see : so do but remove 
 ignorance, unbelief, and other incumbrances of corruption, 
 from faith, and see what the nature of it is then. For it 
 is of the nature of faith in the abstract that the present 
 question is, and not what lodges in the believer wlio hath 
 faith. In the believer there is " as it were the company 
 of two armies," — grace and corruption, love and enmity, 
 repentance and impenitence, faith and unbelief; but these 
 are not to be confounded together, because they are in 
 the same subject. We must not exclude complacency and 
 delight in the Lord out of the nature of love, because, 
 through remaining enmity and corruption, his love is so 
 overpowered that he cannot perceive any such thing in 
 him, but rather the reverse of love. The same may be 
 said of other graces. So here we must not conclude, that 
 there is nothing- of this applicatory assurance in faith, 
 because of prevailing- unbelief, and doubts flowing there- 
 from. 
 
 Proposition 5 is this, That as there is a great difference 
 betwixt the my of faith and the my of sense, so there is 
 yet a far greater difference between the my oi faith (or 
 of true sense flowing from it) and the my of presump- 
 tion. Presumptuous confidence has its mys, as well as 
 iaith and well-grounded experience ; as we see plain in 
 \ be case of Balaam : " If Balak would give me his house 
 full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of 
 the Lord my God." — Numb. xxii. 18. " Now," say you, 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED, 35 
 
 " since a presumptuous confidence may speak in the dialect 
 of true faith and experience, wherein lies the diiFerence ? " 
 This is a very material and momentous question, and, with 
 a dependence on the Father of lights, I shall attempt a 
 resolution of it in the few following particulars : — 
 
 1st, The assurance of faith receives and applies Christ 
 to the soul in particular, as he lies in the revelation and 
 grant that is made of him to sinners in the luorcl, which 
 is the immediate ground of faith ; whereas presumptu- 
 ous confidence, though it claims an interest in him, yet 
 does it not upon this bottom, or in God's method and way 
 of conveyance. The apostle tells us, Rom. x. 8, that Christ, 
 and his righteousness and salvation, is brought nigh unto 
 us in the word of faith. What is the design of a cove- 
 nant of grace, and of these declarations, offers, and pro- 
 mises of grace, that are made to us in the glorious Gospel, 
 but just to bring Christ so near to us, as we by believing 
 may come to apply him and his whole fulness to our own 
 souls ? " These things are written, that ye might be- 
 lieve that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that 
 believing ye might have life through his name." — John 
 XX. 31. if we would find Christ, and eternal life in him, 
 we need not ascend into heaven^ or descend into hell, in 
 search for him, as the apostle speaks, Rom. x. 6, 7 ; but 
 we are to search for him in the " Scriptures, for they are 
 they which testify of him." Christ is brought near to us 
 in the testimony or record of God in the word, where 
 " he gives us eternal life, in his Son Christ Jesus." — 
 1 John V. 11. Now, faith, in its direct act, I say, takes 
 Christ, and claims him upon this grant and gift that is 
 made of him in the word of grace ; and upon no other 
 foundation will it adventure to assert its interest in him. 
 Like an honest man, who will not intermeddle with goods, 
 money, or the estate of another, unless he have a charter, 
 bond, testament, or promise, or some such security, upon 
 which he may do it warrantably, without vitious intro- 
 mission : whereas the thief and robber puts to his hand, 
 without looking after any such warrant ; if he gets what 
 
36 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 he has a mind for any how, he is easy."' Here lies a 
 fatal flaw in the faith of many hearers of the Gospel ; 
 they grasp at Christ and his salvation, but they overleap 
 the gift and grant of him in the word, as the immediate 
 foundation of their faith. If we consult the experience 
 of the saints in Scripture, we shall find their faith ter- 
 minating- immediately upon the word : " In his word do 
 I hope," says David. " Remember the word upon which 
 thou has caused me to hope. I rejoice at thy word, as 
 one that findeth great spoil." Their faith did come by 
 hearing or reading the word. This is the chariot in 
 which the Lord rides, when he presents himself to us as 
 the object of our faith and trust ; and therefore that faith 
 which overlooks the promise and offer of the Gospel, is 
 but a presumptuous faith. " Gilead is mine, and Manas- 
 seh is mine," says David, in that forecited 60th Psalm, 
 because " God hath spoken in his holiness." So says an 
 applying faith, pardon is mine, peace is mine, grace is 
 mine, glory is mine in Christ, yea, God himself is my 
 God ; because God hath made over himself, and all these 
 things in Christ to me, in the covenant of promise, or 
 testament of my elder brother, sealed and confirmed by 
 his blood. But, say you, may not a presumptuous hy- 
 pocrite pretend to bottom his faith upon the promise, and 
 claim an interest in him, even upon that ground? An 
 answer to this leads me to a 
 
 2d Difterence between the my of faith, and the my of 
 presumptuous confidence, namely this, That though the 
 presumptuous person may run away with the promise, 
 yet he does not embrace the promise as it is in Jesus, 
 or as Jesus is in it. This is a mystery which only can 
 be explained to purpose by him who " openeth the book, 
 and looses the seven seals thereof." The view I have of 
 it, you may take up as follows. The covenant, and all 
 the promises of it, are made to Christ as the first heir, 
 both by birth and purchase : he is God's Jirst-horn, and 
 therefore the heir of the inheritance of eternal life. But 
 besides, as the second Adam^ by his obedience and death, 
 * See Durham on Isa. liii., Sermon 5, last paragraph. 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 37 
 
 having fulfilled the law, and satisfied justice ; the promise 
 of life, which was forfeited by the sin and disobedience of 
 the ^rst Adam, comes to be settled upon him, and his 
 seed in him. Now, matters standing- thus, the soul, in 
 applying of the promise, takes its title thereto, not upon 
 the ground of any thing in itself, but comes in only upon 
 Christ's right and title ; his righteousness is the only pro- 
 per, entitling, meritorious condition of the covenant, and 
 of all the promises thereof. Here lies the failure in pre- 
 sumptuous confidence, that the man being never cleanly 
 beat off from Adam's covenant, he is always seeking to 
 found his title to the promise in himself, some good con- 
 dition or qualification wrought in him, or done by him. 
 Thus many attempt to enter themselves heirs to the pro- 
 mises, and to eternal life, but shall never be able : Why, 
 Because they do not by faith enter themselves heirs in 
 Christ, upon his right and title : and " another founda- 
 tion can no man lay ; for the gift of God is eternal life, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." Thus, I say, pre- 
 sumptuous faith does not embrace the promise " as it is 
 in Christ, in whom all the promises of God are yea, and 
 in him amen," And then, I say, he does embrac^^the 
 promise as Jesus is in it ; for as all the promises are in\ 
 Christ, so Christ is in all the promises. What is ir"^ 
 that is bequeathed in his testament, but himself and all 
 his fulness ? He was the great mercy promised to the 
 fathers. When the covenant was promulgate unto Adam, 
 and afterward unto Abraham, what else was it, but just 
 a promise of Christ ? And when, in process of time, the 
 covenant of grace came to be further opened, in a variety 
 of promises, what were they all, but Christ, and the grace 
 that is in him, parcelled out to us, that we by faith might 
 apply him, and the grace that is in him, according to our 
 need ? And hence it is that the believer, in applying the 
 promise, finding Christ in it, he eats it, and it is to him 
 the joy and rejoicing of his heart; he finds the Lord in 
 his own word of grace, and this makes it relieving and 
 comforting to his soul ; he drinks in the sincere milk of 
 the luord, because therein he tastes the Lord is gracious. 
 
38 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 But now presumptuous faith is more taken up with the 
 naked promises, than with feeding the soul with Christ 
 in and by the promise. A man that is possessed of 
 Christ by faith, has not Christ and his promise by him as 
 a man has money lying buy him in his coffer ; he has not 
 the covenant and promises, as a man has his bonds and 
 charters in his cabinet, which perhaps he will not look to 
 once in a year ; no, but he has Christ in the word of 
 grace, as a man has his bread by him, which he is daily 
 feeding- and living upon : hence this applicatory faith is 
 called an " eating the flesh, and a drinking the blood of 
 Christ ;" which expression implies such an application 
 of Christ to ourselves, as carries soul-nourishment along 
 with it. True faith roots the soul in Christ, just as a 
 tree is rooted in the ground ; the prolific virtue of the 
 earth enters into the tree, and the tree at the same time 
 strikes and spreads its fibres into the earth, and draws sap 
 and moisture therefrom, sending a digested nourishment 
 through the whole, whereby it is made to grow and bring 
 forth fruit. So here in believing, the Spirit of life which 
 is in Christ Jesus enters into the soul ; and at the same 
 time, there is, as it were, a sprig and fibre passing from 
 every faculty of the soul striking into Christ, and draw- 
 ing a digested sap from him, whereby the soul is made to 
 grow and flourish in grace and holiness. Hence we are 
 said to be " his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus 
 unto good works." And, " Those that be planted in the 
 house of the Lord, do flourish in the courts of our God." 
 3dli/y True faith receives and applies Christ according 
 to the order that God has laid in his offices ; but pre- 
 sumptuous faith inverts that order. The order that God 
 has laid in the execution and application of the offices of 
 Christ, is this : Christ comes by his word and Spirit, as 
 2L prophet i enlightening the sinner's mind with the know- 
 ledge of his lost estate by nature, and the way of his 
 recovery through his atoning blood and satisfaction : upon 
 which the soul, by faith, turns in to him as a priest^ 
 taking sanctuary under the covert of his everlasting righ- 
 teousness ; and so submits unto him as a king^ receiving 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 39 
 
 the law from his mouth, and yielding itself unto his 
 government, from a principle of gratitude to him who 
 has bought it with a price. But now, the presump- 
 tuous faith of the legalist inverts and disturbs this 
 comely order laid by intinite wisdom among the offices 
 of Christ, for in his way of applying Christ he begins 
 with the kinglif office ; pretending to obey him as a 
 Lawgiver ; and, upon this ground expects that Christ 
 will save him as a priest by his righteousness ; and thus 
 makes his own obedience the ground of the imputation of 
 the righteousness of Christ. And what else is this, but 
 to bring money and price^ contrary to the express com- 
 mand of God, Isa. Iv. 1. Nothing can be of a more per- 
 nicious tendency toward the overthrow of the freedom of 
 God's grace, in the great affair of justification and salva- 
 tion. Hence it is the apostle so much inveighs against 
 this method of seeking justification in the Galatians ; 
 insomuch that he tells them expressly, that by this way 
 they made themselves '* debtors to do the whole law ;" 
 yea, says he, " Christ is become of no effect unto you, who- 
 soever of you are justified by the law ; ye are fallen from 
 grace." — Gal. v. 3, 4. This method of inverting the 
 order of Christ's offices, and making the first act of faith 
 to terminate upon him as a king, as it is a way of think- 
 ing most agreeable to nature, which runs with a mighty 
 bias towards Adam's covenant ; so, I judge, nature is 
 much fortified in this way of taking up the method of 
 salvation by Christ, by the strain of some men's doctrine 
 in our day, who inculcate faith and repentance as new 
 precepts given out by Christ in the Gospel, which were 
 never required in the moral law of the ten command- 
 ments. For if this be so, then inevitably we must first 
 obey Christ as a king, by repenting and believing, in 
 order to our being justified by him as a priest ; besides 
 many other dangerous consequences which are unavoid- 
 able upon this new law scheme. All which are avoided, 
 by teaching, with the strain orthodox divines, that there 
 are no precepts in the Gospel strictly taken ; and that 
 Christ in the Gospel giveth no neiv laws, but enforceth 
 the old law, viz., the moral, which being adopted unto 
 
40 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 the Gospel dispensation, obligeth us to believe in Christ 
 upon his being- revealed to us in the Gospel, and conse- 
 quently to repent also in an evangeUcal manner. For 
 that these duties of faith and repentance, as to their 
 essence, are required in the very first commandment of 
 the moral law, is indisputably evident ; and I do think it 
 strang-e, to find it converted by any who embrace and 
 own the doctrine of the Church of Scotland, particularly 
 the Larger Catechism, where that point is plainly deter- 
 mined, in the explication of the foresaid first command- 
 ment. But it is not proper to insist on this controversy 
 in a discourse of this nature ; if need be, it may be dis- 
 coursed apart. 
 
 4!thly, Another difference betwixt the my of faith, and 
 the my of presumption, is this. That the assurance of 
 faith will maintain its claim, and humble confidence, even 
 under sad challeng-es, and a deep and abasing sense of 
 much prevailing- iniquity ; whereas presumptuous confi- 
 dence succumbs and fails upon the prevalency of sin. 
 The reason of this is, because the g-round of presump- 
 tuous confidence is within the man ; some good disposi- 
 tion and qualification which he finds within him, as he 
 apprehends, which being dashed by the eruption of his 
 reigning lusts, he has no more to look to, the foundation 
 of his confidence is gone. But now, faith builds and bot- 
 toms its confidence, not within, but on something with- 
 out, namely, the everlasting righteousness of the Lord 
 Jesus, and the mercy of God running in this channel, ex- 
 hibit in the word of grace. Here it is that faith sets 
 down its foot, and upon this foundation it stands, against 
 which the gates of hell cannot prevail. And thus, having 
 the ground of its confidence from without, it is not shaken 
 with every insurrection from within. An instance where- 
 of we see in David, Psal. Ixv. 3. The holy man, in the 
 first part of the verse, cries out, under a sense of the 
 strength, power, and guilt of sin, " Iniquities prevail 
 against me." Well, but what says faith in such a case ? 
 " As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away." 
 Another instance of the like nature, we see in the same 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 41 
 
 holy man, Psal. cxxx. We find him, ver. 3, under such a 
 sense of sin and guilt, that, viewing- himself as he stood 
 in the eye of the law and justice, he cannot shun to own, 
 " If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities : O Lord, who 
 shall stand?" Well, hut where does David's faith find 
 a standing in such a case ? Only in the mercy and grace 
 of a reconciled God in Christ ; and therefore he adds, 
 ver. 4, " But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou 
 mayest be feared ; and plenteous redemption, that thou 
 mayest be sought unto." I do own, that a real believer 
 may be sadly shaken, as to the confidence of his interest 
 in Christ, under prevailing iniquity ; but this certainly is 
 his infirmity, and not his faith. Many real believers live 
 more by sense than by faith ; and hence it comes that 
 they are soon shaken, whenever sensible experience is 
 overclouded, under the sense of prevailing iniquity ; 
 though the pain of it is a just correction of their folly. 
 Whenever faith recovers from under the fit of unbelief, 
 and views what the soul is, and has in Christ, and in the 
 covenant, it recovers its stability and confidence, and 
 withal brings into the soul strength against corruption, 
 so that is goes out against it like a giant refreshed with 
 wine. But, say you, may not presumptuous faith re- 
 cover its confidence also ? I answer. No doubt it may ; 
 but then the difference lies here — -True faith goes to 
 work in a quite diff'erent way, in order to the soul's re- 
 covery, from that which the presumptuous legalist takes. 
 W^hen the terrors of the law, or challenges of conscience, 
 have at any time battered down presumptuous confidence, 
 the man goes to work, and fills up the hole that the law 
 has made in his soul, with the new earth of his own obe- 
 dience, reformation, duties, and the like, and with this 
 untempered morta* he daubs and makes up the breach 
 made in his conscience. But, on the other hand, though 
 the believer be as diligent in the way of duty as the other, 
 yet nothing in heaven or earth can satisfy him under 
 challenges, or afford him ease or quiet, but Christ himself, 
 and his righteousness apprehended and applied by faith : 
 no balm but that of Gileacl can cure his wound ; he 
 
42 THE ASSURANX'E OF FAITH 
 
 fetches his healing only from under the wings of the 
 Sun of Righteousness : all is but loss and dung in com- 
 parison of this, Phil. iii. 8, 9. 
 
 There are several other differences might be given 
 between the wzy of faith, and the Qnij of presumption, if I 
 were not afraid of being tedious. Only, in short, the 
 more of the assurance of faith, or yet of well-grounded 
 experience, the more lowliness, humility, and self-abase- 
 ment. The higher that the soul is exalted in and by 
 Christ, the lower does it sink in its own eyes, saying with 
 David, when God promised to build him a sure house, 
 and that the Messiah should spring of his loins, " Who 
 am I, O Lord God ? and what is my house, that thou 
 hast brought me hitherto ?" The poor believer, in this 
 case, sees himself to be such a miracle of rich and sove- 
 reign grace, that he is even wrapt up in silent wonder, 
 and put to an everlasting stand, that he knows not what 
 to say, " And is this the manner of man, O Lord God ?" 
 And what can David say more ? But now, the more of 
 a presumptuous confidence, the more pride and self-con- 
 ceit, like Laodicea, — " I am rich, and increased with goods, 
 and have need of nothing ;" accompanied with an under- 
 valuing of others in comparison of themselves, like the 
 proud Pharisee, " God, I thank thee, that I am not as 
 other men, or even as this publican." 
 
 Again, presumptuous assurance cherishes some secret 
 and beloved idol : the man spares some right hand or 
 right eye sin ; and commonly his deceitful heart argues 
 for its being spared, because grace doth abound. But 
 now, true faith and experience purifies the heart, and 
 engages the man to an impartial and universal opposition 
 to all sin, as dishonourable to God, and grieving to his 
 Spirit ; and readily he bends his principal force against 
 these sins, which receive the greatest advantages against 
 him, by interest, custom, constitution, or education ; and 
 the consideration of abounding grace is so far from en- 
 couraging him in sin, that it teaches him to " deny all 
 ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righ- 
 teously, and godly in this present world." 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 43 
 
 Lastly^ The my of faith, or solid experience, is always 
 accompanied with much love to the person of Christ, and 
 resignation of soul to him ; for " faith worketh by love." 
 And therefore, at the same tim.e that the soul is enabled 
 to say, " My beloved is mine," it cannot shun to add, 
 " And I am his. One shall say, I am the Lord's." The 
 man presents himself " a living- sacrifice, holy, acceptable 
 unto God, w4iich is his reasonable service." But now, 
 as one well observes, presumption is lame of one hand ; 
 it has a hand to take pardon, to take heaven, and the 
 benefits of Christ ; but as it has no true love to his per- 
 son, so it has not a hand to give or resign the whole man 
 to the Lord, to be for him, and not for another ; and the 
 plain reason of this is that the power of natural enmity 
 was never broken, and the man is married to the law, and 
 to his lusts also. But passing this, I proceed to — 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 OF THE FULL ASSURANCE OP FAITH. 
 
 III. The third general head proposed in the method, 
 was to speak a little of the full assurance of faith ; for 
 there is a plain gradation in the apostle's way of speak- 
 ing ; there is faith, then the assurance of faith, and then 
 the full assurance of faith. Having spoken of the two 
 first degrees, I proceed now to the last and highest de- 
 gree of faith. 
 
 Before I go on directly to show what i\\\sfull assurance 
 of faith is, I premise these two or three things, which I 
 conceive to be imported in this expression of the Spirit 
 of God. (1.) I premise that the faith of every believer 
 is not of the same size and strength. Some have a 
 strong, and others a iveak faith ; yea, the faith of the 
 strongest believer, like the moon, has its waxings and 
 
44? THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 vvanings ; or, like the sea, its ebbings and flowings. 
 Althoug-h every believer be in Christ, yet every believer 
 has not the same measure of faith ; as every star is in 
 the heavens, though every star be not of the same mag- 
 nitude. The rounds of Jacob's ladder were not all at the 
 top, though every round was a step towards heaven ; so, 
 though every faith be not triumphing in a full assurance, 
 yet every true faith is bending towards it. You may see 
 one believer under a full gale of the Spirit of faith, cry- 
 ing with Job, chap. xix. ^, " I know that my Redeemer 
 liveth ;" while another labours under such discourage- 
 ments, that, like the publican, he stands afar off. with 
 the tear in his eye, crying, " God be merciful to me a 
 sinner." You may see one saying with Paul, " He loved 
 me and gave himself for me ;" another, throughVthe pre- 
 valence of unbelief, saying, " Is his mercy clean gone for 
 ever? Hath he forgotten to be gracious?" Perhaps 
 you shall find one believer surmounting all fears, saying 
 with the apostle, " Who shall separate me from the love 
 of Christ ?" &c., while another is combating with many 
 doubts, ready to raze foundations, saying, " I am cast out 
 of thy sight ;" and all men are liars that will say other- 
 wise, the prophets of God not excepted. It is with be- 
 lievers as it is with children in a family ; one perhaps is 
 lying in the cradle, another led by the mother or nurse, 
 another can walk alone, a fourth come to such full strength 
 that he is able for work and business. Thus in the house- 
 hold of God there are babes, young men and fathej^^ 
 (2.) I premise, that it is the duty of every believer, yea, ; 
 of the weakest, to press after faith in the highest degre/ 
 of it. Hence it is that Christ frequently checks his dis- 
 ciples for the weakness of their faith, " Why are ye fear- 
 ful, ye of little faith ? O thou of little faith, where- 
 fore didst thou doubt." True faith is a progressive 
 thing, it goes on from one degree to another : hence is 
 that expression of the apostle, " The Gospel is the power 
 of God unto salvation ; for therein is the righteousness 
 of God revealed from faith to faith." — Rom. i. 17. Faith 
 in its first and weaker, and faith in its repeated and 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 4o 
 
 stronger actings, feeds and centres upon the righteous- 
 ness of God's operation and imputation, for acceptance, 
 pardon, and salvation. It is of the nature of all true 
 grace, particularly of the grace of faith, to breathe after 
 its own increase and perfection : hence is that prayer of 
 the disciples, " Lord, increase our faith ;" and that of the 
 poor man in the Gospel, " Lord, I believe ; help thou 
 mine unbelief." We must forget things that are behind, 
 and reach forth unto things that are before : " The path 
 of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and 
 more unto the perfect day." (3.) I premise, that the 
 certainty or assurance of application, as explained above, 
 ebbs or flows according to the strength or weakness of 
 the assent of faith. That there are degrees of assurance, 
 will be controverted by none, who have any knowledge 
 either of divinity or philosophy. The very words of the 
 apostle in the text import, that we are not to rest in a 
 lower, but ought to press after the highest degree of the 
 assurance of faith ; and the apostle accounts it a great 
 blessing to the Thessalonians, that they had much as- 
 surance, — IThess. i. 5; plainly intimating, that some true 
 assurance might be in a less degree. Now, I say, this 
 assurance of application bears a proportion unto faith's 
 assent, and waxes or wanes as it is strong or feeble ; so 
 that a strong assent has a strong application, and a weak 
 assent a weak application. 
 
 These things premised, I proceed to inquire what this 
 full assurance of faith is, or wherein it consists. An^ 
 in one word, I conceive it lies in such " a firm and fixed' 
 persuasion, confidence, or trust in the faithfulness of a 
 God in Christ, pledged in his covenant or promise, as 
 overcomes and tramples upon all difficulties and impro- 
 babilities, all doubts and fears as to the actual perfor- 
 mance of what is promised in God's time and way ; and all^ 
 this with particular application to the soul itself." This 
 description I would illustrate and explain in its several 
 branches, were it not done upon the matter on the former 
 two heads, this being nothing but a higher degree of the 
 self-same faith formerly described. Such an act of faith 
 
46 THE ASSURANCE OP FAITH 
 
 we find put forth by Abraham, Rom. iv. 20, 21, where) 
 we are told that " he stagg-ered not at the promise of/ 
 God through unbelief; but was strong in faith giving 
 glory to God : being fully persuaded that what he had 
 promised, he was able also to perform." This full as- 
 surance of faith, though mountains of impediments were 
 in its way, yet it makes no more of them than if they 
 were a plain ; it overleaps and overlooks them all, fixing 
 its eye only upon t\)e power and faithfulness of the blessed 
 Promiser ; as we see clearly exemplified in the case of 
 Abraham. His own body was dead, and incapable of pro- 
 creation ; Sarah's womb was barren, and incapable of 
 conception : sense and reason in this case would have been 
 ready to conclude, that it was imposible ever Abraham 
 should have a son. But we are told, ver. 19? that he 
 entirely abstracted from all considerations of that kind, 
 *' Being not weak in faith, he considered not his own 
 body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, 
 neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb." He would 
 not so much as listen unto the surmises of carnal reason ; 
 flesh and blood are put out of doors ; and he rests with 
 an assured confidence, without any doubting or hesita- 
 tion, upon the fidelity of the Promiser, being certain that 
 God would do to him in particular as he had said, when 
 the time of the vision should come. In like manner we 
 find, that after Abraham had gotten his beloved Isaac, 
 the son of the promise, what a terrible shock, may one 
 think, would it be to his faith in the promise, when God 
 commanded him to take Isaac, of whom the promised 
 seed (Christ) was to come, and offer him upon one of the 
 mountains of Moriah ! — Gen. xxii. Reason here might 
 be ready to object, and that not without great colour of 
 rehgion, Can God, who has so severely forbidden murder, 
 require me to imbrue my hands in the blood of my own 
 son ? Will not such a thing be an eternal reproach to 
 Abraham and his religion ? What will the Egyptians 
 say, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, which dwell 
 in the land ? What will Sarah say, and how shall I ever 
 look her in the face ? But especially what shall become 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 47 
 
 of the promise, and the veracity of Him that made it, 
 saying, " In Isaac shall thy seed be called ?" Surely 
 might unbelief and sense say, either this command is a 
 delusion, or else the promise is a lie. But Abraham had 
 a full assurance of faith as to the stability of the promise ; 
 and therefore he would upon all hazards obey the com- 
 mand of a promising God ; he was fully persuaded, that 
 though Isaac were sacrificed and burnt into ashes, yet out 
 of the very ashes of his sacrificed son, God could, and 
 actually would raise up Isaac again, and so accomplish his 
 own Vv'ord of promise. Abraham, on the account of this 
 his noble and gallant faith, is fitly called "the father of 
 the faithful," his faith being proposed as a pattern to all 
 others for their imitation ; and every true believer is on 
 this score a " child of Abraham." And let none imagine 
 that they are not obliged to believe with such a faith as 
 Abraham had ; for the apostle expressly tells us, that the 
 history of his faith stands upon record in Scripture, " not 
 for his sake alone, but for us also," that we, after his ex- 
 ample, may be encouraged to " believe on him that raised 
 up Jesus our Lord from the dead." — Rom. iv. 23, 24. 
 
 Objection. O, say you, if I had as good a ground for 
 my faith as Abraham had ; if I were as sure that the pro- 
 mise were to 7ne, as Abraham was, I think I could be- 
 lieve with a full assurance of faith, as he did : but there 
 lies the strait. I answer, You and I have as good a 
 ground of faith as ever Abraham had ; Abraham had a 
 promising God in Christ to trust, and so have we ; you 
 have the same God, the same Christ, the same covenant, 
 the same promise, as Abraham had. But, say you, God 
 spake to Abraham, in particular^ by name, when he 
 gave him the promise, saying, " In thy seed shall all the 
 nations of the earth be blessed." I answer, although you 
 be not designed by name and sirname, as Abraham was, 
 yet a promising God in Christ addresses himself as par- 
 ticularly to you in the word of grace, and dispensation of 
 the covenant and promise, as though he called to you out 
 of heaven by name and sirname, saying, " To you (J,, e., 
 to you sinners of Adam's race) is the word of this salva- 
 
48 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 tion sent. The promise is unto you that are afar off," 
 &c. And not only is the promise presented, but an ex- 
 press command of believing superadded, requiring and 
 binding every particular person to take hold of it, and 
 embrace it ; so that, whatever shifts and evasions the un- 
 believing and deceitful heart may make, the promise of 
 God comes as close and home to every individual hearer 
 of the Gospel, as that promise did to Abraham, when 
 God bespoke him with an audible voice out of heaven ; 
 yea, " we have a more sure-wVord of prophecy, unto which 
 we would do well to take heed, as unto a light that shin- 
 eth in a dark place." Further, let it be considered that 
 that promise was first presented unto Abraham as the 
 object and foundation of his faith, before he could believe 
 it ; and by believing it, became his in possession ; or in 
 believing it, he was possessed of it as his own ; for, upon 
 a supposition that he had not believed, he had never been 
 possessed of the promised blessing. In like manner, the 
 promise is presented to you as the immediate ground of 
 believing ; and in believing, you come to be possessed of 
 the great things contained in the promise ; but if you 
 do not believe, you shall not ""see the salvation of God. 
 Thus you see that you have the same ground of faith, and 
 the same warrant for believing that Abraham had ; and 
 there is nothing to keep you from a full assurance of 
 faith, or a believing without staggering at the promise, 
 like Abraham, unless it be your own ignorance and un- 
 belief. 
 
 I do own, as was hinted already, that every true be- 
 liever does not come the length of Abraham, to believe 
 without staggering ; but that is not the question. The 
 present question is, If we have not now as good and firm 
 a ground, and as good a right, to believe the promise as 
 Abraham had ? If Christ, and his salvation and righ- 
 teousness, be not broughc as near to us in the word of 
 faith, as it was unto him ? This is what none, who un- 
 derstand the privilege of a New Testament dispensation, 
 will adventure to deny ; yea, I will adventure to say, that 
 the ground of faith is laid before us under the New Tes- 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 49 
 
 tament with a far greater advantag^e than ever Abraham 
 had ; inasmuch as the Gospel revelation is much more 
 clear, and brings Christ and his salvation much nearer to 
 us, than ever he was under any period of the Old Testa- 
 ment dispensation. " Abraham saw his day" only " afar 
 off ;" whereas we live in that very day which he saw at 
 such a prodigious distance ; and therefore we have much 
 more ground to believe without staggering than he had. 
 And therefore " seeing we have boldness to enter into the 
 hohest by the blood of Jesus ;" and " seeing we have a 
 new and living way consecrated for us through the vail of 
 his flesh ;" and " seeing we have an High Priest over the 
 house of God ; let us draw near with a true heart, in full 
 assurance of faith," &c. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF THE GROUNDS OF FAITH's ASSURANCE. 
 
 IV. The fourth thing proposed in the method, was to 
 inquire into the grounds of this doctrine ; or what it is 
 that faith has to build its confidence upon, in drawing 
 near to God with full assurance of acceptance. In answer 
 to this question, I shall not at present enter upon the 
 particular grounds specified by the apostle in the preced- 
 ing verses, having discoursed on them apart in several 
 sermons, where he shows that every bar and impediment 
 on the part of law and justice are fully removed, through 
 the complete satisfaction and prevalent mediation of the 
 Son of God, as our great High Priest ; upon which a 
 promise of welcome and hearty acceptance comes forth 
 from a reconciled God, to every one who will come to 
 him in this new and living way, for grace and mercy to 
 help him in a time of need. Thus you will see the 
 apostle's argument runs, by comparing this and the pre- 
 
 M 
 
50 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 ceding verses, with the verse immediately following, par- 
 ticularly the last clause of it, " For faithful is he that 
 hath promised ;" which clause, included in a parenthesis, 
 I conceive stands connected, not only with the words im- 
 mediately preceding in the same verse, but with the words 
 of my text also ; and the scope of the apostle is, as if he 
 said, " Let us draw near with a true heart in full assur- 
 ance of faith," &c. Why ? " For faithful is he that 
 hath promised" us welcome "into the holiest, by the 
 blood of Jesus ;" faith|al is he that hath promised ac- 
 ceptance in the " new and living way, which he hath 
 consecrated for us ;" faithful is he that hath promised to 
 pity, pardon, hear, and help, through the mediation of 
 the " great High Priest over the house of God." And 
 therefore, seeing his faithfulness is pawned to receive us 
 in this way of his own devising, let us answer his faith- 
 fulness, by " drawing near in full assurance of faith," or 
 with a full and certain persuasion, that, according to his 
 promise, we shall be " accepted in the beloved," who is 
 the door to the holiest, the " new and living way," and 
 the " High Priest over the house of God." 
 
 So that you see the next or immediate ground of faith, 
 or full assurance thereof, in drawing near to God, is, 
 God's own promise of acceptance through Jesus Christ ; 
 
 with which promises theWord everywhere abounds Isa. 
 
 Ix. 7, and Ivi. 7 ; Mark xi. 24 ; Matt. vii. 7 ; John xiv. 
 13, 14. Now, faith, eyeing and pleading the promise of 
 God in Christ, has many things to bear it up into a full 
 assurance ; I shall instance a few of many. 
 
 1. The grace, mercy, and goodness of a promising 
 God revealed and proclaimed in the Word, is a noble 
 ground for sinners, and yet more for saints, to trust him, 
 and draw near to him through Christ, with a full assur- 
 ance of faith : " How excellent is thy loving-kindness, 
 O God ! therefore the children of men put their trust 
 under the shadow of thy wings." — Psal. xxxvi. 7. It is 
 cross to the very dictates of nature, for a man to trust 
 one whom he apprehends to be an enemy ; yea, if we 
 have but a jealousy that one bears us an ill-will, or designs 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 51 
 
 our hurt, we will not trust or confide in him ; but per- 
 suade a man that such a one is his friend, that he hath 
 an entire love and kindness for him, and wants only an 
 opportunity to do him the greatest services he is capable, 
 — in that case he will trust him without hesitation. Just 
 so is it in the case in hand : so long- as we conceive God 
 to be an implacable enemy, our prejudice and enmity 
 against him will remain ; and while enmity ag-ainst God 
 stands in its full strength, it is absolutely impossible we 
 can have any trust or confidence in him ; instead of 
 drawing near to him with full assurance of faith, we flee 
 from him like our first parents, under the awful appre- 
 hensions of his wrath and vengeance : but let us once be 
 persuaded that he is a God of love, grace, pity, and good- 
 will in Christ, then, and never till then, will we put our 
 trust under the shadow of his wings. And therefore, to 
 break the strength of our enmity and prejudice, and so to 
 conciliate our trust in him, he is at the greatest pains 
 imaginable to persuade us, that he bears a hearty liking 
 and good-will toward us in Christ. And there are more 
 especially these three ways God takes to convince us of 
 his good-will toward men upon earth : — 
 
 1^^, By solemn proclamations and declarations of his 
 mercy and grace : Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, — there the Lord 
 passed by Moses, and proclaimed his name to him ; and 
 what is it ? " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
 gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and 
 truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, 
 and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means 
 clear the guilty ;" or, as some read it, in clearing he ivill 
 clear, i. e., in clearing the sinner of guilt by pardoning 
 grace, he will clear himself of injustice ; he will make it 
 appear that he is just, when he is the justifier of him that 
 believes in Jesus. Everywhere in Scripture is the par- 
 doning mercy of God proclaimed and presented as an 
 encouragement to sinners to trust in him : " Let Israel 
 hope in the Lord : for with the Lord there is mercy, and 
 with him is plenteous redemption." — Psal. cxxx. 7. 
 
 2dlyi By solemn oath. Lest we should disbelieve bis 
 
.52 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 word, he superadds his oath, to convince us that he has 
 no ill-will, but a hearty good-will toward our salvation 
 and happiness, through the new and living way : " As I 
 live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death 
 of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and 
 live : turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will 
 ye die, O house of Israel ? " — Ezek. xxxiii. 11. " An 
 oath" among men is " for confirmation" of a controverted 
 truth, and " is to chem an end of all strife," says the 
 apostle, Heb. vi. 16. Well, Sirs, shall the oath of a 
 man be so much regarded, as to determine controversies 
 among men ? How much more is the oath of the great 
 God to be regarded, pawning his very life upon it, that 
 he is not willing that any should perish, that he bears a 
 hearty good-will toward our salvation through Christ ? 
 Shall this be any more a controversy with us ? To en- 
 tertain a doubt or jealousy of what he says, is to make 
 him a har ; and to doubt and disbelieve what he swears, 
 is to charge a God of truth with perjury. And beware 
 of looking upon it as a matter of indifferency, whether 
 you believe this declared good-will, mercy, and grace of 
 God, or not ; for it must needs be a matter of vast im- 
 portance, wherein God interposes the solemnity of an 
 oath ; and to think otherwise, is to charge the eternal 
 God with a profanation of his own name, which he will 
 not suffer in others without the highest resentment. 
 
 Sdly^ As if his word and his oath were not enough to 
 convince us of his mercy, love, and good-will toward us, 
 he hath given the most convincing and practical demon- 
 stration of it that was possible for God to give, and that 
 is, by giving himself, in the person of his eternal Son, to 
 be incarnate, or manifested in our nature ; yea, to be 
 made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted. O 
 how great is this mystery of godliness, God manifested 
 in the flesh ! Without controversy, great and unsearch- 
 uble is the mystery of love and good-will that shines with 
 a meridian lustre in an incarnate Deity. If God had not 
 loved us, and borne such a hearty desire after our hap- 
 piness and salvation, would he ever have made such a near 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 53 
 
 approach to us as to dwell in our nature, when he passed 
 by the nature of angels ? Yea, he was not content to be- 
 come one with us in nature ; but he goes farther, and 
 becomes one in law with us ; he puts his name into our 
 debt-bond, and becomes " sin for us, that we might be 
 made the righteousness of God in him ;" he becomes " a 
 curse for us, that we might inherit the blessing." It was 
 a view of this design of love to man, shining in the in- 
 carnation of the Son of God, which made the angels at 
 his birth to break forth with that celestial anthem, " Glory 
 to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will 
 towards men." — Luke ii. 14. Now, this love and good- 
 will of God toward man, in the incarnation of his eternal 
 Son, is proposed in the Gospel revelation, as the greatest 
 encouragement imaginable for guilty rebellious sinners to 
 lay aside their enmity and prejudice against God, and so 
 to put their trust and confidence in him ; as is plain like 
 a sunbeam, from that great text, " God so loved the 
 world that he gave his only begotten Son." — Johniii. 16. 
 Why, what was God's design in all this good-will ? " That 
 whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life." Because of the excellency of this love, 
 the sons of men do put their trust under the shadow of 
 his wings. Now, I say, faith, in drawing near to God, 
 takes a view of this mercy and love of God in Christ, 
 and upon this ground raises itself up sometimes so high, 
 as to draw near in full assurance of acceptance : for still 
 it would be remembered, that faith, under the conduct of 
 the Spirit, takes up this revealed love and inercy of God 
 to sinners with particular application thereof to the soul 
 itself, as v/as before hinted. And what can be more en- 
 couraging to a trust, without doubting of acceptance ? 
 O then, " let Israel hope in the Lord ; for with the Lord 
 there is mercy." O do not entertain jealousies of a God 
 of love, as though he vi'ere displeased or dissatisfied with 
 you for your trusting in his mercy ; for " the Lord 
 taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope 
 in his mercy." 
 
 2. Faith grounds its assurance upon the infinite power 
 
54 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 of a promising- God. Being- once persuaded of his love, 
 mercy, and good-will in Christ, it proceeds to fasten its 
 foot upon everlasting strength, as fully able to fulfil what 
 he has promised, saying, I know that thou can do every 
 thing, and " there is nothing too hard for thee." In- 
 deed, infinite power, armed with wrath and fury, is the 
 terror of a guilty ^ner ; but infinite power, animated 
 with infinite love, proclaiming, " Fury is not in me," 
 through the ransom that / have found^ is a noble ground 
 of trust, and may embolden a guilty sinner to " take hold 
 of his strength, that he may make peace with him." 
 Hence it is, that the power of God in Christ is frequently 
 presented in Scripture as a ground of trust : " Trust ye 
 in the Lord for ever ; for in the Lord Jehovah is ever- 
 lasting- strength." — Isa. xxvi. 4. The faith of Abraham 
 founded itself upon this rock of the power of God, in that 
 forecited instance, Rom. iv., when he believed without 
 staggering- at the promise. Being- first persuaded of 
 God's good-will toward him, in giving him a promise of 
 the Messiah to spring of his loins, " in whom all the 
 nations of the earth should be blessed ;" he next fixes the 
 eye of his faith upon the power of this promising God, 
 and was " fully persuaded, that what he had promised, 
 he was able also to perform." So, Matt. ix. 27, we read 
 of two blind men following Christ, sending- their cries 
 after him, " Thou son of David, have mercy on us." 
 They first believed that Christ was the promised Mes- 
 siah, the son of David ; and in this, they saw mercy and 
 good-will to man upon earth, he being the seed of the 
 woman, that should bruise the head of the serpent. Well, 
 Christ leads them on next to take a view of the power 
 of God in him, as a farther ground of trust and confi- 
 dence : " Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able 
 to do this ?" ver. 28. They answer, " Yea^ Lord ;" and 
 thereupon Christ says unto them, " According to your 
 faith, be it unto you," ver. 29. Thus, I say, faith grounds 
 its trust, confidence, or assurance, in drawing near to 
 God through the new and living way, upon the power 
 of a promising God. 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 55 
 
 O Sirsr there is no such distance betwixt God's saying- 
 and his doing, as there is among- men ; for his saying is 
 doing. " He spake, and it was done ; he commanded, 
 and it stood fast." — Psal. xxxiii. 9. There is an omnipo- 
 tence or almightiness both in his word of command and 
 in his word of promise ; therefore it is called " the word 
 of his power." — Heb. i. 3. And by this powerful word 
 he upholds the great fabric of heaven and earth, that they 
 do not return unto their original nothing ; and may not our 
 faith venture to stand upon that bottom on which heaven 
 and earth stands ? We are not afraid that this ponderous 
 globe of earth, which hangs in the liquid air, slide away 
 from under our feet with its own weight. Why ? Be- 
 cause we believe that the word of God's power fixed it in 
 its proper place, that it shall not be removed for ever. 
 Why should we not rest with as much assured confidence, 
 as to everlasting concerns, upon God's covenant and pro- 
 mise, seeing the same power of God is in the word of 
 promise as in that word which upholds the earth ? " Yea, 
 the fashion of this world passeth away, but the word of 
 the Lord " (his word of grace and promise, the foundation 
 of faith and trust) " endureth for ever." This is a con- 
 sideration which at once removes the principal discourage- 
 ments that faith labours under. What is it that weakens 
 our faith, and keeps it from arriving at a full assurance, 
 as to the performance of the promise, but one of these 
 two ? Either we look upon the performance of the pro- 
 mise as difficult, or uncertain. Now, faith eyeing the 
 power of a promising, reconciled God in Christ, can easily 
 surmount both, and conclude that the performance of the 
 promise is both easy and certain. (1.) It is certain, for 
 it depends upon the will of an unchangeable God, the 
 promise being a declaration of God's purpose or will of 
 grace. He was willing to promise, for he has actually 
 done it, — the word is gone out of his mouth ; and he is 
 willing to perform, for he is " a God of truth," — always 
 *' yea and amen." (2.) Faith viewing the power of God, 
 sees the performance to be easT/. What more easy than 
 a word speaking ? and yet one word from the mouth of 
 
56 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 God can give being and accomplishment to all the pro* 
 mises, without any pain, cost, trouble., or hazard. The 
 covenant of grace may be resembled unto a tree, the pro- 
 mises to the branches of the tree, loaden with all manner 
 of precious fruit. Now, the least word, the least breath 
 from the mouth of Gad, shakes the tree, and makes all 
 the fruit of it to drop down, as it were, into the believer's 
 bosom. And, oh ! may the believer argue, " Will not 
 He who so loved a lost world as to give his only be- 
 gotten Son, and who loved me, and gave himself for me, 
 will not He ware a word, or the breath of his mouth, on 
 me ? " Believe it, there is nothing but a word between 
 you and all " the sure mercies of David ;" yea, the word 
 is already passed out of his mouth, I mean the word of 
 grace and promise ; and there remains nothing but for 
 you to believe, trust, and confide in it, and Him that 
 made it ; and, in your so doing, all the sure mercies of 
 the promise are your own in Christ. I suppose you do not 
 doubt but that God who cannot lie has promised. Now, 
 there is as much reason to believe that he will perform, 
 as to believe that he has passed his promise ; for, as was 
 hinted above, to promise and perform, to say and to do, 
 are all one thing with him. Indeed when men promise, 
 there is much ground to doubt the performance, because 
 frequently things cast up afterward, which render it im- 
 practicable for them to do as they have said. But no 
 such thing can happen unto him, who perfectly foresees 
 all future events, and who commands things that are not, 
 as if they were. Now, I say, faith sees all this, and there- 
 by raises itself up unto a full assurance ; at least there is 
 ground here for a full assurance of faith, and no ground 
 at all for doubting and wavering. And were not our faith 
 pinioned with ignorance and unbelief, it could not miss to 
 believe without staggering upon this ground, as did the 
 faith of Abraham. 
 
 3. The veracity and faithfulness of a God in Christ, 
 pawned in the promise, is another ground upon which 
 faith builds, when it draws near with a full assurance. 
 Faithfulness in God and faith in man are correlates; and 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 5 / 
 
 there is such a sibness and relation betwixt these two, 
 that our faith cannot subsist without faithfulness in God. 
 And, on the other hand, a revelation of God's faithfulness 
 would have been needless, if there were not some to be- 
 lieve him. The light would be useless, if there were not 
 an eye to see it ; and the eye would be useless, if there 
 were no light. To an unbelieving sinner, the revelation 
 of the divine faithfulness is as unprofitable as light is to 
 a blind man ; and our faith would be like an eye without 
 light, if there were not faithfulness in God. Yea, faith- 
 fulness in God is the very parent of faith in man. Faith 
 is at first begot and wrought in the soul by some dis- 
 covery of the divine faithfulness in the word of grace ; 
 and it is maintained and increased in the same way and 
 manner. Whence is it that some do believe, and others 
 not, who equally enjoy the same revealed warrants and 
 grounds of faith? The matter is this : — the faithfulness of 
 God in the covenant and promise is revealed by the Spirit 
 to the one, and vailed and hid from the other, " the god 
 of this world blinding the minds of them which believe 
 not." And whence is it, that at one time a believer is'N 
 " strong in faith, giving glory to God ;" and at anothex/ 
 time, " staggers, through unbelief ?" The reason is this, 
 the faithfulness of God at one time is so visible to him, 
 that he sees it to be Hke a " mountain of brass " under 
 him ; at another time his light is so dark and dim, that 
 he imagines the promise, and the faithfulness of the Pro- 
 miser, to be but like a " broken reed," not able to bear 
 his weight. But, O Sirs, what can be ground of assur- 
 ance, yea, of the highest and fullest assurance of faith, if 
 not the veracity of that God who hath " righteousness 
 for the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness for the girdle 
 of his reins ?" 
 
 Let us but take a view of the high securities by which 
 the divine faithfulness is engaged, as to the outmaking 
 of his promise, and see if there be not ground for a 
 full assurance of faith. The most jealous and suspicious 
 heart in the world could not desire greater security from 
 the most treacherous person on earth, than a God of 
 
58 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 truth has granted unto us, for our encouragement to be- 
 heve. 
 
 1*^, then, Let it be considered, that the hare promise, 
 though there were no more, is abundance of security, 
 especially if we consider whose promise it is, — it is God 
 that cannot lie, ivho proiiiises. A graceless Balaam gives 
 him this testimony : " God is not a man, that he fehould 
 lie, neither the son of man, that he should repent : hath 
 he said, and shall he not do it ? or hath he spoken, and 
 shall he not make it good ? " We will adventure to trust 
 the word of a man like ourselves, especially if he be a 
 man of integrity and honesty, who, we think, will not 
 falsify his word ; and shall we have trusts and credit to 
 give to a man that may lie and repent, and yet no credit 
 or trust to give to Him " for whom it is impossible to 
 lie ?" God has so great a regard to his word of promise, 
 that it is of more worth in his reckoning than heaven 
 and earth, and all the visible creation ; yea, " heaven an^, 
 earth shall pass away, but one jot or one tittle of what he; 
 hath spoken shall never fall to the ground." Yea, I will 
 adventure to say farther, that the divine faithfulness is so 
 much engaged in the promise, that his very beijig is con- 
 cerned therein. Man may break his word, and continue 
 to be man still ; but God could not be God if he were 
 not faithful and true, because faithfulness is essential to 
 his very nature and being. Now, is not that word a 
 sufficient ground of faith and of full assurance, as to the 
 performance of which the very being of a God of truth 
 is so much concerned ? But this is not all ; for, 
 
 2cU^, Not only is the word of promise passed out of 
 his lips, but it is entered and registrate in the " volume 
 of his book." You know, the bare word of an honest 
 man is good, but his written and registrate word or pro- 
 mise is better. When we put a man's bond in the regis- 
 ter of human courts, it is in order to our better secu- 
 rity, and getting the more speedy diligence thereupon. 
 Now, God has consented to the registration of his word 
 of promise, yea, it is actually enrolled and registrate in 
 the Scriptures of truth ; and is not this a high engage- 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 
 
 59 
 
 merit of the faithfulness of God ? Perhaps you may think, 
 if you had voices, visions, and revelations, from heaven 
 immediately, you could believe ; but I can assure you, in 
 the name of God, that the Bible, the book of God, which 
 you have among your hands, is a far better, a much more 
 sohd ground of faith and trust, than any thing of that 
 kind. The Apostle Peter tells us that he was taken up 
 into Mount Tabor, at Christ's transfiguration, and there 
 he heard a voice coming forth from the excellent glory, 
 saying, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased." — 2 Pet. i. 17. This was a rare privilege, and a 
 notable encouragement to believe ; but yet, says he, " We 
 have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do 
 well that ye take heed," &c., ver. 19. O Sirs, think on 
 this, and prize and improve your Bibles. 
 
 3dly, The faithfulness of God is so much engaged in 
 the promise, that it is a sealed deed. The great and 
 infinite Jehovah, in the person of his eternal Son, has 
 sealed the promise, yea, sealed it with his hlood. \\'e 
 are told concerning the Messiah, that he should " confirm 
 the covenant with many." — Dan. ix. 27. And how doth 
 he confirm it, but by his death ? Hence the blood of 
 Christ is called " the blood of the covenant ; so Heb. ix. 
 16, 17 : " Where a testament is, there must also of ne- 
 cessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is 
 of force after men are dead ; otherwise it is of no strength 
 at all whilst the testator liveth." Thus, I say, the pro- 
 mise is sealed and confirmed by the blood of the Lamb, — 
 the most valuable seal that ever was appended to any 
 deed in the world. And, in token and testimony of its 
 being sealed by a Redeemer's blood, God has appended 
 two other visible seals unto his covenant of promise, viz., 
 baptism and the Lord's supper, which are " seals of the 
 righteousness of faith ;" that is, as I take it, seals of that 
 covenant where God promises peace and pardon, grace 
 and glory, on the score of the imputed righteousness 
 of Christ, apprehended by faith. And whenever thes^ 
 sacraments are dispensed to us, according to God's ap- 
 pointment, we have a sealed and confirmed promise and 
 
60 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 testament put into our hands for our faith to feed and 
 feast upon. 
 
 4:thlyy The faithfulness of God is so far engaged in the 
 promise, that his oath is interposed. — Heb. vi. 13-18. 
 There we read of " two immutable things, in which it is 
 impossible for God to lie." His word is immutable, for 
 it is always " yea." But that we might have strong con- 
 solation, by having a strong ground of faith and confidence, 
 he superadds his immutable oath : he not only speaks, 
 but swears. Now, observe how the apostle speaks of the 
 oath of God : " Because he could swear by no greater, he. 
 sware by himself," ver. 13 ; y. d., If God could have 
 gone higher in his oath, he would have done it. The 
 form of God's oath is peculiar to hinio^lf, — " As I live :" 
 he swears by his life, — he swears by his holiness, — he 
 swears by his being and Godhead. " As true as I am 
 God, I will bless thee," says the Lord to Abraham, 
 ver. 14. " But," may a poor soul say, " what is that to 
 me ? what interest or concern have I in God's oath to 
 Abraham ?" " O yes," says the apostle, "this concerns 
 you and me, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon 
 the hope set before us," ver. 18. Q. c?.. This con- 
 cerns every poor soul that has a mind for salvation in the 
 " new and living way consecrated for us." He may say, 
 and should say in himself, " As sure as God said and 
 sware to Abraham, so surely hath God said and sworn 
 that I shall be saved, in fleeing for refuge to Christ, who 
 is our hope." As if the Lord should say, " O sinner, I 
 set my own Son before thee in the Gospel, as thy only 
 refuge and sanctuary, — I set him forth as a propitiation, 
 through faith in his blood ; O flee ! flee to him for thy 
 life. Turn ye to your stronghold, ye prisoners of hope ; 
 for as sure as I am God, thou shalt be saved in him. 
 Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting sal- 
 vation." O what a great matter is this ! — the oath of 
 God ! What will we ever believe, or whom will we be- 
 lieve, if we do not believe a God of truth swearing by 
 his life ? Do not say, you are not concerned with his 
 oath ; for as by believing, you set to your seal that he is 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 61 
 
 true in what he says and swears ; so by your unbelief you 
 call him a liar^ and, upon the matter, charge him with 
 perjury, as was already hinted. And for you who have 
 actually fled by faith unto his Son, you shall be as sure 
 of God's blessing through eternity as ever Abraham was, 
 when he heard God swearing to him, " Surely, blessing, I 
 will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee." 
 
 bthly^ The faithfulness of God is yet farther engaged 
 to believers in the promise, by giving 2^ pledge or arles of 
 the full performance ; and the pledge he gives is of more 
 worth than heaven and earth. " O," say you, " what 
 "is that ?" I answer. It is the " Holy Spirit of promise, 
 which is the earnest of the inheritance." — Eph. i. 13, 14. 
 If ever thou felt the Holy Spirit breathing on thee, by 
 his saving influences and operations, thou hast the earnest 
 of the inheritance, — a pledge that all the promises shall 
 be fully accomplished in God's time. You know, if a 
 man give a pledge, it is a security for the full bargain ; 
 and if a man do not fulfil his bargain, he loses his pledge ; 
 so here, God will as soon forfeit his Spirit as break his 
 word. And is not this notable security to the believer ? 
 Is not this a high engagement of the faithfulness of 
 God? 
 
 6thlif, The faithfulness of God is yet farther engaged 
 in the promise, by the concurring declaration of the 
 most famous witnesses that ever bore testimony in any 
 cause, jointly attesting the truth of the promise and vera- 
 city of the Promiser. " There are three that bear record 
 in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost : 
 and these three are one." — 1 John v. 7. The eternal 
 Father attests the truth of the promise with a " Thus 
 saith the Lord." The Son attests it, who is the essential 
 and substantial Word ; for he is " the Truth, the Amen, 
 the faithful and true Witness," who " speaks in righteous- 
 ness." The Holy Ghost attests it ; for he is " the Spirit 
 of truth, leading into all truth :" he is the " Holy Spirit 
 of promise," not only because he himself is promised, but 
 because he testifies of the truth of the promise, and faith- 
 fulness of the Promiser ; and, by his power and efficacy, 
 
62 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 seals and stamps these upon the soul, whereby he works 
 faith or believing. Now, all these three witnesses are one ; 
 not only one in essence, but one in their testimony. And 
 what is the testimony and record of a Trinity ? It is 
 this : " That God hath given " (i. e., granted in his cove- 
 nant of grace and promise) " to us eternal life ; and this 
 life is in his Son," ver. 11. And when this record or 
 testimony of a Trinity is not believed, we make God a 
 liar. From the whole, you see what high and deep en- 
 gagements the divine faithfulness is come under for the 
 outmaking and accomplishment of the promise. then, 
 " let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of 
 faith ;" for faithful is he that hath promised acceptance in 
 the Beloved. 
 
 But now, after all that has been said, some may be 
 ready to object, " It is true, the good- will, power, and 
 veracity, of the Promiser, are excellent encouragements 
 to those who have a right to the promise to draw near to 
 God in Christ with full assurance of faith ; but that is my 
 strait and difficulty, I doubt and fear lest I have no claim 
 or title to the promise of welcome into the holiest by the 
 blood of Jesus, by that new and living way." An answer 
 to this leads me to, 
 
 4. A fourth ground (taken in connection with the for- 
 mer) upon which faith may build its assurance, in draw- 
 ing near to God by the new and living way ; and that is, 
 the indorsement or direction of the promise of welcome 
 through Christ. " To whom," say you, " is the promise 
 indorsed ?" I answer, It is directed to every man to whom 
 the joyful sound of this everlasting Gospel reacheth — 
 John iii. 16. There you see that the promise of accep- 
 tance, and of eternal life through Christ, reaches forth its 
 arms to a lost world: " Whosoever believeth in him shall 
 not perish, but have everlasting life." So here, whoso- 
 ever draweth near to the holiest by the blood of Jesus, — 
 by the new and living way, through the mediation of the 
 great High Priest, — shall obtain grace and mercy to help 
 them in time of need. The covenant of grace, and pro- 
 mises thereof, are so framed by infinite Wisdom, in the 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 63 
 
 external dispensation of the Gospel, that they look to 
 every man and woman, and, as it were, invite them to 
 believe, and encourage them to enter into the holiest. 
 He that sits on a throne of grace, calls every one within 
 his hearing- to come for grace and mercy, assuring them, 
 that come to him who will, " he will in no wise cast out." 
 And we that are the heralds and ministers of the great 
 King, whose name is " The Lord, merciful and gracious," 
 have warrant and commission to proclaim, that to " you, 
 men," and " the sons of man, is the word of this salvation 
 sent. The promise is" directed " unto you," as a ground 
 of faith, even ■•' to you, and to your seed, and to all that 
 are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." 
 There is not the least peradventure, but the call or com- 
 mand of believing is to every one, otherwise unbelief could 
 not be their sin. Now, the promise, in the indorsement 
 and direction thereof, must be as extensive as the com- 
 mand : these two are inseparably linked together, both in 
 the external dispensation and in the inward application of 
 the Spirit ; insomuch, that whosoever is commanded to 
 believe has right to the promise, as the immediate ground 
 of his faith ; and whosoever actuallybelieves, and builds 
 upon this ground, has the promise inhis possession. Take 
 away the promise from the command of believing, — you 
 separate what God has joined together, and, in effect, 
 command men to build without a foundation. It is true, 
 Christ is the object of faith ; but it is as true, that he can 
 only be the object of faith to us as he is brought near in 
 the word of faith or promise. — Rom. x. 8. JLnd there- 
 fore, seeing the promise is to you and me, and every one 
 who hears this Gospel, I may warrantably say, with the 
 apostle, " Let us fear, lest a promise being left us of 
 entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come 
 short of it." — Heb. iv. I. From which text it is plain, 
 that the promise of an everlasting rest, in and through 
 Christ, is " left " even to those who, like the Israelites, 
 may " come short of it " through unbelief. And how is it 
 left us, but to be applied by faith ? Christ, our elder 
 brother, has left his confirmed testament in our hands, 
 
64 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 to be improved and used in a way of believing, in order 
 to our being- actually entitled to, and in due time fully 
 possessed of, that rest which is the purchase of his death 
 and blood. O then, let us fear, lest, when the promise 
 is thus left us, we should seem to come short of the pos- 
 session ; for the promise can never be ours in possession, 
 though " left us," unless we believe ; as is plain from the 
 words immediately following (ver. 2), where it is added, 
 concerning the unbelieving Jews, " The word preached " 
 (viz., the promise of " entering into his rest," as is plain 
 from the connection) " did not profit them, not being 
 mixed with faith in them that heard it." A king's pro- 
 clamation, and promise of pardon to a company of rebels, 
 cannot profit any of them but such as accept of it. A 
 legacy left by latter-will of a rich and wealthy friend, to 
 a certain family, without specifying one individual per- 
 son of the family, can only profit that person, or these 
 branches of the family, who claim right to the legacy 
 upon their friend's testament ; but to the rest it is unpro- 
 fitable, because, through pride, or ignorance, or sloth, 
 they forsake their own mercy. Or suppose a letter should 
 come indorsed to me, containing a bank-note of £50, 
 £100, or £1000 sterhng, or more if you will ; the in- 
 dorsement of the letter to me gives me a right to carry the 
 bill to the bank, and ask payment ; but if, through pride 
 and conceit that I am rich, and increased with goods, I 
 will not receive the letter, nor ask payment of the sum, 
 in that case I come short of my own privilege, and it be- 
 comes unprofitable to me. I own, that in every one of 
 these similitudes there is a dissimilitude ; the only use I 
 make of them is, to show how near Christ and his salva- 
 tion is brought unto us in the word of faith or promise, 
 that thereby we may be encouraged to draw near by the 
 blood of Jesus, with full assurance of faith, seeing he is 
 faithful that hath promised acceptance in this new and 
 living way. To all that is said I shall only add, 
 
 5. Let it encourage us to draw near in full assurance 
 of faith, that there is no lawful impediment to hinder our 
 access and success, in entering with boldness into the 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 65 
 
 holiest by the blood of Jesus. Every bar and hinderance 
 that stood in our way is mercifully removed by our " great 
 Hig;h Priest," who is " over the house of God." All the 
 impediments that can be pleaded on God's part, are, the 
 lau; justice, and holiness of God ; and all the impedi- 
 ment that can be pleaded on our part is sin. Now, none 
 of these ought to hinder our drawing near in this new 
 and living way with full assurance of faith. 
 
 As for the law, that cannot be a just impediment to 
 hinder our access ; for that moment the soul enters by 
 Christ, as the " way " to the Father, the law gets its end, 
 Christ being " the end of the law for righteousness to 
 every one that believeth." Now, can the law be against 
 its own end, or that which gives it its due ? All that 
 the law demands, is a perfect and sinless righteousness ; 
 give it that, and it has no more to seek. Now, this the 
 law gets that moment that a sinner believes, or draws 
 near by the blood of Jesus. "' What the law could not 
 do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending 
 his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin 
 condemned sin in the flesh : that the righteousness of the 
 law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, 
 but after the Spirit." — Rom. viii. 3, 4. From whence it 
 is plain, that every soul that believes in Christ is that 
 moment vested, by imputation, with the righteousness of 
 the Son of God, whereby " the law is magnified, and made 
 honourable." And therefore, in drawing near by the blood 
 of Jesus, instead of having the law against us, we have 
 the law for us, and on our side, — we have a perfect law- 
 righteousness to plead upon. 
 
 Again, as for the justice of God, this is ready to scare 
 us, who are guilty sinners, from so much as looking to- 
 ward the holiest, or the place where God's honour dwells. 
 But this can be no impediment either to our drawing 
 near by the blood of Jesus, with full assurance of faith. 
 Whv ? That which justice demands, is a complete satis- 
 faction for the injury done to the honour and authority of 
 God, by the breach and violation of the holy and righte- 
 ous law, which was a transcript of the purity and equity 
 N 
 
06 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 oF his nature: now, when a sinner draws near, or enters 
 into the hoHest by the blood of Jesus, he g'ives justice 
 that which it wants also, namely, a " ransom" of infinite 
 value, even the "ransom" that God has "found," — the 
 '' propitiation " that God has " set forth " in the Gospel, 
 to be received by faith. The man, in beHeving, he, as it 
 were, presents this ransom unto justice for the sin of his 
 soul ; and whenever justice sees this ransom of the blood 
 of Jesus in the hand of faith, it assoilzies and acquits the 
 soul from all law-penalties, declaring that " now there is 
 no condemnation" to that man — Rom. viii. 1. Let none 
 from henceforth " lay any thing to " his " charge ;" for 
 " it is God that justiiieth ; who," then, " is he that shall 
 condemn ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen 
 again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
 maketh intercession." Thus justice, instead of barring 
 our way to the hohest, becomes our friend, and casts open 
 the door of access to us; for God is "just," when he is 
 " the justifier of them that believe in Jesus." 
 
 As for the holiness of God, that seems to stand as an 
 insuperable bar in our way of entering into the holiest, by 
 reason of the blot, defilement, and pollution of sin, which 
 renders us utterly loathsome in the sight of the Holy 
 One of Israel. But, glory to God in the highest ! this bar 
 is also removed by the blood of Jesus ; for that moment 
 a sinner comes under the covert of this blood, and draws 
 near to God under this covering, he hath his " heart " 
 thereby " sprinkled from an evil conscience, and " his 
 "^ body washed with pure water." That same moment 
 that the righteousness of the second Adam is extended 
 to us for justification, his Spirit enters into us for sancti- 
 fication, renewing us in the whole man after the image of 
 God ; and the blood of Jesus not only cancels the guilt 
 of sin, which made us obnoxious to the law and justice of 
 God, bat it hides and covers the filth of sin from the eyes 
 of immaculate holiness. Yea, holiness is so much the 
 sinner's friend, in drawing near through the blood of Jesus, 
 that this attribute of the divine nature is pawned in the 
 promise of acceptance made to Christ and hi& seed. — 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. fJT 
 
 Psal. Ixxxix. 2, 35. On which account 1 may exhort all 
 true behevers in the words of the Psalmist, " Sing imto 
 the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the re- 
 membrance of his holiness." — Psal. xxx. 4. Thus, then, 
 I say, all impediments and bars on God's part, that might 
 hinder our access into the hohest, are removed by the 
 blood of Jesus ; and therefore, "let us draw near with a 
 true heart, in full assurance of faith." 
 
 As for impediments on our part, they may be more 
 particularly spoken to in the application. I shall only say 
 at the time, that the sum total of them all amounts to 
 this, that we are smners, and so wretched, miserable, 
 poor, blind, and naked, that we cannot think that ever 
 God will receive or welcome us ; but at once to roll away 
 this impediment, let it be considered, that this new and 
 living \A ay of access into the holiest is only calculate for 
 sinners. Christ calls not the righteous (or innocent), 
 but sinners, to enter by him, as the way to the Father. 
 If ye were not sinners, but righteous, as Adam was be- 
 fore the fall, you would not need to enter by the blood of 
 Jesus ; but seeing the way and door to the holiest is just 
 shaped and calculate for the sinner, let not the sinner 
 scare to enter by it into the presence of God ; especially 
 w hen he calls us, who are sinners, to " draw near with a 
 true heart, in full assurance of faith." Faithful is he that 
 hath promised acceptance in the Beloved. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CONTAINING THE APPLICATION OP THE PRECEDING 
 DOCTRINE. 
 
 I PROCEED now to wind up the Avhole of this Dis- 
 course in some practical improvement thereof ; which I 
 
68 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 shall endeavour to manage, as briefly as I can, in the few 
 following- inferences : — 
 
 Inference 1. From what has been said, we may see 
 that there is a mystery in believing-, which the world does 
 not understand, yea, which none can know, without " that 
 Spirit which is of God, whereby we know the things that 
 are freely given to us of God." The apostle speaks of 
 the " mystery of faith," — 1 Tim. iii. 9 ; and indeed every 
 thing about it is a mystery. The way of its production, 
 or how it is wrought in the soul by the power of the eter- 
 nal Spirit, is a mystery. " Who can tell how the bones 
 are formed in the womb of her that is with child ? " — far 
 less are we capable to account for the way and manner of 
 the Spirit's operation in forming and creating us in Christ 
 Jesus by faith. Hence is that of Christ to Nicodemus : 
 " The wind bloweth where it hsteth, and thou hearest 
 the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, 
 and whither it g-oeth ; so is every one that is born of the 
 Spirit." — John iii. 8. How the Spirit of God drops into 
 the heart the incorruptible seed of his own Word, and 
 impregnates it there, so as to turn it, though in itself but 
 a dead letter, into a living principle, purifying the heart, 
 debasing self, and carrying the soul directly unto Christ 
 for all, is a mystery which we cannot comprehend or ac- 
 count for. And then, the object of faith is a great mys- 
 tery. God, the ultimate object of it, is an awful mystery. 
 " W^ho can by searching find him out," either in his essence, 
 operations, or manner of his existence, — one in three, and 
 three in one ? Christ, the more immediate object of faith, 
 is a great mystery, — an incarnate Deity ! " Without 
 controversy, great is the mystery of godliness : God was 
 manifest in the flesh." The Gospel covenant, by which 
 we believe in Christ, is a " mystery which hath been hid 
 from ages, and from generations, but now is made mani- 
 fest to the saints." And, lastly, the actings of faith upon 
 its objects is a great mystery. How the poor believer on 
 earth can receive Christ in heaven, at the right hand of 
 God ; how he applies him as his own Saviour, his own 
 Prophet, Priest, and King, upon the indefinite grant that 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 60 
 
 is made of him in the new covenant, where the man is 
 neither designed by name or sirname ; how faith makes 
 use of Christ and his fulness, with as great freedom as a 
 man makes use of meat and drink that is set before him, 
 — on which account it is said to " eat the Hesh and drink 
 the blood of the Son of man ;" how it puts on the righ- 
 teousness of Christ, and glories in the obedience of an- 
 other, as though the man had fulfilled the law in his own 
 person ; how it draws forth the fulness of the Godhead, 
 dwelling bodily in Christ, and thus fills the soul with the 
 " fulness of God ;" how it will take a bare word, drop- 
 ping from God's mouth, and rejoice in it as one that 
 findeth great spoils ; how it will take this word, and draw 
 near to him in the new and living way, with full assur- 
 ance of acceptance ; — these things are mysteries which 
 ilesh and blood cannot reveal ; and yet to every true 
 believer is it given, in less or more, to know these mys- 
 teries of the kingdom. 
 
 Inference 2. From this doctrine we may see the ex- 
 cellency of the grace of faith. When it takes a view of 
 the " blood of Jesus," of the " new and living way," and of 
 the " High Priest over the house of God," it can " draw 
 near " to the " holiest " with " full assurance " of wel- 
 come. And it is not without warrant that faith promises 
 itself welcome from the Lord, in its approaches to him 
 through Christ ; God has made the same, yea, much 
 greater grant to the grace of faith, as Ahasuerus made 
 unto Esther, chap. ix. 12 : " What is thy petition ? and' 
 it shall be granted thee; or what is thy request? and it 
 shall be done." Compare this with John xiv. 13, 14:" 
 " W^hatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, 
 that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall 
 ask any thing in my name, I will do it." So Mark xi. 
 24 : " What things soever ye desire when ye pray, be- 
 lieve that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." As 
 Ahasuerus put a peculiar honour upon Esther, and pre- 
 ferred her above all the maids in his kingdom ; so God, 
 the King of kings, stamps a peculiar honour and excel- 
 lency upon the grace of faith, preferring it above all the 
 
70 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 other graces ; on which account it may say, with Maiy, 
 " He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden." — 
 Luke i. 48. Though God be high, yet hath he respect 
 unto the lowly ; though he be the high and lofty One, 
 that inhabiteth eternity, yet he dwells with the hunnble ; 
 he delights to choose, and put honour upon the fool- 
 ish, weak, base, and despised things of this world, — yea, 
 he chooses "things which are not, to bring to nought 
 things that are." Faith is the meanest and lowest, the 
 poorest and most beggarly, of all the other graces ; for all 
 the other graces, they give something unto God, whereas 
 faith, like a mere beggar, comes not to give any thing, 
 but to get and receive all : and yet God takes this beggar, 
 and sets it among " princes," — to allude unTo'that expres- 
 sion, Psal. cxiii. 7, 8. Such honour and preferment does 
 God put upon this grace, that though he has said, •' He 
 will not give his glory to another," yet, so little jealousy 
 has he of the grace of faith, that he, as it were, sets it 
 upon the throne with himself, ascribing things to it which 
 are proper and pecuHar unto himself only : he sets the 
 jewels of his crown on the head of faith. The salvation 
 of a lost sinner is God's prerogative, — he alone is " the 
 God of salvation, to whom belong the issues from death ;" 
 and yet we find this attributed unto the grace of faith. 
 " Thy faith hath saved thee," says Christ; "go in peace." 
 Justification is peculiar unto God only, — " It is God that 
 justifieth" says the apostle; and yet the same apostle 
 ascribes the justification of a sinner unto faith, — " A man 
 is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law." God 
 alone is " the Lord of life," who " kills, and makes alive;" 
 and yet life is ascribed unto faith, — " The just shall live 
 by" his "faith." Omnipotency is God's peculiar prero- 
 gative, he is "the Almighty ;" and yet there is almighti- 
 ness attributed unto faith : " All things are possible to 
 him that believeth." " If" we " have faith as a grain of 
 mustard-seed," we may "say unto this" and the other 
 " mountain, Be thou removed, and it shall be done." If 
 we read the 11th chapter of the Hebrews, we shall find 
 things ascribed to faith which nothing but Omnipotency 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 71 
 
 itself couM effect ; such as the stopping the mouths of 
 lions, quenching- the violence of fire, raising the dead, and 
 the like. Now, would you know why God doth thus attri- 
 bute works and perfections to faith which are proper to 
 himself alone? The plain reason is, because faith is such 
 a low, mean, self-denied grace, that it is just the genius 
 and nature of it to exclude self, yea, to exclude itself, to 
 glory in the Lord alone, and to give him the glory due 
 unto his name, saying, " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto 
 us, but unto thy name be the glory." Does faith save 
 us ? Yes, it does ; but then it turns the glory of salva- 
 tion over upon the Author thereof, saying, " Our God is 
 tbe God of salvation." Does the just man live by faith ? 
 Yes ; but then faith steps in with. It is not I. " I live ; 
 yet not I, but Ciirist liveth in me." — Gal. ii. 20. Does 
 faith justify? Yea, it doth; but then its language is, 
 " Surely in the Lord have I righteousness, in him will 
 I be justified, and in him alone will I glory." Can_fdith 
 do everything ? Yea ; but it is by leaning on the arm 
 of Omnipotency, — " I can do all things througTi Christ, 
 which strengtheneth me." Thus, I say, faith arrogates 
 and claims nothing to itself, but^ives unto the Lord the 
 glory due unto his name. And so zealous is faith to 
 have God alone exalted, particularly the freedom of his 
 grace in the justification and salvation of a sinner, that 
 though believing be the highest and greatest act of obe- 
 dience that a person can yield unto the moral law, yet^ 
 that boasting may be for ever excluded, it excludes and 
 shuts out itself from the rank and category of works, or 
 acts of obedience. •' To him that worketh not, but be- 
 lieveth in him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith" (ob- 
 jectively considered) " is counted for righteousness." — 
 Rom. iv. 5. It is the peculiar excellency of faith, that it 
 sinks its own act, that its blessed object, Christ, may 
 be all in all : it rejoices in Christ Jesus, and triumphs 
 always in him. And though, as I was saying, it be the 
 poorest, lowest, and most beggarly of all the other graces, 
 yet it is a grace that prides itself in the Lord Jesus, and 
 hv his blood enters with boldness into the holiest. 
 
72 THE ASSURANCE OP FAITH 
 
 Inference 3. If it be the will of God that we should 
 draw near with the full assurance of faith, hence I infer, 
 that unbelief, whether reig-ning in the wicked or remain- 
 ing- in the saints, cannot shun to be most displeasing and 
 offensive unto him. 
 
 1 . I say, reigning unbelief in the wicked is a flat con- 
 tradiction to the will of God. The man under the power 
 of unbehef, instead of drawing near with the assurance of 
 faith, departs from him, through a distrust and jealousy 
 of his grace, power, and veracity. Solomon tells us, 
 " Jealousy is the rage of a man." — Prov. vi. 34. If we 
 shall entertain and express a jealousy or distrust of a 
 man's veracity, it is enough to exasperate and enrage him 
 ag-ainst us. Why ? When we express a jealousy of him, 
 we in effect call him a liar. And if man, who is vanity, 
 and the son of man, who is a He, reckon it such an indig- 
 nity to have their veracity or kindness called in question ; 
 how much more is it an indignity done to Ilim for whom 
 it is impossible to lie ? O Sirs ! unbelief offers the most 
 signal affront to a God of truth that is possible for a crea- 
 ture to do. God, as you were hearing-, to encourage 
 our faith and confidence towards him, has given all the 
 securities which he could possibly grant ; yea, the most 
 jealous heart in the world could not ask better security 
 from the most treacherous person on earth, than God has 
 g-ranted in his Word : for though his bare word of pro- 
 mise be enough to command faith from all mankind, yet, 
 beside his word, he has given his writ ; beside his writ, 
 he has given his sacred oath ; beside his oath, he has given 
 a surety ; beside a surety, he has appended solemn seals, 
 and ratified all by the joint testimony of the three that 
 bear record in heaven, — Father, Word, and Spirit. Now, 
 after all these securities, to entertain a jealousy of him, 
 as if he were not faithful to his promise of welcome and 
 acceptance in the Beloved, — what else is this but to make 
 him a liar? Faithfulness and truth are the girdle of his 
 loins and reins ; but unbelief does its utmost to strip him 
 of his girdle, charging- him with treachery and unfaithful- 
 ness. You would reckon it an imputation of a very high 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 73 
 
 and horrid nature, for any man to charge you with blas- 
 phemy ag-ainst God ; and yet I will be bold to say, every 
 unbeliever is a blasphemer of God. Why, can there be 
 g-reater blasphemy under heaven, than to make God a liar? 
 It is indeed most certain, that God will be found true, 
 and every man a liar ; but yet the unbeliever does his 
 utmost to make him a liar, by refusing- credit to his 
 word. And, after all, is it any wonder though a holy and 
 jealous God be so enraged against the sin of unbelief, as 
 to declare, that " he who believeth not is condemned 
 already, and the wrath of God abideth on him?" Believe 
 it, Sirs, if you continue to blaspheme God by your un- 
 belief here, you shall have time to blaspheme him in hell 
 with devils and damned spirits, through the endless ages 
 of eternity, " If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall 
 die in your sins." — John viii. 24. " If I had not come, 
 and spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; but now 
 they have no cloak for their sin." — John xv. 22. 
 
 2. This doctrine not only condemns the reigning un- 
 belief of the greatest part of the hearers of the Gospel, 
 but also the remaining unbehef of believers themselves. 
 God knows how many unbelieving believers there are 
 among us. There are very few believers but are guilty 
 of ten, if not twenty, acts of unbelief, for one act of faith. 
 
 that I could shame even believers out of their unbelief I 
 
 1 shall only say, that your unbelief is much more unac- 
 countable and inexcusable than the unbelief of other men. 
 Why ? God has not only given you a ground of faith, as 
 he has given others, but he has given you the grace of 
 faith ; and not to believe in that case, is a crime of a most 
 ])lack and aggravated nature. If a child, who is sprung- 
 out of his parent's bowels, and who is the object of his 
 most endeared affection, should call his father that begat 
 him a liar, — would not this give a more sensible wound 
 to the parent's heart than if he had been so treated by any 
 other person ? This is the very case with you, behevers ; 
 God has taken you into his family, given you the name 
 of sons and daughters, and he says to you, in effect (as 
 Jer. iii. 4), " Wilt thou not from henceforth cry unto me, 
 
74 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 My Father?" Wilt thoii not from henceforth draw nenr 
 to me as a Father, and as your Father in Christ, with full 
 assurance of faith ? And yet, after all, to call him a liar 
 hy your unbelief, and to say that his promise fails for 
 evermore, or that he has forgotten to he gracious, — O 
 what a dtop wound may you think doth this give unto 
 the heart of your heavenly Father ! The provocations of 
 sons and daughters, particularly this provocation of un- 
 belief, touches him in the tenderest part. 
 
 You may readily ask, " Wherein doth the unbelief of 
 believers discover itself?" I answer, 
 
 Ist, It discovers itself in their frequent pleading the 
 cause of unbelief, and that under the specious pretext of 
 humility. " Oh!" will the man say, "it would be too 
 great a thing for the like of me to venture into the holiest ; 
 it would be presumption in me to draw near with full 
 assurance of faith, asking peace and pardon, grace and 
 glory. I dare not meddle with the gift of God, or take 
 hold of his covenant ; my fingers are too foul to touch 
 such holy things." Here, indeed, is a fair mask and show 
 of humility ; but. Sirs, it is nothing else than the devil of 
 unbelief wrapped up in Samuel's mantle ; it is a pleading 
 the cause of unbelief, and a refusing to obey the express 
 command of God, under a pretence that you are not fit 
 enough for believing, — that you want this, and that, and 
 the other quahfication ; and what is this but a tang of the 
 old Adam, a tincture of the covenant of works ? What- 
 ever carnal reason may imagine, true faith, though it be 
 the boldest, yet it is the most humble and self-emptying 
 thing in the world ; and the more of the boldness and 
 assurance of faith, always the more humility. And the 
 reason of this is plain, — because faith, in its dealings with 
 God, despises so much as to cast an eye upon any grace 
 or qualification in the soul itself, excepting it be its empti- 
 ness, misery, poverty, &c., and builds its whole confidence 
 upon a ground without itself, namely, the noble qualifica- 
 tions of the great High Priest over the house of God. 
 
 2f^/y, The unbelief of believers discovers itself in a faint, 
 languid, and timorous way of believing, as if the ground 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 75 
 
 they stand upon were not able to bear them. Much like 
 a naan walking- upon weak ice ; though he ventures his 
 weight upon it, yet every moment he is afraid lest the ice 
 break underneath him, and leave him in the deep. Ju>t 
 so is it with many believers ; they venture upon Christ, 
 upon his righteousness, and upon the faithfulness of God 
 pawned in the promise, with a kind of erphing, as though 
 they would fail underneath them, and leave them to perish 
 for ever. And what else is this but unbelief, or a secret 
 distrusting of the sufficiency of God's faithfulness, or of 
 Christ's righteousness, to bear up the soul in its eternal 
 concerns ? 
 
 3dlj/, The unbelief of believers appears in their being 
 too much addicted to a way of living by sense. Sense, un- 
 less it have the stock in its own hand, does not reckon 
 the promise of God w^orth a farthing ; but faith rejoices 
 in the promise as its subsistence, even when sense is 
 out of doors. The believer who lives by sense will not 
 believe the promise, or credit the veracity of the Pro- 
 miser, unless he be hired and bribed with sensible conso- 
 lations and manifestations ; much like Thomas : " Except 
 I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my 
 finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into 
 his side, I will not believe." — John xx. 25. It is with 
 many believers as it is with some unskilful swimmers, — 
 they will venture into the deep waters if you will under- 
 take to bear their heads above, but not otherwise. But 
 this is not true swimming ; true swimming is, for a man 
 to venture the weight of his body into the water, and by 
 the strength of the water, and the waving of his hands 
 and limbs, to bear himself up from sinking. So true be- 
 lieving is, not for a man to trust God and his promise 
 only when he is borne up with sensible consolations ; but 
 for a man to rest, stay, and bear up his soul upon the 
 bare promise of God, even when these props are with- 
 drawn ; it is to " trust in the name of the Lord, and to 
 stay ourselves upon him as our God," when we " walk 
 in darkness, and see no light." 
 
 Inference 4. This doctrine serves to discover what is 
 
76 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 the strength or stature of our faith ; for the expression 
 of the apostle in the text, as was ah'eady hinted, plainly 
 imports, that there are believers of different sizes in God's 
 family. Now, in enlarging- this inference, there are two 
 or three practical cases which I shall endeavour briefly to 
 resolve : 
 
 1. What are the usual symptoms of a strong faith ? 
 
 2. What are the usual attendants of a weak faith ? 
 
 3. How may the reaHty of faith be known, though it 
 were in the lowest or weakest degree ? 
 
 Question 1. What are the signs or evidences of a 
 strong faith ? 
 
 Answe7' 1 . The more that the legality of the heart is 
 overcome, the stronger is a man's faith. Every man is 
 naturally married to the law as a covenant ; and while 
 there is any thing of nature in the believer, he will find 
 a strong bias in his heart, turning him into the works of 
 the law, as a ground of acceptance before God. And O, 
 how easily and insensibly do our spirits glide into this 
 old covenant channel, imagining that God accepts of us 
 the better, on the score of our inherent holiness, or ex- 
 ternal acts of obedience ! Now, I say, the more that this 
 bias of the heart is conquered, the stronger is our faith. 
 A vigorous and lively faith overlooks all graces, duties, 
 attainments, and experiences, as grounds of acceptance ; 
 and founds its confidence allenarly upon the blood of 
 Jesus, the merit and mediation of the great High Priest 
 over the house of God, by virtue of the covenant of 
 grace, and free promise of acceptance in him. The 
 strong believer casts out the bond-woman, and her seed 
 of legal works and doings, owning himself only a son of 
 the free-woman, an heir of the promise of grace and glory, 
 through Christ and his imputed righteousness. Upon 
 this rock he drops his anchor, upon this foundation he 
 builds his hope, disclaiming his goodness as a thing that 
 extendeth not to the Lord, accounting his own righteous- 
 ness, whether legal or evangelical, before or after conver- 
 sion, as " loss and dung, that he may be found in Christ, 
 having the righteousness which is through the faith of 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 77 
 
 Christ." He will not take so much as a stone or little 
 pinning of the works of the law, to help up the new fabric 
 of grace ; no, it shall be all grace from top to bottom, and 
 through every part of it, and grace reigning through im- 
 puted righteousness alone : " By grace are ye saved, through 
 faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : 
 not of works, lest any man should boast." — Eph. ii.^,8^. 
 
 2. Strong faith will build its confidence, as to greajt 
 matters, upon a naked word coming from the mouth o^ 
 Christ, even though sense and reason, yea, the ordinarv) 
 course of providence, be against it. This we see exem- 
 pHfied in the case of Abraham, formerly mentioned, Rom. 
 iv. Though every thing seemed to make against him, 
 yet " he staggered not at the promise through unbelief, 
 but was strong in faith, giving glory to God." Yea, 
 strong faith will catch at the least hint of encouragement 
 from the Lord, and build its assurance thereupon, as to 
 the desired event : Matt. viii. 5-13, the centurion comes 
 to Christ on behalf of his servant, who was stricken with 
 the palsy, and grievously tormented. Christ answers, 
 ver. 7, " I vv'ill come and heal him." Well, the man's 
 faith fixes upon this simple word of promise, and is so 
 much assured of the good-will, power, and faithfulness of 
 the Promiser, that he makes no more doubt of his ser- 
 vant's recovery, than if it were already done, being per- 
 suaded, that diseases and distempers were as much at 
 Christ's beck, and much more, than his soldiers or ser- 
 vants were at his ; and that Christ's word of command 
 could as effectually heal at a distance, as though he were 
 present: whereupon, ver. 10, we are told, that Jesus 
 marvelled, saying, " I have not found so great faith, no, 
 not in Israel." 
 
 3. Strong faith is ordinarily attended with a firm and 
 fixed resolution to hang on the Lord, till it get the er- 
 rand it comes for : and no supposable discouragements 
 shall make it quit its gripe. Jacob was a strong believer, 
 and, by the strength of his faith, " he had power with 
 God ; yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed." 
 We read, Gen. xxxii., after a long night's wrestling, the 
 
78 THE ASSUKA^'CE OF FAITH 
 
 Lord says to him, " Let me go, for the day breaketh :" 
 Jacob answers, " I will not let thee go, except thou bless 
 me." This, one would think, looked like rudeness and 
 ill manners in Jacob, to speak so to God ; no, it was not 
 rudeness, but only the resolution of his faith. Lord, 
 might Jacob say, if thou ask my leave to go, I can by no 
 means yield to it; let the day break and pass on, let 
 night come, and the next day break again, lame Jacob 
 and the living God shall never part till I get the bless- 
 ing ; and his resolute faith, like a prince, prevailed. O 
 let all the true seed of Jacob follow his example, and they 
 shall be fed with the heritage of Jacob their father. The 
 like instance we see in the Syrophenician woman, Matt. 
 XV. 22-28. Her faith breaks through all discourage- 
 ments, yea, improves seeming discouragements as argu- 
 ments to fortify her suit ; whereupon Christ at last 
 answers, " O woman, great is thy faith." Strong faith t 
 will rather die upon the spot, than quit its gripe jl 
 " Though he slay me," says Job, " yet will I trust'in him. 
 4. Strong faith, though it may be troubled at the hid- 
 ing of the Lord's countenance, yet it will not be cast 
 down at every cloud, as though the Lord had forgotten 
 to be gracious ; no, it presently casts its eyes on the 
 covenant, and reads love in God's words, when it cannot 
 see them in his looks ; saying with the Church, in Micah 
 vii. 8, 9, " Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a 
 light unto me : he will bring m.e forth to the light, and I 
 shall behold his righteousness." Why ? He has said, and 
 his word is sure, that " his goings forth are prepared" or 
 secured, "as the" outgoings of the "morning" light, — Hos. 
 vi. 3 ; and therefore I no more doubt of the Lord's return, 
 than I doubt of the return of the sun in the mornings 
 when he sets out of sight in the evening. However^ 
 dark the night may be, yet the day will break, and they 
 shadows will fly away : " Weeping may endure for a 
 night, but joy cometh in the morning." And, as strong 
 faith keeps up the heart from sinking under the clouds of 
 desertion, temptation, and inward trouble ; so it keeps the 
 spirit of a man in an equal poise, under all the vicissi- 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 79 
 
 Hides of time, so that "he shall not be afraid of evil 
 tidings, his heart being- fixed, trusting: in the Lord. 
 Although the fig-tree should not blossom," &c., "yet will 
 he rejoice in the Lord, and be glad in the God of his sal- 
 vation." — Hah. iii. 17, 18. Heroic faith hath the moon 
 of this world under its feet ; it tramples upon all the 
 changes of time, saying with the apostle, " I have learned 
 in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content," &c. 
 However matters may be situate in the conduct of pro- 
 vidence, yet, a lively faith can see that there are no 
 changes in God's covenant, no change of his love or pur- 
 pose of grace. 
 
 5. The more fruitful a person is in the exercise of 
 other graces, the stronger is his faith. You know the 
 plenty and bigness of the fruit of a tree flows from the 
 abundance of sap and strength in the root ; so here, faith 
 is the radical grace, the root upon which the other graces 
 grow ; and therefore, the more that a person abounds in 
 love, hope, repentance, meekness, humihty, and other 
 graces, the more vigorous is his faith ; for as the tree 
 strikes its roots into the ground, and from thence draws 
 and sends a digested nourishment through the several 
 branches, whereby they are made to blossom and bring- 
 forth ; so faith unites the soul to Christ, through the 
 word of grace, and fetches out sap and strength from that 
 true olive, whereby the soul is made to " revive as the 
 corn, to grow as the vine, and the scent " and savour 
 " thereof to be as the wine of Lebanon." 
 
 The second question was, What are the usual attend- 
 ants of a weak faith ? An answer to this question may 
 easily be deduced from what has been already suggested 
 in answer to the former ; a weak faith having the op- 
 posite symptoms of a strong-. However, beside what 
 may be gathered this way, I shall suggest the two parti- 
 culars following : — 
 
 . 1. Frequent doubting-, staggering-, and wavering of the 
 heart, is a concomitant of weak faith. You know, there 
 is a great deal of smoke goes up from the fire while it is 
 weak, not thoroughly broken up; so the more of the 
 
80 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 smoke of unbelieving doubts, fears, and jealousies, there 
 is the less faith. Hence doubting- and believing are op- 
 posed : " Wherefore didst thou doubt, O thou of little 
 faith?" A staggering- at the promise throng-h unbelief 
 is opposed to the strength of faith, Rom. iv. 20, The 
 word is borrowed from a man walking, whose feet through 
 weakness hit one another, which makes him alter his 
 pace ; one step is quick, and another slow ; so here, the 
 way of weak faith is not equal. Perhaps, under a sensi- 
 ble enjoyment, he is this hour triumphing in his high 
 places ; but anon the enjoyment is withdrawn, and he 
 alters his pace, and staggers through unbelief, saying, 
 " His promise fails for evermore ; he hath forgotten to 
 be gracious." 
 
 2. The more hasty and impatient the soul is under 
 delays, the weaker is its faith. This I gather from Isa. 
 xxviii. 16: " He that believeth shall not make haste." 
 Weak faith is so hasty, that it will allow of no time to 
 intervene betwixt the petition and its answer, betwixt the 
 promise and the accomplishment : If the answer do not 
 come presently, the man is ready to conclude, " The Lord 
 doth not hear, neither doth the God of Jacob regard." 
 But now, strong faith makes the soul to wait God's time 
 and leisure, saying, " I will direct my prayer unto thee, 
 and will look up. I will look unto the Lord : I will wait 
 for the God of my salvation : my God will hear me." 
 
 The third question was this, How may the truth and 
 reality of faith be known, though it be in the weakest 
 and lowest degree ? I answer, 
 
 L True faith, even in the weakest measure, will look 
 on sin as an enemy, though it perhaps dare not lay claim 
 to Christ as a friend. True faith is said to " purify the 
 heart." — Acts xv. 9. It is a living principle in the soul, 
 which is always opposing the motions of indwelling cor- 
 ruption. Although indeed, sometimes, through the pre- 
 valency of sin, it cannot be discerned, more than the 
 living spring at the bottom of the well, when the waters 
 are muddied ; yet, like the living spring, it is always 
 working out the mud and filth, till the waters be per- 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 81 
 
 fectly clear. Perhaps the soul is so far from perceiving 
 any real grace, any actual interest in Christ, that it can 
 see nothing but atheism, enmity, unbelief, ignorance, 
 pride, and such vermin of hell, crawling in every corner ; 
 and yet at the same time the living principle of faith at 
 the bottom of the heart will be working and wrestling 
 against these, sometimes by groans, " Wretched man that 
 I am, who shall deliver me ? " sometimes by complaints, 
 " Iniquities prevail against me ;" sometimes by looks to 
 heaven for relief, " I know not what to do, but mine 
 eyes are upon thee ;" sometimes by cries to heaven, " I 
 am oppressed, undertake for me ;" sometimes by breath- 
 ing desires after more holiness, " Create in me a clean 
 heart ; let my heart be sound in thy statutes ; O that my 
 ways were directed to keep thy statutes!" By such 
 things as these, the truth and reality of faith may be dis- 
 covered, even in its weakest measure and degree. 
 
 2. True faith, though never so weak, will have a high 
 estimate and valuation of Christ, and the habitual bent 
 and bias of the soul will be toward him : " Unto you 
 which believe, he is precious." — I Pet. ii. 7. " The 
 desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance 
 of thee." — Isa. xxvi. 8. Weak faith perhaps dare not go 
 the length of saying with the spouse, " My beloved is 
 mine, and I am his ;" yet it will be often saying, O that 
 he were mine ! " O that thou wert as my brother that 
 sucked the breasts of my mother !" And if it could get 
 out its breath, it would even cry, " Abba, Father ; My 
 Lord, and my God ;" but it is, as it were, suppressed and 
 smothered, when it would say so, with prevailing unbe- 
 lief. Where true faith is, there is a void, emptiness, and 
 restlessness of the soul, like the fish out of its element, 
 or a bone out of joint, till some view of Christ come, and 
 then indeed it returns unto its rest. I remember, after 
 the creation of Adam, God caused all the creatures to 
 pass before him ; but among them all there was not 
 found an help meet for him ; there was something dis- 
 agreeable and unsatisfying in all the inferior creatures ; 
 so that though he had them all at his command, yet still 
 o 
 
82 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 man was in a solitary condition. — Gen. ii. 20. But so 
 soon as ever the woman was presented to him, he says, 
 " This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh," 
 ver. 23 ; this^ indeed is a help meet for me. Just so is 
 it with the soul in whom there is a principle of true 
 faith : present riches, profits, pleasures, and all worldly 
 contentments to him, he still finds something- unsuitable 
 and unsavoury in them all ; but let Christ be revealed to 
 him, immediately he cries out, O this is a help meet for 
 me indeed ! " To him shall the Gentiles seek, for his 
 rest is glorious." — Isa. xi. 10. " Whom have I in heaven 
 Juit thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire 
 besides thee." — Psal. Ixxiii. 25. 
 
 3. True faith, though in the lowest degree, will not 
 rest there, but breathes after higher degrees of faith. Set 
 the highest degree of faith before a weak believer, tell 
 him of the faith of Abraham, how he believed without 
 staggering ; the man will indeed be humbled under a 
 sense of his shortcomings, and lament his own unbelief; 
 yet, at the same time, he will find a breathing and eager 
 desire in his soul to win such a length of believing. 
 Thus, like Paul, he " forgets those things which are 
 behind," &c. When the v»eak believer hears of the full 
 assurance of faith, his language is, " Lord, help my un- 
 belief; Lord, increase my faith." I might tell you of many 
 other evidences of faith in its truth and reality, though 
 weak, as that it works by love ; it empties the soul and 
 humbles it ; though the man cannot see himself great in 
 God's eyes, yet he sees himself nothing in his own eyes ; 
 as he values Christ highly, so he values himself less than 
 the least of all God's mercies. But I do not insist. 
 
 Inference 5, Is it the will of God that we should draw 
 near to him in Christ, with full assurance of faith ? then 
 let us study to do the will of God in this matter. Seeing 
 the door of the holiest is open, the " way consecrated for 
 us," and the " High Priest entered within the vail ; let 
 us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith." 
 I exhort you not only to " believe," but to be " strong 
 in the faith." Study to have a faith proportioned, in some 
 measure, to the grounds of faith already mentioned. 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 83 
 
 But here a question will readily be moved, Is it the 
 duty of all the hearers of the Gospel, at first to believe 
 after this manner, or to draw near with a full assurance 
 of faith ? For answer, 
 
 1 . I grant, that the first approaches of a sinner to God 
 in Christ by faith, are for the most part weak and feeble, 
 attended with much fear and trembling, through the pre- 
 valency and strength of unbelief, a sense of utter unwor- 
 thiness, and awful impressions of the glorious majesty of 
 God ; all which readily makes him, with the publican, to 
 " stand afar off, smiting on his breast, crying, God be 
 merciful to me a sinner." But yet, 
 
 2. I affirm, that there is a sufficient ground laid, in the 
 Gospel revelation and promise, for a sinner even in his 
 first approach to God in Christ, to come with full assur- 
 ance of faith. This will evidently appear, if we consider, 
 that by the glorious Gospel, a wide door of access is cast 
 open unto all without exception ; all grounds of unbe- 
 lief and distrust are removed, every bar and impediment 
 which might make them to halt and hesitate is rolled 
 away. This is given in commission to ministers, to " pre- 
 pare the way of the people, to cast up, cast up the high- 
 way, to gather out the stones, and lift up a standard for 
 the people." — Isa. Ixii. 10. When we call sinners to 
 believe, we do not call them to come with a weak faith, 
 or with a doubting, disputing faith ; but we invite and 
 call them to come with assurance of acceptance and wel- 
 come, grounded upon his infallible word of promise, 
 " Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." 
 
 3. I find the Lord directing sinners, even in their first 
 approaches, to draw near to him in Christ, with full 
 assurance of faith : " But I said. How shall I put thee 
 among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a 
 goodly heritage of the hosts of nations?" — Jer. iii. 19. 
 Here is a puzzling question, such as none can answer 
 but God himself. Well, but what is the answer which 
 the Lord puts in the sinner's mouth ? " Thou shalt call 
 me. My Father, and shalt not turn away from me." The 
 first breath of the Spirit of adoption is, " Abba, Father," 
 Rom. viii. 15 ; a word of faith or confidence. Christ put s 
 
84 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 words of assurance in our mouths, teaching us, when] we 
 pray, to say, " Our Father which art in heaven ;" and 
 every one apart is to say, " My Father which art in 
 heaven," &c. Agreeable unto which is the direction 
 given, James i. 6. We are told, that " if any man" (be 
 he a saint or a sinner) " lack wisdom, let him ask of God, 
 that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not ; and 
 it shall be given him," ver. 5. Well, here is noble en- 
 couragement to all ; but they who would speed well, are 
 ordered to come in the full assurance of faith: " But then 
 let him ask in faith, nothing wavering," &c., ver. 6. 
 
 4. I find sinners in their first approaches sometimes 
 practising this direction, and coming with words of assur- 
 ance : Jer. iii. 22, says the Lord, " Return ye backslid- 
 ing children, and I will heal your backslidings." And 
 what is the first echo of faith unto this call ? " Behold 
 we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God." So 
 Zech. xiii. 9 : " I will say. It is my people ;" there is the 
 word of grace, and ground of faith : and the language 
 of faith, correspondent thereunto, immediately follows : 
 " They shall say. The Lord is my God." " Surely shall 
 one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." 
 — Isa. xlv. 24. Besides all this, none, I think, can doubt 
 but it is the sinner's duty, at first, in obedience to the first 
 commandment, to know and acknowledge the Lord as 
 God, and as our God ; and how this can be done but by 
 believing, I cannot tell. 
 
 Well then, seeing there is such a door of faith opened 
 to sinners in the Gospel, let sirmers enter in with bold- 
 ness, and be saved : " I am the door," says Christ : " by 
 me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in 
 and out, and find pasture." — John x. 9. 
 
 Objection 1. May the sinner say. How shall I adven- 
 ture to draw near with assurance of acceptance ? I have 
 such a burden of sin and guilt lying upon me, and it has 
 such a j>revalency and ascendant over me, that my con- 
 fidence is quite marred : for my part, I may well say with 
 David, "Innumerable evils have compassed me about, 
 mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am 
 not able to look up : they are more than the hairs of 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 85 
 
 mine head, therefore my heart faileth me." — Psal. xl. 12. 
 To this I answer, (I.) By way of concession, that it is 
 indeed impossible for a person living- in the love and 
 practice of sin, to draw near to God with the confidence 
 of faith ; for in the very act of drawing- near, the " heart 
 is purified by faith" in the blood of Jesus ; or, as it is 
 expressed in the latter clause of the text, he hath his 
 " heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and his body 
 washed with pure water." In believing we " cease to do 
 evil, and learn to do well." Faith, apprehending the 
 mercy of God in Christ, turns the soul from sin unto 
 God ; so that it is as impossible for a person to draw 
 near to God with the confidence of faith while he lives in 
 the love and practice of sin, as it is for a person to come 
 to yon, and go from you, at the same instant of time. 
 While the heart is in league with sin, it is departing^ from 
 the Lord: how, then, in this case can the sinner draw near 
 to God ? far less can he draw near with assurance of ac- 
 ceptance. There is a great difference betwixt iniquity 
 pvevaiiing in the heart, and iniquity regarded in the 
 heart. In the last case, a person cannot draw near with 
 acceptance : " If I reg-ard iniquity in my heart, the Lord 
 will not hear me," — Psal. Ixvi. \% \ q. d., If I love it, 
 or give it kindly harbour in my heart, God will not accept 
 of me, or my prayers ; because in that case he could not 
 draw near with a true hearty which is an inseparable 
 concomitant of the assurance of faith. But in the former 
 case, viz., of prevailing iniquity, it is not only possi- 
 ble, but actually precedented, for a person to draw near 
 with the full assurance of faith ; as we see in the instance 
 of David, " Iniquities," says he, " prevail against me." — 
 Psal. Ixv. 3. But what follows ? " As for our trans- 
 gressions, thou shalt purge them away." Now, this being 
 the case pointed at in the objection, it ought to be no 
 prejudice or hinderance to your drawing near unto the 
 holiest by the blood of Jesus, with full assurance of faith, 
 seeing he is faithful who hath promised acceptance in the 
 beloved. (2.) Whereas, O sinner, thou complainest of 
 a burden of sin and guilt lying upon thee, which mars 
 thy confidence ; I only ask, For whom, thinks thou, was 
 
S6 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 the way to the holiest opened by the blood of Jesus ? was 
 it for the righteous, or for guilty sinners ? An innocent 
 or holy person needs no such way of access : it is only 
 calculate and shapen for the guilty criminal and trans- 
 gressor, such as thou art j and " though thy sins be as 
 scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be 
 red like crimson, they shall be as wool," that moment 
 thou enterest in by the blood of Jesus ; and therefore, 
 " let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of 
 faith." Whither can a guilty sinner go, but to the Lord 
 pardoning imquity, transgression and sin ? Whither can 
 a polluted sinner go, save to the fountain opened for sin 
 and for uncleanness ? (3.) The boldness and assurance 
 of faith is not only consistent, but is aluays accompanied 
 with a soul-abasing sense of utter unworthiness, because 
 of the guilt, and filth, and power of sin. And the reason 
 of this is plain, because in believing, the man through an 
 uptaking of sin and guilt, is carried out of himself to seek 
 his standing and the ground of his confidence in another, 
 even in Christ, and the mercy of God in him. So David, 
 Psal. cxxx. 3, 4 : " If thou, Lord, shouldst mark ini- 
 quities, O Lord, who shall stand ? But there is for- 
 giveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared," &c. And 
 therefore let a sense of sin, in its guilt and pre valency, 
 carry thee out of thyself, to draw near by the blood of 
 Jesus, with full assurance of faith. It was a preposter- 
 ous way of reasoning in Peter, to say, " Lord, depart 
 from me, for I am a sinful man." He should rather have 
 said. Lord, come to me, for lam a sinful man ; for where 
 can a sinner be better than with the Saviour of sinners ? 
 Objection 2. You call us to draw near with the as- 
 surance of faith ; but, alas ! how can I do this, seeing I 
 am in the dark about my interest in Christ ? If I knew 
 that I had peace with God, my sin pardoned, my person 
 accepted, and that I were in a state of grace and favour, 
 in that case I could draw near with confidence indeed. 
 But the case is quite otherwise ; clouds and darkness are 
 round about me ; I doubt if ever God dealt with my heart 
 effectually by his grace : How, then, can I draw near 
 with the confidence of faith ? Answer^ If vou never 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 87 
 
 draw near to God with the assurance of faith, till you 
 come to a sensible assurance of your interest in Christ, 
 and of your being- in a state of grace, you will never draw 
 near to him in your Hfe ; and the reason of this is, be- 
 cause a sensible assurance of an interest in Christ is the 
 fruit and effect of the soul's drawing near by faith ; and 
 the effect can never go before its cause. The way to 
 come at that assurance of a state of grace, is to draw near 
 with the assurance of faith, grounded, not upon any gra- 
 cious work within you, but upon the gracious promise of 
 God in his Word, and the mediation of the great High 
 Priest over the house of God : " Seeing we have a great 
 High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the 
 Son of God ; let us therefore come boldly unto the 
 
 throne of grace," &c Heb. iv. 14, 16. Faith, as I said 
 
 just now, still seeks a ground of confidence, not in grace 
 received, or any thing within the man, but only in Christ, 
 and the gracious promise of acceptance through him ; and 
 therefore, the best way in the world to win above all 
 these doubts, fears, and perplexities, anent your gracious 
 state, is, by a direct act of faith, to go in to God by the 
 new and living way, assuring and persuading your own 
 souls, that a God of grace and love " hates putting away." 
 — Isa. 1. 10. He that " walketh in darkness, and hath 
 no light," what course is he to take ? " Let him trust 
 in the name of the Lord, and stay himself upon his God ;" 
 where by the name of the Lord, we are to understand 
 the grace and mercy, power and faithfulness of God, 
 pawned in the promises of the covenant. Here we are 
 to cast anchor ; upon these we are to build the confi- 
 dence and assurance of faith, when we have nothing to 
 look or trust to. Faith, both in its first act, and in its 
 after actings, fastens upon this name of the Lord ; when 
 at first it fetches the soul out of the darkness of a natural 
 state, and when afterwards, by its renewed actings, it 
 brings the soul from under the dark and black clouds of 
 desertion, temptation and despondency, it still trusts in 
 the name of God, as it is set in Christ, and set forth in 
 the covenant, particularly in the absolute promises thereof. 
 And therefore, though indeed, in the duty of self-exami- 
 
88 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 nation, we are to look inward for the marks and evidences 
 of grace, in order to our arriving- at an assurance of sense ; 
 yet, in the duty of beheving-, and in order to our coming 
 at the assurance of faith, we must look wholly outward 
 to the promise, and the name of God pledged therein. 
 Thus did Abraham, the father of the faithful, Rom. iv. 
 20, 2 1 ; and so must we, if we would be the true seed of 
 Abraham. 
 
 Objection 3. You call sinners to believe, and to be- 
 lieve with an assured faith. But to what purpose is all 
 this ? may one say : faith is " the gift of God," the work 
 of his Spirit ; I have no power to believe, till God work 
 it in me : and therefore all this labour, in persuading us 
 to believe, might be spared. I answer, Your own ina- 
 bility to believe, by any strength or power of yours, is so 
 far from being an argument against, that it is one of the 
 strongest arguments why you should believe ; for when 
 we call you to believe, we do not call you to work or do 
 any thing by your own power ; but, because you have no 
 power, to trust in the doings and strength of another, 
 who, as he has wrought all your works for you^ so he 
 engages himself, by promise, to work all your works in 
 you ; and particularly, being " the Author and Finisher 
 of faith," is ready and willing to " fulfil in you all the 
 good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with 
 power." Every creature answers its name ; and will 
 God be wanting to answer his ? No, surely ; the name 
 that he takes to himself is decl^irative of his nature ; and 
 therefore since he has taken this name to himself, of being 
 the Author of faith ^ and the Finisher thereof, we may, 
 with the greatest assurance of faith, " trust in this name 
 of the Lord," that he will both begin the good work and 
 carry it on to the day of the Lord Jesus. And this very 
 committing of the work of faith unto him, from a sense 
 of your own inability, is that believing which wq urge and 
 call you to. Faith is a grace which just springs out of 
 the ruin of all self-sufficiency and excellency ; finding 
 neither righteousness nor strength within, it looks abroad 
 and cries, " Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and 
 strength." 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 89 
 
 Unbelief and carnal reason are ready to argue, Be- 
 cause God by his Spirit must do all, therefore we will 
 sit still and do nothing-. But the Spirit of God, whose 
 reasonings I am sure are infinitely better, argues after a 
 quite different manner : *' Work out the work of your 
 salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God which 
 worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good plea- 
 sure." — Phil. ii. 12, 13. O what glorious encourage- 
 ment is here for a poor impotent sinner to essay and mint 
 at believing ! Here is the arm of Omnipotency, reach- 
 ing forth itself for thy help and throughbearing in the 
 work he calls thee to. Up therefore, and be doing, for 
 " thy God commands thy strength ;" and therefore let 
 him be " the glory of thy strength." 
 
 But, say you, seeing we cannot work the work of 
 faith, why does he yet command it ? Is it not a hard- 
 ship to require of us what we have no ability to do ? 
 Answer^ Why do you send your little children to school 
 with the A, B, C in their hands before they can read 
 one letter ? You do not think it a hardship to put the 
 book in their hand, and bid them read, though they know 
 not a letter, because you offer to teach them yourself, or 
 by another in your place. So here, we are commanded 
 to " work the work of God ;" which is to " believe on 
 him whom he hath sent ;" which yet is no hardship, not- 
 withstanding of utter inability for it in ourselves ; be- 
 cause, at the same time that he commands believing, he 
 tells us, for our encourage m-ent, that he himself is the 
 Author of faith, and is ready to work in us both to will 
 and to do. If a master should command a servant to 
 poise or lift a burden which he is not able to move, or to 
 work a turn which he has no skill to manage ; it might 
 indeed discourage the servant from attempting it, if he 
 were required to do it by his own strength or skill ; but 
 when the master tells him, I will assist, I will direct, I 
 will do all, only put to thy hand, what servant would re- 
 fuse or decline the service in this case ? or if he should, 
 do you not think he would deserve to be beaten with 
 many stripes ? The application is obvious : It is God's 
 ordinary way to come and join with the poor soul, and 
 
90 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 enable it to believe, while, in obedience to his command, 
 it is minting- to believe in Christ. Like a kind master 
 of a school, when the child, in obedience to him, takes 
 the pen in his hand, and scribbles the best way he can, 
 the master takes his hand in his, and leads and learns him 
 to write ; so, when we take, as it were, the pen in our 
 hand, and offer to write, at his command, he takes our 
 hand in his, directing-, strengthening, and enabling- us to 
 believe ; so that, if there be but a willing mind to this 
 work, it is accepted : where he gives to will, he will also 
 give to do, of his good pleasure ; these two are insepar- 
 ably connected in the order of God's covenant. 
 
 But you may still object, All the endeavours of a 
 natural man are still but natural and sinful actions ; and 
 will ever God concur by his almighty power with the acts 
 or endeavours of nature. Answer^ Although God be 
 not obliged to concur with the endeavours of nature ; 
 yet, such is his grace, love, and good- will towards man 
 upon earth, such is the strength of his desire after our 
 salvation, such pleasure has he in a sinner's believing, 
 such a regard has he to what himself has commanded, 
 that we find him many times actually concurring with 
 the poor helpless sinner, in his impotent mints at obe- 
 dience to what he calls for. It was no gracious princi- 
 ple that moved Naaman the Syrian to go wash in the 
 waters of Jordan ; yet, because he did what was com- 
 manded, God was pleased to concur with the means of 
 his own appointment, and cured his leprous body, and, 
 for ought I know, his soul also. Let us believe as we 
 can, in obedience to God's command, and in a dependence 
 upon his almighty power ; and while we are doing so, 
 although the act be at the beginning but natural, yet, in 
 the very acting, promised and purchased grace strikes in, 
 and turns it into a supernatural act of beheving. As 
 when Christ was about to work that famous miracle at 
 Cana, in Galilee, he does not first turn the water into 
 wine ; but he first bids them pour out the water, and, in 
 pouring of it out, the water was changed into wine ; so 
 the loaves were multiplied, while the disciples, in obedience 
 to the command of Christ, were dividing them among 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 91 
 
 the multitude. Just so here, while the poor soul, in a 
 subordination to the divine power, and, in obedience to 
 the divine command, is attempting to believe, a God of 
 grace changes the attempt into a true genuine faith ; so 
 that the soul, through the mighty power of God, ere ever 
 it is aware, is brought really to believe, and that in a way 
 it knows not how ; for " the wind bloweth where it list- 
 eth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; so is every one 
 that is born of the Spirit." 
 
 Thus, I say, in the very acting of faith we are enabled 
 to act it ; when we take the pen in our hand, God takes 
 us by the hand, and writes for us, leading us in the " way 
 we know not." It is with us in believing many times, as 
 in praying. The man goes to prayer with his heart as 
 cold as ice, and as hard as the nether millstone ; he can- 
 not open a mouth before the Lord ; his tongue is tacked, 
 his heart is locked up ; but yet, while the poor soul is 
 minting to pour out its heart into God's bosom, the Spirit 
 of the Lord falls on him, even the Spirit of grace and 
 supplication, whereby his bonds are loosed, and his soul 
 made like the chariots of Amminadib. So, while the 
 poor soul is minting at believing, the Spirit of faith comes 
 and concurs with it, exerting that exceeding great and 
 mighty power which raised Christ from the dead, whereby 
 he comes to be " filled with joy and peace in believing." 
 
 Perhaps you may say, You urge us much to essay be- 
 lieving ; but pray give us your best advice how to manage 
 in this matter. O that the Spirit of God may concur ! 
 There are these two or three things I offer, by way of 
 advice, to you who are in good earnest ; and, O ! what 
 man is there, that has a soul to be saved, and who looks 
 forward to a vast eternity of well or woe, that should not 
 be in good earnest as to this matter ! 
 
 1 . My first advice, then, is this, Study to have your 
 hearts well stored with all these considerations, which are 
 fit fuel and matter whereby faith is ingenerated, or be- 
 gotten, in the hearts of sinners. Although the act of 
 saving faith be the effect of the divine power and grace, 
 yet it is in the power of nature, by a common concourse, 
 
02 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 to Stock and store the mind with these things which are 
 the seed of faith. The husbandman, though he cannot 
 make one grain of corn to grow, yet he can plough and 
 sow his ground ; and when he has done his part, he 
 leaves the seed under the clod, and looks up to heaven 
 for the waterings of the earlier and latter rains ; and ac- 
 cordingly, God for ordinary crowns his endeavours with 
 success, making the heavens to hear the earth, and the 
 earth to hear the corn, whereby it brings forth ten, 
 twenty, or an hundred fold. So here, let us do what is 
 incumbent on us, and what we have power in an ordinary 
 way to do ; let us sow the seeds, I mean, let us store our 
 minds with the pure and precious truths of God, and ac- 
 quaint ourselves with these things which are to be be- 
 lieved, as they are laid before us in the holy oracles of 
 the Scriptures of truth ; and having thus laid in the seed 
 into the ground or soil of our hearts, let us look heaven- 
 ward, and wait for a shower of the Spirit's influences, 
 according to that word of grace or promise : " I will pour 
 water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry 
 ground." — Isa. xliv. 3. You know, they that offered 
 sacrifices of old, though they could not make fire come 
 down from heaven to consume their sacrifices, yet they 
 could fetch the bullock out of the stall, or the lamb out 
 of the fold ; they could bring it to the altar, and bind it 
 with cords to the horns of the altar ; they could gather 
 their sticks, and lay in proper fuel ; and having done their 
 part, they looked up to heaven for the celestial fire to set 
 all on a flame together. In like manner, I say, do what 
 is incumbent on you : gather your sticks, lay in the pro- 
 per fuel of faith, store your minds with the materials of 
 believing, which you are daily reading or hearing in the 
 Word. Study to impress your souls with the doctrines of 
 your lost estate in the first Adam, and the way of your 
 salvation by grace, in and through the second Adam, 
 Jesus Christ. Think upon the near approach that the 
 high and lofty One has made to us in the person of his 
 eternal Son, by his manifestation in our nature, when he 
 passed by the nature of angels. O think on the excel- 
 lency of his person, as he is Immanuel, God-man, God 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 93 
 
 with US, God on our side, to bruise the head of the old 
 serpent, who had spoiled and ruined us. Think upon his 
 suretyship and substitution in our room ; how he was 
 " made sin for us, that we might be made the righteous- 
 ness of God in him ;" how he was " made a curse for us, 
 that we might be redeemed from the curse ;" how he was 
 " delivered for our offences, and raised again for our jus- 
 tification." Think upon the fulness of grace and truth, 
 of merit and Spirit that is in him ; and how all that ful- 
 ness of grace that is laid up in him, is laid out to us in a 
 covenant of grace and promise, and that promise or cove- 
 nant left to us, and put in our hands, and we required to 
 take hold of it, to make use of it in a way of believing. 
 These are some of the materials of faith ; faith comes by 
 hearing of these things, and by thinking and meditating 
 upon them : " By these things do men live ; and in all 
 these things is the life of our spirits." — Isa. xxxviii. 16. 
 And therefore revolve them in your minds, roll them like 
 a sweet morsel under your tongues, think and think again 
 upon them, and, in thinking, present them to your un- 
 derstanding, as things wherein your eternal state is con- 
 cerned. You have as good ground to expect the con- 
 curring power of the Spirit of faith in this way and 
 method, to fulfil in you the work of faith with power, as 
 ever they of old had to look for the celestial fire to come 
 down and consume their sacrifices, as a testimony of the 
 divine acceptance, when they had, according to the com- 
 mand of God, done what was incumbent on them, in 
 preparing their materials. 
 
 2. Another advice I give you is this, Study not only 
 to gather these materials of faith, but to be fully per- 
 suaded of the truth and certain^ of every thing that God 
 has revealed in his Word, especially of these things which 
 relate more immediately to the mystery of salvation 
 through Christ. We must needs believe the report of 
 the Gospel, and set our seal to the record of God in his 
 word. Particularly, be fully persuaded that you are bank- 
 rupt, ruined, and lost, to all intents and purposes, by the 
 breach of the first covenant, being under the wrath of 
 God, the curse of the law, and the power of Satan ; and 
 
94 THE ASSURANCE OP FAITH 
 
 that you have no more power to relieve yourselves out of 
 this miserable condition, than the new-born infant cast 
 out into the open field." — Ezek. xvi. And in digging 
 into this rock whence you were hewn, be not afraid to go 
 to the bottom, — I mean, to know the worst of yourselves ; 
 for true faith springs out of the ruin of self. Despair 
 and self-loathing make way for a suitable prizing and im- 
 proving of the blessed remedy. Want of necessaries at 
 home oblige men to go abroad, either to beg or buy where 
 they may have them. The denial of self, in point of 
 righteousness and strength, lands the soul in Christ, 
 saying, " Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and 
 strength." Again, study to be fully assured, that there 
 is no hope or relief for you out of your lost condition, 
 but only by faith's acceptance and application of Christ, 
 upon the warrant of God's word of grace ; there is no 
 coming to the Father but by him, no other name whereby 
 men can be saved ; every other door of access is barred 
 and condemned since the fall. Be convinced of Christ's 
 ability and sufficiency to save you from sin, and all its 
 dismal train of miseries ; he is a mighty Redeemer, on 
 whom God hath laid our help, able to save to the very 
 uttermost. Be persuaded, that he is a Saviour every way 
 calculated and suited unto thy necessity, being made of 
 God unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and 
 redemption ; and that his office as a Saviour, as well as 
 his own promise, obliges him to save "every one that 
 comes to him in a way of believing : that everlasting life 
 is yours, and you actually have it, that moment you re- 
 ceive him as the free gift of God : <' He that hath the Son 
 hath life" — that there is no condition or qualification, no 
 work or duty, required i» the Word of God, in order to 
 procure a right and title to eternal life ; but that you are 
 to come in upon Christ's title, who is the righteous heir, 
 and who has made a disposition or assignation of his right 
 to us in his testament, without any clogs or conditions. 
 And if you adventure to make your works, duties, or any 
 good thing in you, the condition of Christ's latter will, 
 you alter the will of the deed ; you in effect destroy the 
 freedom of a covenant of grace, and build up a partition 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 95 
 
 wall between Christ and yon, which you shall never be 
 able to climb over. 
 
 3. Another advice I give you, is this, Believe that it 
 is your duty to believe, in obedience to the express com- 
 mand of God, with an eye to his promised Spirit. First 
 view the grounds that your faith has to go upon, already 
 spoken to ; and then cast your eye upon the I3ivine com- 
 mand and call, warranting, encouraging, and requiring 
 you to venture upon these grounds ; and so long as these 
 are kept in view, there is no fear of presumption ; how 
 can it be presumption to obey the express command of 
 heaven ? yea, the greatest command that ever was issued 
 out to man from the throne of glory above. — 1 John iii. 
 23. He speaks as if there were no other command in 
 the Word of God ; because we fulfil the whole law as a 
 covenant, in the very first act of believing, by renouncing 
 our own, and submitting to the law-bidding and law- 
 magnifying righteousness of the Son of God ; and thereby 
 our personal obedience also to the law as a rule, is set 
 upon such a footing as to be accepted in the beloved ; for 
 let us do what we will, we shall never please God, or be 
 accepted of him, till we believe in the name of his Son. 
 — Heb. xi. 6. And therefore I say again, mint at be- 
 lieving, in obedience to the command of God. It is as 
 much your duty to believe, as to obey any command of 
 the moral law ; and disobedience to this command of 
 believing will, damn you eternally, yea, do it more eifec- 
 tually than murder, adultery, theft, or any other breach 
 of the law that I can name. Pray tell me, Sirs, why do 
 you ever bow a knee, or open a mouth to God, in prayer ? 
 Do you set about this duty, because you have power and 
 strength in yourselves to pierce heaven by your prayers, 
 or to order your cause before God ? No, surely, but 
 because God has commanded you to call upon him ; there- 
 fore, powerless as you are, though you know not how to 
 pray, or what to pray for, yet you essay it. Now, why 
 do you not the same in the case of believing, as in pray- 
 ing, since the one is commanded as well as the other ? 
 for I say, you have as little power in yourselves to pray 
 aright as to believe aright. There are many who, as I 
 
90 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 was saying before, shift oft' the great duty of believing 
 from day to day, under this pretext, that they want power 
 to believe. But this is an objection that militates against 
 all duties, as well as that of believing. We are not suffi- 
 cient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, as 
 the apostle assures us ; but will you, for this reason, de- 
 sist from any essay to think upon what is good and bene- 
 ficial to your souls ? No ; we try meditation, we mint 
 to think on what is good, and, in musing, the fire burns : 
 God comes in with the breathings of his Spirit, and then 
 our meditations of him are svi'eet, and we are glad in the 
 Lord. So, while the soul, from a sense of its lost estate, 
 is minting to roll and rest itself on Christ, in obedience 
 to the command of God, God comes in with his Spirit of 
 faith, and fills us with joy and peace in believing. 
 
 4. Although you should not find any sensible concur- 
 rence of the power of God coming along with your mint 
 at obedience to the command of believing, yet give it not 
 over, but still continue the attempt : " Wait on the 
 Lord : be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine 
 heart : wait, I say, on the Lord." Objection., I have 
 often attempted to believe, but yet I am as far from it as 
 ever ; the power of God does not come along ; and 
 therefore I may quite give it over. For answer, I refer 
 you to a word : " Ye have need of patience ; that after 
 ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the pro- 
 mise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will 
 come, and will not tarry." — Heb. x. 36, 37. In trying 
 to act faith in obedience to the divine command ye have 
 need of patience ; for " he that believeth doth not make 
 haste." You must resolve to beHeve, and wait, and wait, 
 and believe, and never give it over ; and when ye have 
 done the vvill of God in this matter, as you can, you must 
 hold on with them that have clean hands, even though 
 you find no sensible influence concurring ; for it is the 
 command of God in his Word, and not the influence of 
 the Spirit, that is the rule and measure of your duty. 
 And if you continue doing the will of God in this matter, 
 with an eye to him who is the author and finisher of 
 faith, you may assure yourselves, that " in a little while. 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 97 
 
 he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." It is 
 the will of God, and the work of God, which thou art 
 aiming at, even to believe in him whom he hath sent ; 
 and will not a God of grace and love, with whom com- 
 passions flow, put to his hand to his own work, and help 
 a poor creature to do what is his own will ? yea, surely 
 thou may be confident of this very thing, when he has 
 passed his word for it, that he will " work in thee, both 
 to will and to do of his own good pleasure." There is 
 nothing in all the world so pleasing to God, as to see a 
 poor soul aiming to close with, and accept of his Christ ; 
 he is, as it were, pained at the heart, when sinners are 
 backward to believe in his Son ; and will he not then be 
 forward to help a poor soul that is aiming at it ? You 
 know, an indulgent mother, when her breasts are full and 
 swelled with milk, will be ready, not only to draw out her 
 breast, but to help her poor infant toward it, when in 
 want of milk or minting to suck. Has a mother such 
 compassion toward her sucking child ; and is there not 
 infinitely more compassion with the Father of mercies 
 toward a poor soul that is minting to suck the full breasts 
 of his grace and mercy drawn out to all in a Gospel dis- 
 pensation ? He whose bowels are sending out a sound 
 after sinners in the Gospel call, will not be wanting to 
 lend his helping hand to enable you to believe ; and 
 therefore say with David : " Hope thou in God, for I 
 shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." — 
 Psal. xlii. 5. 
 
 Objection, I have tried believing so long and so often, 
 that I am quite wearied, my strength is gone, and yet no 
 power from above ; what shall I do ? God takes no 
 notice of me. Answer, Isa. xl. 27, 28, &c. : *' Why say- 
 est thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid 
 from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my 
 God ? Hast thou not known ? has thou not heard, that 
 the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends 
 of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ? there is no 
 searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the 
 faint ; and to them that have no might, he increaseth 
 p 
 
98 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 strength." Thou imagines that God's helping hand is 
 withdrawn, and that he takes no notice of thy mints to 
 beHeve. But why sayest thou so ? He is nearer than 
 thou apprehends : Behold he standeth behind our wall, 
 ready to give grace, and mercy to help in time of need, 
 ready to give power to the faint, and strength to them 
 that have no might ; and power from on high to believe 
 is nearest, when we are most carried out of ourselves in 
 point of strength and sufficiency. And therefore give it 
 not over : " Wait, I say, on the Lord ; for they that 
 wait upon him shall renew their strength." It is only 
 the weak man that will lean to the help of another : now 
 faith is a leaning on Christ when we cannot stand alone : 
 " Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, lean- 
 ing upon her beloved ?" — Cant. viii. 5. It is only the 
 wearied man that will sit down and rest him ; now, faith 
 is the soul's resting in or upon Christ : " Rest in the 
 Lord, and wait patiently for him," — Psal. xxxvii. 7. 
 *' We which have believed do enter into rest." — Heb. iv. 
 3. When a man can do nothing else, when he is so 
 feeble that he cannot put his hand to a turn, yet he can 
 rest him ; so here, because thou art weak, and without 
 strength for any work of the law, therefore the Lord calls 
 thee to rest thy weary, sinking soul upon the Lord Jesus, 
 on whom he has laid thy help. And therefore let thy 
 weakness encourage thee to revive, instead of discourag- 
 ing thee. 
 
 But now, I come to offer a word of exhortation to 
 those whose hearts do fdl in with the foregoing exhor- 
 tation. Do ye now believe, though in the weakest 
 degree ? Let me exhort you not to rest in a low mea- 
 sure of faith, but press after the highest degree of it. 
 Forget things behind, reach forth unto things that are 
 before ; believe better than ye have yet done. Go on 
 from faith to faith, and thus learn to " draw near with a 
 true heart, \x\ full assurance of faith ;" and thus you shall 
 be the children of faithful Abraham, who " staggered not 
 at the promise through unbelief ; but was strong in faith, 
 giving glory to God ; being fully persuaded, that what he 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 99 
 
 had promised he was able also to perform." You see 
 whaf was the ground of Abraham's faith, by which he 
 believed without staggering ; it was nothing else but the 
 promise of life and salvation through a Messiah to come. 
 Well, you have the very same ground of faith laid before 
 you, with a far greater advantage now under the New 
 Testament, namely, the promise of acceptance, peace, 
 pardon, grace, and glory, through a Messiah who is already 
 come, and finished the work which the Father gave him 
 to do ; and therefore believe without staggering, as he 
 did. 
 
 That I may quicken you to press after a higher mea- 
 sure of faith, I offer the following considerations : — 
 
 1. Little faith is not easily discerned; it is but like a 
 grain of mustard-seed lying in the ground, which one can 
 scarce distinguish from the dust which lies under his feet ; 
 and when faith is not discerned, God loses the glory of 
 his own grace, and you also lose the comfort of it. 
 
 2. The world we live in requires a strong faith. It is 
 a den of lions, and a mountain of leopards ; the roaring 
 lion is going about seeking to devour; Red seas and 
 Jordans of trouble lie in our way to Canaan, through the 
 howling wilderness. Storms and tempests of persecu- 
 tion and tribulation may blow, which will make the strong 
 believer to stagger and shake ; and if so, has not the 
 weak believer reason to fortify himself, by studying to 
 believe better than he has done ? for it is by faith that 
 we stand in an evil day. 
 
 3. Contentment with little faith is no good sign of the 
 reality of faith ; for (as was hinted before) it is of the 
 nature of true grace to breathe after its own perfection. 
 They who have the least degree of it press after the 
 highest : they that know the Lord, follow on to know 
 him. 
 
 4. Consider the advantages of a strong faith, beyond a 
 weak. 1st, A strong faith hath a firm and solid peace 
 coming along with it : " Thou wilt keep him in perfect 
 peace, whose mind is stayed on thee," — Isa. xxvi. 3 ; but 
 weak faith has its peace disturbed at every turn of Pro- 
 
100 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 vidence. 2c?/y, Strong- faith brings great joy with it ; 
 hence we are said to be " filled with joy and peace ih be- 
 lieving ;" yea, the joy of a lively faith is a " joy unspeak- 
 able, and full of glory." — 1 Pet. i. 8. But now the weak 
 believer, though he may perhaps sometimes be filled with 
 the joy of sense, yet he has but little of the joy of believ- 
 ing. Hence it is, that whenever sense is withdrawn, he 
 is in the very suburbs of hell, crying, " The Lord hath 
 forgotten to be gracious, his promise fails for evermore." 
 3f//j/, Strong faith is more steady in a storm than a weak 
 faith is. Strong faith, when the storm blows, casts outA 
 the anchor of hope, and rides in safety, crying, " I will j 
 not be afraid, though the earth be removed, and though ( 
 the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, and""' 
 though the waters thereof roar." But now, weak faith, 
 like Peter walking on the waters, is ready at every billow- 
 to cry out, " Master, I perish." When created comforts 
 fail, when the fields yield no increase, weak faith is ready 
 to say, " I and my family will perish ;" but strong faith 
 will say, " Up the heart, there is no fear, my bread shall 
 be given me, my water shall be sure ; because a God of 
 truth hath said it, whose is the earth, and the fulness 
 thereof. He that feeds the ravens, will not let his chil- 
 dren starve ; he that clothes the lilies, will not let me go 
 naked." 4!thly, Strong faith has more confidence and bold- 
 ness in entering into the hohest, more moyen and interest 
 in heaven, than weak faith has. — John xiv. 13, 14 ; Mark 
 xi. 24 ; James i. 6. Weak faith, although God will not 
 reject its suit, yet its returns are not so clear and full ; 
 yea, I will adventure to say, that unbelieving doubts, and 
 fears, and jealousies, mar the success of many a good peti- 
 tion, bthlij^ Strong faith makes the approaches of death 
 more easy than they are to the weak believer. Strong 
 faith takes up the telescope of the promise, and looks be- 
 yond death to the land afar off, and rejoiceth in the hope 
 of the glory of God ; saying, as the Head, Christ, did, 
 " My heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth : my flesh also 
 shall rest in hope ; for he hath showed me the path of 
 life, the new and living way to these rivers of pleasures, 
 
OPENED AND APPLIED. 101 
 
 and that fulness of joy, which are at God's right hand for 
 evermore." — Psal. xvi. 9. Strong- faith viewing an exalted 
 Redeemer, sees death and hell among the trophies of his 
 victory, and thereupon triumphs over it as a vanquished 
 and slain enemy, saying, " O death, where is thy sting ? 
 O grave, where is thy victory ? Thanks be to God, who 
 giveth me the victory, through Jesus Christ my Lord." 
 But now weak faith shivers and trembles at the approaches 
 of death, lest it should be swallowed up in the swellings 
 of that Jordan. Let these considerations, I say, quicken 
 you to breathe after the increase of your weak faith, that 
 you may draw near with full assurance of faith. 
 
 I conclude this whole discourse with a word, 1st, Of 
 encouragement ; and, 2d, Of advice, to weak believers ; 
 for our glorious Master has commanded us to " strengthen 
 the weak hands," to " confirm the feeble knees," and to 
 " say to them that are of a feeble spirit, Be strong, fear 
 not." 
 
 1. A word of comfort and encouragement to the poor 
 tender lambs and weaklings in God's flock, who are fre- 
 quently halting and staggering, through the prevalency of 
 unbelief. 
 
 (1.) Know, for thy comfort, that the weakest believer 
 is as nearly related to God, as a Father, as the strongest 
 believer is. The weakest and youngest babe in a family 
 is as sib to the father as the first-born, or the son who is 
 come to his full strength and stature. Every branch of 
 a tree is not alike strong or big ; and yet the tenderest 
 twig is as really united to the root, and as really partakes 
 of the sap of the root, as the strongest and most princi- 
 pal branch. So here, the weakest believer is in Christ, 
 and partakes of his Spirit, as well as the strongest. 
 
 (2.) The vveak believer is clothed with the white rai- 
 ment of Christ's righteousness, and is as much justified 
 thereby as the strongest. Our great High Priest is clothed 
 with a garment down to his feet, whereby every member 
 of his body-mystical is equally covered. It is equally true 
 of every believer, that " there is no condemnation to them 
 which are in Christ." — Rom. viii. L 
 
102 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 
 
 (3.) The least and weakest degree of faith shall hold 
 out to the end. They are all " kept by the power of God 
 throiig-h faith unto salvation." " He will not break the 
 bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax ;" where the 
 good work is begun, his faithfulness is engaged to carry 
 it on to the day of Christ. The weakest degree of faith 
 has glory and salvation knit to it by God's promise, 
 as well as the strongest ; it is not " He that believes " 
 strongly " shall be saved ;" but, " He that believes " in- 
 definiteiyi whether his faith be weak or strong. 
 
 (4.) Our blessed Redeemer, for ordinary, vents his 
 affection in a more tender and sensible manner toward 
 weak believers than toward the strong. The good Shep- 
 herd of Israel " carries the lambs in his bosom, and gently 
 leads them that are with young." Hence it comes, that 
 weak believers have commonly more sensible, ravish- 
 ing joys and consolations, than strong believers. Much 
 like a wise and affectionate parent, who will take his young 
 infant on his knee, dandle it, and hug it in his bosom ; 
 while he will not allow his affections to run out after such 
 a manner toward his son of age and stature, — for that 
 were to make a fool of him. 
 
 May the poor weak believer say, " These are strong 
 consolations indeed, if I might lay claim unto them ; but 
 that is what I still fear, that I have no faith at all, — no, 
 not like a grain of mustard-seed." Beside what was said 
 to this in the former part of the Discourse, I shall only 
 ask these two questions: — 1*^, Does not thy heart throb 
 and faint within thee, when thou thinks of a parting with 
 the Lord Jesus? If so, this says that his love is shed 
 abroad in thy heart by the Holy Ghost ; and consequently 
 a root and principle of faith, from whence it flows, cleav- 
 ing to the Lord like the iron touched vvith the loadstone. 
 And I tell thee good news, — that as thou hates to be put 
 away from him, so " he hates putting away ;" and there- 
 fore there never shall be a separation. 2dly^ Dost thou 
 not find a restlessness in thy spirit, an uneasiness in thy 
 bosom, when the Lord withdraws, like a bone out of joint, 
 or a fish out of its element ? If so, the root of faith is 
 
OPEXED AND APPLIED. 103 
 
 within ; Christ has been with thee in a way of grace and 
 love, otherwise thou coiildst not distinguish between ab- 
 sence and presence ; and if ever Christ made thee a visit, 
 his first visit shall not be his last, — for " his goings forth 
 are prepared," or secured, " like the niorning." 
 
 2. I come to shut up all with a few advices to weak 
 believers, in order to the increase of their faith toward a 
 full assurance. 
 
 (1.) Be humbled under a sense of remaining unbehef, 
 and the weakness of your faith ; for " the Lord giveth 
 grace," and more grace, "to the humble." The more 
 that self is pulled down, the higher is Christ exalted in a 
 way of believing. 
 
 (2.) Be greedy of more faith. Covetousness in other 
 things of this world is idolatry ; but this is among the 
 best things, which you are allowed earnestly to covet ; 
 and the more you covet and desire of the Spirit of faith, 
 the more you shall get ; for " he satisfieth the longing 
 soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." " Open 
 thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." 
 
 (3.) Be well acquainted with the grounds of faith, as 
 they are laid in the Gospel revelation ; some of which I 
 have pointed at in the preceding Discourse. I am per- 
 suaded, that one great reason why so many do not believe 
 at all, and why the faith of many real believers reniains 
 so weak, is, their unacquaintedness with the strong and) 
 sure grounds that their faith has to build upon. Weak, 
 timorous believers, fixed upon the foundation God hath 
 laid in Zion, are just like a man standing on a firm, im- 
 moveable reck ; his head turns giddy, and he imagines 
 that the rock is turning upside down with him, — while 
 the failure is not in the rock, but in his own head. Our 
 faith fails us through our unacquaintedness with the stabi- 
 lity of God's covenant and promise ; and therefore, I say, 
 study to be better acquainted with the promise and faith- 
 fulness, power, and love, of the Promiser. 
 
 (4.) If you would have weak faith increased and 
 strengthened, then be frequently exercising any weak faith 
 you have ; for gracious as well as natural habits are in- 
 
104 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH, ETC. 
 
 creased and improven by repeated acts. " To liim that 
 hath," and improveth well what he hath, " shall be given." 
 This is the way to have your mite turned into a talent ; 
 and your talent of faith, by frequent exercise, shall in due 
 time become as ten talents. 
 
 (5.) When you get any sensible experiences of the 
 Lord's love, improve them, not as the grounds of your 
 faith, but as encouragements to go on in trusting and be- 
 lieving, upon the grounds of faith laid before you in the 
 Word. These sensible tastes of the Lord's loving-kind- 
 ness are given you, not that you shotild dote upon the 
 sweetness of them, but to encourage and farther you in 
 trusting and heheving. " How excellent is thy loving- 
 kindness, O God ! therefore the children of men put their 
 trust under the shadow of thy wings." — Psal. xxxvi. 7. 
 It is a common fault among many believers in our day, 
 when they find anything of sensible presence, then indeed 
 they rejoice, — and they have good reason so to do ; but 
 no sooner doth a cloud come, but their faith as well as 
 their joy evanishes, and they have as little trust to put 
 in the word and promise of the God of their Hfe, when 
 his back is turned, or he out of their sight, as though 
 they never had received a kindness at his hand. And this 
 is a reason, I am convinced, why it fares so ill with many 
 of us at this day ; and therefore let us amend it: and what 
 comfort and joy we find in his presence, let it encourage 
 and engage us to trust, and hope, and wait, and believe, 
 in him, when absent to our sense. And if we thus im- 
 prove the marks ot grace and consolations of his Spirit, 
 the joy of the Lord shall be our strength ; and our path 
 shall be indeed "as the path of the just," and "as the 
 shining light, which shineth more and more unto the 
 perfect day." 
 
APHORISMS 
 
 CONCERNING THE 
 
 ASSURANCE OF FAITH, 
 
 DESIGNED 
 
 TO RECONCILE DIFFERING SENTIMENTS ON THAT 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 19, line I, for overflow hiding, ?vaJ overflow bis hiding. 
 ,, 3S, ,, 5i, for hny, read hy. 
 ., 39, ,, 4 (from foot), for strain orthodox, read strain 
 
 of orthodox. 
 ., 40, ,, 7, /or converted, rc'OfZ controverted. 
 ,, 95, ,, 1 7, /cr law-bidding, reac/ law'biding. 
 
 «* We believe, and are sure.'— John vi. 69, 
 
104 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH, ETC. 
 
 creased and improven by repeated acts. " To him that 
 hath," and improveth well what he hath, " shall be given." 
 This is the way to have your mite turned into a talent ; 
 and your talent of faith, by frequent exercise, shall in due 
 time become as ten talents. 
 
 (5.) When you get any sensible experiences of the 
 Lord's love, improve them, not as the grounds of your 
 faith, but as encouragements to g-o on in trusting and be- 
 lieving-, upon the grounds of faith laid before you in the 
 Word. These sensible tastes of the Lord's loving-kind- 
 ness are given you, not that you shotild dote upon the 
 sweetness of them, but to encourage and farther you in 
 trusting- and believing. " How excellent is thy loving-- 
 
 in him, when absent to our sense. Ana it we thus im- 
 prove the marks of grace and consolations of his Spirit, 
 the joy of the Lord shall be our strength ; and our path 
 shall be indeed "as the path of the just," and "as the 
 shining- light, which shineth more and more unto the 
 perfect day." 
 
APHORISMS 
 
 CONCERNING THE 
 
 ASSURANCE OF FAITH, 
 
 DESIGNED 
 
 TO RECONCILE DIFFERING SENTIMENTS ON THAT 
 IMPORTANT POINT ; 
 
 FREE SALVATION DEFENDED, 
 
 AND SEVERAL COMMON OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. WILLIAM CUDWORTH, 
 
 OF NORWICH. 
 
 We believe,, and are sure." — John vi. 69. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Perhaps no point is of more importance in the religious 
 life, nor is any point more generally misunderstood and 
 misrepresented, than this of Assurance of Salvation hy 
 Faith. An endeavour to set this matter in as clear a light 
 as possible, to prevent future mistakes, and obviate the 
 most material objections, I hope will not be unacceptable. 
 I have added a Summary of the whole, for the more 
 ready finding out of what is said under any particular ; 
 and would farther add my earnest prayers, that the bless- 
 ing of the Eternal Spirit, the Comforter, may accompany 
 the serious perusal with desired success. 
 
APHOKISMS 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 
 
 There is in justifying faith — required in the Scriptures, 
 and wrought by the Spirit — an assurance of apphcation, or 
 appropriation ; by which act, the thing granted — Christ 
 and his salvation — is received and taken into possession. 
 
 2. This is antecedent to all acts of reflection, that I 
 am a believer, and to all assurances grounded thereon ; and 
 is therefore carefully to be distinguished from them. 
 
 3. It is not the assurance, that I have come up to 
 certain terms required, or am endued with certain en- 
 titling qualifications, but an assurance of application of 
 what is freely given. 
 
 4. The sufficient ground, or warrant, from the divine 
 Word, for this kind of appropriation, is, l6-^, The Decla- 
 ration that Christ came to save sinners — the world — 
 the lost. This report we believe. 2d, The Grant 
 that is made of Christ in the Word to persons of those 
 characters. This gift we appropriate. 3d, The Com- 
 mands, Invitations, Exhortations, and assurance 
 OF success, made to persons thus appropriating or ap- 
 plying Christ. These are sufficient warrants for this 
 appropriation, without inquiring into the extent of Christ's 
 death in any other sense. We believe the report, we 
 
 ppropriate the gift, and depend on the faithfulness of 
 God not to be disappointed. 
 
 a 
 
4 APHORISMS CONCERNING 
 
 5. This faith may therefore be defined, " A persuasion 
 ot the truth of the divine promises, and an appropriation 
 ot the divine blessings ; " or such a real persuasion of 
 the fulness and freeness of salvation by Christ, — or, in 
 other words, of the report of the Gospel, as effectually 
 induces the soul to appropriate Christ, and all the sal- 
 vation included in Him. Which appropriation is a 
 farther real persuasion, grounded upon the grant that 
 is made in the Word to sinners — that Christ is mine, 
 his death is mine, &c. 
 
 6. The expressions, Christ is mine, his death is mine, 
 diedjor me, in my stead, &c., are here to be understood, 
 not as the result of a reflex act, but as expressive of the 
 application itself ; as when invited to an entertainment, 
 we make use of what is set before us as our own, and 
 thereby make it so in possession and enjoyment, as it 
 was before in right to possess in virtue of the invitation. 
 We do not understand the entertainment ours, to give 
 away, instead of partaking of it ourselves ; neither do 
 we apprehend it ours in any way to abuse, or destroy, or 
 render useless to ourselves ; but ours to partake of, it 
 certainly is. And the claiming of Christ as ours, in a 
 way of appropriation, and thus making use of Him, is an 
 act that answers to the participation of an entertainment ; 
 and such an act as this must necessarily intervene be- 
 tween the persuasion of the free grant, and any just 
 conclusion that Christ is mine, because I do believe, i. e., 
 this is that very faith whereby we pass from death to life. 
 
 7. This faith, or appropriation, is therefore more than 
 a bare conviction of the mind by some evident truth ; 
 more than merely crediting those ^uths of the Gospel, 
 which are truths and remain so, whether I believe them 
 or not. It is a believing something more than these, 
 in obedience to a divine command, and in compliance 
 with a divine invitation. It is a believing something, 
 which I cannot discover in the Word to be so, unless I 
 so believe it. For example, I appropriate Christ's death, 
 and take it into possession as my own, by assuring my 
 soul it is so ; not because I knew antecedently it was 
 
THE ASSURANCE OP FAITH. O 
 
 miiie, otherwise than in right to possess, but because the 
 Lord gives sinners a right or warrant, and makes it their 
 duty to take such share in his death as their own, and 
 thus believe he died for them. This is the mystery of 
 faith ; and herein we proceed, not upon either universal 
 or particular redemption, but only upon the divine grant 
 and invitation. 
 
 8. In other words, this is such an appt^opriatioii of, 
 and trusting on, Christ, as that therein we assure our- 
 selves of present and eternal salvation by him ; and that, 
 not from any previous external or internal evidence that 
 we shall be saved by him, but as warranted hy the 
 Word of God^ — Isa.li. 1-5; John iii. 16 ; Rev. xxii. 17 ; 
 hound hy the command of God^ — 1 John iii. 23 ; 2 Cor. 
 v. 14, 19, 20 ; and led hy the Spirit of God^ — John 
 vi. 44, 45, 63 ; comp. Q5 ; John xvii. 9 ; thus to assure 
 ourselves, and encouraged hy his promise^ that we shall 
 not be deceived or confounded in so doing, — John vi. 37, 
 iii. 15 ; Rom. ix. 33, x. 11 ; but, that according- to our 
 faith, so shall it be to us. It is therefore an assuring- 
 our souls of salvation by Christ, that we may be saved 
 according to his promise, and is the soul's echo, or 
 obedience to the voice of God, in such scriptures as 
 these, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
 shalt be saved," — Acts xvi. 31 ; " Look unto me, and be 
 ye saved, all the ends of the earth," — Isa. xlv. 22. 
 
 9. It is a wiUing obedience to a divine command, 
 which clears it from presumption. It implies, also, a 
 real desire to have, and to enjoy this Christ, and the 
 salvation that is in him, and therefore cannot be exerted 
 by the insincere ; and, as it is exerted in a dependence 
 on the divine faithfulness, the divine faithfulness is en- 
 g-aged that such shall not be deceived. — Rom. x. 11, 12. 
 
 10. This appropriation can never be found believing 
 a lie ; because, upon the strictest supposition of particular 
 redemption, as it is the Holy Ghost only that persuades 
 and enables to this application, that Spirit is a thorough 
 judge of the extent of Christ's death ; and as all are 
 naturally inclined to neglect or reject this application, so 
 
6 APHORISMS CONCERNING 
 
 we may be sure he operates in this special manner on 
 those who will find it to be no lie to them. 
 
 1 1. This method of grace serves the purpose of making- 
 salvation free to the elect ; and as to others, their volun- 
 tary rejection of this free grace, is a just ground of their 
 condemnation, and a vindication of the just judgment of 
 God. 
 
 12. When this application is considered as a relin- 
 quishing of every other method, and a pursuing of this 
 as the appointed way of enjoying the salvation which is 
 in Christ, it may be termed a coming, or going to 
 Christ. I go thus to Christ as mine in right to possess, 
 that by thus taking possession of him, I may enjoy him 
 and his salvation. When it is considered as exerted in 
 order to get out of the danger of our natural state, to be 
 absolved from our manifold transgressions, and to escape 
 the curse of the law, it may be called 2ijiying for refuge. 
 I ily thus for refuge to Christ, as appointed and given 
 for me ; that, by thus taking sanctuary in him, I may 
 be out of all danger. When it is considered as a giving up 
 the whole of our salvation into Christ's hands, in a de- 
 pendence on the divine faithfulness, it may be styled a 
 trusting to Christ for the whole of his salvation. 
 
 13. As it is an act that thus makes use of Christ, in 
 whatever light we consider him, it corresponds with the 
 various metaphorical descriptions of faith in Scripture, 
 such as coming, flying for refuge, taking shelter, eating 
 Christ's flesh, and drinking his blood. Whereas bare 
 desires, tendencies, and approbations, answer not the 
 import of any of these metaphors, but fall evidently short 
 of them all. 
 
 14. Reliance in faith implies the persuasion we treat 
 of, for it is a resting and reposing upon the faithfulness 
 of him, on whose word I proceed and depend ; and, as 
 far as it takes place, the mind is delivered from doubt. 
 Hence, a drowning man may be said to cleave to a float- 
 ing plank in uncertainty of the event ; but he cannot so 
 properly be said to rehj upon it because of that uncer- 
 tainty. But in the case before us, which may be repre- 
 
THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH 7 
 
 sented by an accused criminal, with an adovocate able to 
 save, and an argument sufficient to plead, and who has 
 given a sufficient promise to ground an act of reliance 
 upon him ; undoubtedly, so far as this reliance takes place, 
 perturbation, anxiety, and uncertainty are excluded. 
 
 15. Every persuasion that Christ is mitie, is not the 
 faith we plead for ; that grounded on the supposition of 
 my being an elect person, is not ; that g-rounded on marks 
 and evidences of a work of grace within me, is not ; but 
 that persuasion, which appropriates upon the ground of 
 the free grant made to sinners, that is the faith we preach. 
 
 16. A man saying he has faith, and thus appropriating- 
 Christ, are widely different. A man may sat/ it in 
 hypocrisy, when his conscience testifies the contrary ; or 
 in ig-norance, imagining faith to be what it is not. Hence, 
 some reckon they always had faith, because they never 
 had so much real concern about their eternal salvation, 
 and the proper object of their trust in this respect, as to 
 be sensible of any unbelief. Others look upon faith to 
 be no more than the belief of the history of Christ, or of 
 some evangelical doctrinal point, or a persuasion of the 
 truth of the promises, understood conditionally ; or only a 
 persuasion that Christ is able and wiUing to save all that 
 do or shall truly believe in him. Or that it consists in 
 a supposed hidden holy principle, which makes itself 
 manifest, not by appropriation of Christ upon the divine 
 grant of him to sinners, but by desires, approbations, 
 and tendencies, towards that which is good. 
 
 17. A man, under these notions of faith, may say and 
 think he has faith, and yet be very far from the appro- 
 priating persuasion we treat of ; which places " no con- 
 fidence in the flesh," no confidence in any knowledge, 
 resolutions, good dispositions, or attainments within ; 
 but proceeds alone upon the divine grant in the Word, 
 depends on the divine faithfulness, embraces every pro- 
 mise as it is in Jesus, upon his right and title alone, and 
 embraces Christ in every promise, as the very substance 
 and blessing of it ; and, in these particulars^ distinguishes 
 itself from all feigned faith. 
 
8 APHORISMS CONCERNING 
 
 18. This appropriating- persuasion iniplies not only 
 sincerity, desire, and approbation of the way of salvation 
 by Christ, but also such a pecuHar act of confidence, and 
 assured dependence, on the divine truth and faithfulness, as 
 none that deceive themselves ever can come up to. Such 
 a confidence as even engages the divine faithfulness, and 
 is sure not to be disappointed. And such a triumph in 
 the victory of Christ already gained, as enables the soul 
 to overcome the world, and be more than conqueror 
 through him that loved us. 
 
 19. It is also to be distinguished from a mere senti- 
 ment or opinion, in the judgment or understanding-, that 
 He has died for all, and consequently for me, whether I 
 believe it or not. This, at the utmost, can be only giving 
 credit to a certain doctrine ; but the faith we plead for, 
 is an appropriation or believing on the person of Christ 
 with all the benefits and blessings included in Him. 
 
 20. Self-examination, with a secondary assurance 
 thereby, is not discarded by directing souls to live in this 
 manner by faith in God's faithfulness ; but put in its pro- 
 per place, that is, after this faith. 
 
 21. Notwithstanding the divine grant in the Word 
 affords a sufficient warrant to all, thus to receive Christ, 
 and salvation in Him ; yet we find no man disposed to 
 act in pursuance of this warrant, till he is so far con- 
 vinced of the need and excellency of such a salvation, 
 as to desire and esteem it ; and so far convinced of his 
 right to appropriate, as to account it his duty and privi- 
 lege. Hence we conclude the hypocrite never attains 
 it, continuing such. Nor does any man thus call Jesus 
 Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 22. This appropriation cannot justly be condemned, 
 while it proceeds on the divine grant, depends on the 
 divine faithfulness, is an obedience to the divine com- 
 mand, and is disposed for all salvation. 
 
 23. We depart from sin in coming thus to Christ. 
 We do not come as having first departed from sin ; and 
 therefore a call thus to come to Christ, is a call to depart 
 from sin. 
 
THE ASSURANCE OF FAITHi 9 
 
 24. We are to call nothing Christ in us, but Him that 
 was crucified for us ; Him in whose name we were bap- 
 tized ; Him whose dwelling- is in our hearts only by 
 faith ; Him who dwells thus in us, as our only hope of 
 glory. Therefore, no inward change, or inherent good 
 disposition, is to be called by that name, if we would not 
 deceive ourselves with a false Christ. Nor are we to 
 call any thing faith in Him, but that which appropriates, 
 and answers to the commands, exhortations, and invita- 
 tions of the Scripture. 
 
 25. If I endeavour to make any conviction, desire, and 
 esteem of Christ, a basis and foundation, a qualifying mark 
 or evidence, on which I ground my appropriating act, I 
 immediately spoil and perplex the direct act, or believing 
 application ; because that proceeds alone upon the divine 
 grant made to sinners, and the divine faithfulness pledged 
 therein. 
 
 26. The faith pleaded for is always a direct act. Acts 
 of reflection are a necessary duty in their proper place ; 
 but assurance grounded thereon cannot properly be called 
 assurance of faith. Because, 1. There is exercised no 
 more faith in this kind of assurance than all men — yea, 
 even devils — may have. 2. Because that any assurance 
 that may be hereby attained, is not by an act of faith, but 
 by reflection, and reasoning therefrom. 
 
 27. A sinner's right to Christ arises not from the 
 operation of God's Spirit upon him in conviction, esteem, 
 desire, &c., but from the free grant made to sinners, 
 antecedent to any such operation ; and is a material part 
 of that evangelical message, whereby the Spirit operates 
 in begetting a proper appetite to Christ and his salvation. 
 
 28. It is through ignorance, disbelief of, or inattention 
 to, the divine grant in the Word, and a mistrusting of the 
 faithfulness of God engaged therein, that doubtings of the 
 soundness of our conversion, or reality of our faith, pre- 
 vent an immediate appropriation. Such apprehensions 
 are rather to be a motive to an immediate application, in 
 order to put all out of doubt, than any motive to prevent 
 or keep us back. In a word, we must set aside the evi- 
 
 Q 
 
10 APHORISMS CONCERNING 
 
 flence of sense, when we are seeking- to enjoy the as- 
 surance of faith ; which is in its nature a living out of 
 ourselves on the fulness and freeness of Christ, and the 
 salvation in Him. 
 
 29. Faith, though ever so weak, is of the very sanne 
 nature as when at the strongest. The difficulties, fluc- 
 tuations, and mistrustful suggestions, that frequently may 
 arise to the hindrance of weak souls in the acting of this 
 faith, are to be looked upon as the effects of remaining 
 unbelief, mistrust, and selt-righteousness ; and are always 
 carefully to be distinguished from the nature of faith. 
 Nor, thus distinguished, do they at all militate against the 
 assurance pleaded for, especially in those by whom they are 
 condemned and resisted, while they force themselves upon 
 the mind. 
 
 30. Terrors and wrath upon the soul, as they imply 
 ignorance and unbelief of the full and free salvation of 
 Christ, are not to be sought for, but rather prevented, 
 by this appropriation of Christ ; for, as their ground is 
 ignorance and unbelief, so their effects are blasphemous 
 thoughts, and hardness of heart, against God ; a flying 
 from Him, and hatred rather than love. It is a state of 
 mind that is against all the calls, invitations, and com- 
 mands, in the Scriptures, to believe in Christ ; and it fre- 
 quently terminates in horrible despair, and rejection of all 
 religion, or in gross superstition and self-righteousness. 
 
 31. These terrors are quite different from that due 
 sense of a man's sin and misery that is wrought by the 
 Spirit in the preaching of Christ. When the misery is 
 shown, accompanied with a discovery of the remedy, the 
 soul thankfully receives the knowledge of both. And 
 however it may please God, for reasons best known to 
 himself, to suffer some to continue long under such legal 
 terrors, yet none are to be exhorted thereto, nor do they 
 at all fit the heart for Christ ; for, during the whole sea- 
 son that the soul hes w^ounded under the law, without the 
 good news of the Gospel, it will remain, under all its 
 wounds, still opposite to Jesus Christ ; and, when re- 
 covered from this condition, finds frequently the greatest 
 
THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 1 1 
 
 difficulty to unlearn what it has falsely learned while in 
 this state. 
 
 32. The hungry and thirsty, the weary and heavy laden, 
 are invited to Christ, not to intimate that these are qua- 
 lifications previously to be sought for, to entitle us to 
 lay claim to Christ ; but rather to declare, that large and 
 suitable supplies for such, are richly to be found in Jesus. 
 
 33. It doth not appear that these were any desirable 
 or commendable qualifications to be sought after ; but 
 rather expressive of a sad condition ; — which, whether 
 it were the consequence of natural misery, or what they 
 had sinfully drawn upon themselves, they were invited to 
 have redressed, fully redressed, in a Saviour. 
 
 34. The true evangelical sense of sin, hunger, thirst, 
 &c., are the consequences of a Gospel discovery, and 
 effects of Christ received ; these are free from anguish 
 and terror of spirit ; they evidence the soul to be blessed 
 already, and therefore come too late to be a preparatory 
 qualification. That anguish and that terror of spirit, 
 which are the effect of legal convictions in ignorance and 
 unbelief, are no more to be sought for, than persecution, 
 captivity, or blindness ; but are to be considered in the 
 same light, i. e., that there are those very supplies to be 
 had in Jesus Christ, which are suitable and relative to 
 such cases ; as rest for the weary, so sight for the blind, 
 deliverance for the captives, &c. 
 
 35. Besides, to seek such qualifications is a contra- 
 diction to a real dependence on Christ, and to the true 
 nature of faith. It is to seek to inherent qualifications 
 for a dependence on Christ alone, and to seek, without 
 limitation, to possess the misery of unbelief, in order to 
 obtain a permission to believe. 
 
 36. The blessing promised to them that hunger and 
 thirst after righteousness, is, that they shall he filled. 
 Christ is the fulness they shall be supplied with ; and the 
 method of coming to Him, receiving, or believing in 
 Him, is implied as the means of it. Which does neither 
 suppose, that their hungering is the blessing mentioned, 
 nor that the promise is made to it ; for if so, actual coming 
 
1 2 APHORISMS CONCERNING 
 
 is superseded, and made useless by hungering and thirsting. 
 It is neither said nor implied, that for this they shall be 
 filled ; which it must be, if the gracious promise is made 
 to their hungering and thirsting. But it is rather thus 
 to be understood : " the time is come of the supply of 
 their wants." 
 
 37. If any man thirst, is aa invitation to any man ; 
 and thirsting does not appear to be mentioned as a quali- 
 fication entitling, but as a description of the persons to 
 wiiom it will be welcome or suitable news. 
 
 38. "• I will give freely to him that is athirst," implies, 
 that the blessing is after all thirsting, to be received with- 
 out condition, which is the faith we plead for ; it is not 
 said, because they thirst I will give ; but I will give 
 freely^ from no other impulsive cause but my own grace. 
 
 39. A desire that Christ may be mine, is no more 
 faith than a desire a garden may be mine, is taking it 
 into possession. 
 
 40. In regard to the notion of the desire of faith being 
 faith itself, it is not to be depended on ; for the heart of 
 man is very deceitful. A man may desire to believe in 
 Christ, to love Him, &c., only from this consideration : 
 " I desire to be delivered from the danger of hell, and to 
 go to heaven ; there is no way but by being a believer, 
 and one that loves Christ : I desire, therefore, faith and 
 love, that I may be delivered." Such desires as these are 
 no degree of saving faith, or of evangelical love ; they are 
 only the fruits of the natural mind, wrought upon by 
 natural motives and considerations : and though such de- 
 sires may be a consequence of God's Spirit, operating by 
 the law as an awakener, and are frequently a spur to the 
 mind, to drive it to Christ, whefe it will obtain better 
 principles ; yet they are only a fruit of self-love, in a 
 natural desire to be delivered from misery, and entitled 
 to happiness. And if any man rests here, he most cer- 
 tainly rests short of Christ. 
 
 41. It is true, that when a man desires to appropriate 
 Christ upon the warrant of the free grant, and evidences 
 that desire by attempting it, condemning and resisting his 
 
THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 13 
 
 remaining unbelief, he is in the case of the man who 
 cried out, " Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief." 
 But all pretences to pray for faith, without this endea- 
 vour to stretch forth the withered hand, imply ignorance 
 of what faith is, and are but hypocrisy, and solemn 
 mockery. 
 
 42. The holiness of faith, or that principle by which 
 it operates to holiness of heart and life, is, " Christ in us 
 by faith, the hope of glory." By this persuasion of our 
 reconciliation with God, and of every blessing in the ful- 
 ness of Christ, according to the measure of our faith, 
 " we are changed into the same image from glory to 
 glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." — 2 Cor. ii. 1 8. 
 
 43. The seeming easiness and emptiness of believing, 
 considered in its own act, — as a persuasion of the heart 
 that Christ is my righteousness, strength, life, and com- 
 plete salvation, — causes in the mind, unacquainted with 
 this faith, a jealousy, and a questioning of the sufficiency 
 of this method ; which jealousy creates an insuperable 
 difficulty in the mind of man to submit, and allow him- 
 self to be saved in this way through grace. This also 
 causes the invention of man to be set at work to add 
 something to this persuasion or believing, in order to 
 make a true faith. Whereas the ivhole of true faith con- 
 sists in such a believing as receives and possesses Christ 
 upon the grant made of Him in the Gospel. And the 
 holy tendency of it arises, not from the nature of its act, 
 but from Christ thus enjoyed ; by whom the soul, being 
 now vitally united, bears forth the fruits of righteousness, 
 from the peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, and 
 unfeigned love, which she obtains by being thus assured 
 of salvation by Christ. Do but represent faith, not as a 
 persuasion of salvation by Christ, but as a compound of 
 virtues, or holy qualifications, or as a hidden principle, 
 manifesting itself to be inherent by virtues, holy tempers 
 and qualifications, and then the natural man, without any 
 hesitation, will readily subscribe to your account of faith, 
 whether you describe Christ as the object of it or not. 
 For, though he possesses no such compound of virtues, 
 
14 APHORISMS CONCERNING 
 
 and has no solid peace in this way he is so fond of, yet it 
 feeds his natural propensity to self-worthiness, and is more 
 agreeable to his natural understanding-. 
 
 44. How ready are awakened souls to rejoice in hopes 
 of having a true faith, and that they shall therefore be 
 saved, — instead of rejoicing that there is granted to them 
 a true and faithful Christ, on whom they may safely de- 
 pend for all salvation. And to feed that spirit, by per- 
 suading such that they have faith, though they do not 
 know it, is not tenderness to weak souls, but cruelty, in 
 withholding Christ, the proper object for their comfort, 
 from them ; and teaching them to cry, " Peace, peace, 
 when there is no peace." The doubts that encumber or 
 prevent faith will never be dissipated by any other method 
 than by holding forth Christ freely to sinners, letting 
 them know their right to appropriate, without recurring 
 to their own supposed qualifications. 
 
 45. A man's discouragement in not perceiving faith, 
 or any assurance in himself, is to be remedied by his being 
 informed that he, as a sinner, has a Christ to look to, 
 with appropriation ; and that he is thus invited, not as 
 being a believer, but as a sinner : and he must be told this 
 again and again, till the Spirit of Christ inclines and per- 
 suades him so to do ; for he must thus act faith before it 
 is possible for him to perceive that he has faith. And 
 when he does thus act faith, his whole satisfaction is in 
 the Christ he possesses, not in his act of beheving. 
 
 46. At the same time that a man may be taught to 
 doubt and question his past experience hitherto, he may 
 gladly, with Paul, suffer that loss, by being taught, by 
 a direct act of faith, to assure himself of salvation by 
 Christ. The doubt is of himself, his grace, and by reflec- 
 tion ; but the assurance is concerning his Saviour, his 
 fulness, freeness, and faithfulness, and is an exercise of 
 faith, not of reflection. The former doubt and question- 
 ing and this assurance are, therefore, not incompatible 
 but consistent. 
 
 47. It has been justly observed by some eminent divines, 
 thgit "a true believer, in justifying faith, believes some- 
 
THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH. 1 5 
 
 thing, with reference to his own salvation by Christ, that 
 no other person does or can believe ; which, if it is not that 
 Christ is and will be a Saviour to him^ they are at a loss 
 to know what it can be." If the specific difference lies 
 thus in the believing- itself, then, seeing Christ's beauty, 
 desiring him above all, and willingness to submit to him 
 in all things, are only dispositions that adorn, attend, or 
 flow from, faith ; and are not to be accounted genuine, 
 without they are accompanied with that essential persua- 
 sion above mentioned. 
 
 48. If I believe no more than devils and reprobates 
 may and do believe, namely, that Christ is able and will- 
 ing to save all that believe on him, how am I to be dis- 
 tinguished from them? If I do not believe something 
 more than they, they as fully believe as I ; and the differ- 
 ence consists in some other quahtications, and not in faith ; 
 which entirely contradicts what is declared concerning 
 faith in the Scriptures, and renders the sacred "Word guilty 
 of great impropriety. 
 
 49. What can we exceed the fallen spirits in, with re- 
 spect to faith, if not in appropriating Christ on the war- 
 rant and authority of the Gospel grant to sinners ? 
 
 50. The very devils believe that God has given eternal 
 life in his Son to the elect, — to the converted, — to the be- 
 lievers ; but they cannot believe (for they have no ground 
 for it, nor disposition to it) that God has given to them 
 eternal life in his Son, 
 
 51. It is true, when a man is regenerate in his desires^ 
 he is regenerate in the " whole man ;" but a man is not 
 regenerate in his desires, unless he becomes first a new 
 man, by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom he 
 is a new creature, and receives in him a newness of 
 spirit. 
 
 52. In giving of alms, as a token of thankfulness for 
 salvation received, God accepts of the will or desire for 
 the deed, — 2 Cor. viii. 12 ; but neither will, desire, nor 
 any other deed, are accepted in the room of believing on 
 Christ. On the contrary, in believing, we receive and 
 plead Christ as " The Lord our righteousness," in whom 
 
16 APHORISMS C0>'CERNING 
 
 we are accepted. Desire is not the reception of a thing 
 offered, but appropriation is. 
 
 53. " Thy faith hath saved thee ;" i. e., " Because I 
 am unto thee as thou believest ; I answer to thy faith, 
 even as thy faith answers to my word." The woman of 
 Canaan is said to have great faith, because she laid claim 
 to the Saviour in her own behalf, notwithstanding all dis- 
 couragements. As Job says, " Though he slay me, yet 
 will I trust in him." A persuasion that would not be dis- 
 couraged. If thou also thus believest, thou shalt prevail 
 through all opposition. 
 
 54. It is said that Simon Magus believed, because he 
 saw the signs and wonders that were done ; i. e., he be- 
 lieved the apostles were true men of God, and taught the 
 true way of salvation. But it does not appear that he 
 beheld the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, or 
 that he appropriated Christ upon the divine grant, and in 
 a dependence on the divine faithfulness, which would have 
 produced that peace he was a stranger to. If he had taken 
 God at his word in the affair of his own particular salva- 
 tion, and was after all left " in the gall of bitterness, and 
 bond of iniquity," the reflection would be on the Lord, 
 not on Simon Magus ; who, on this supposition, was de- 
 ceived by trusting to him. But this, we know, could not 
 be ; for they that believe on him shall never be confounded 
 or ashamed. 
 
 55. The habit, appetite, or propensity, thus to appro- 
 priate Christ and his salvation, is not acquired by acts, 
 nor physically infused, without the light of the Gospel ; 
 but it is begotten or created by a divine illumination, 
 through the Gospel. Hence faith is said to " come by 
 hearing," — Rom. x. 17; and we are "begotten by the 
 word of truth," — James i. 18 ; and it is to be known or 
 discerned only by its act ; i. e., when a man appropriates 
 Christ, we rightly judge he has power and propensity to 
 do it, even because he does it. 
 
 56. The operation of the Spirit, in this begetting or 
 creating faith, does not at all infringe upon the freedom 
 of the will, but consists in making us willing in the day 
 
THE ASSURANCE OP FAITH. 17 
 
 of his power to this appropriation, and is a working in us 
 " to will," as well as " to do." 
 
 57. It requires no sense o^ power or goodness^ but, on 
 the contrary, in a sense of weakness, claims the strength 
 of Christ ; and, in a sense of sin and guilt, claims the 
 righteousness of Christ ; saying, " In the Lord have I 
 righteousness and strength." 
 
 58. It is no real objection, that persons professing this 
 faith have misbehaved ; unless it was proved that their 
 failure proceeded from the assurance here described, and not 
 from their natural evil propensity, through the want, or 
 the not exercising, of such a faith. Besides, all profes- 
 sions of religion whatever have their unworthy adherents ; 
 and even the most eminent saints recorded in the Holy 
 Scriptures have sometimes had remarkable defects, — who 
 could nevertheless witness with us, that, by the exercise 
 of such faith, and the enjoyment of such blessings, we are 
 sanctified, and can truly say, " Lord, thou knowest all 
 things, thou knowest that we love thee." 
 
 69. This faith, then, is essentially different in itself 
 from all false faith, in the appropriating persuasion we 
 plead for, in that it proceeds from no enthusiastic dream 
 or fancy, but upon God's faithful word ; that it really 
 receives Christ as given ; that its act can have no more 
 existence without Christ enjoyed, to peace of conscience, 
 and as an operative principle of holiness thereby, than eat- 
 ing can exist without food ; and that it thus operates by 
 the persuasion of reconciliation with God in Christ, and 
 of such a discovery of suitableness, sufficiency, beauty, and 
 glory, in the Redeemer, as engages the heart to cry out, 
 " This is all my salvation, and all my desire." 
 
 A SUMMARY OF THE PRECEDING APHORISMS. 
 
 1. There is an assurance of application in justifying 
 faith, by which what is given is accepted or re- 
 ceived. 
 
18 SUMMARY OP APHORISMS. 
 
 2. It is antecedent to all acts of reflection. 
 
 3. Not an assurance of entitling qualifications. 
 
 4. The sufficient warrant from the Divine Word for 
 
 this faith. 
 
 5. Justifying- faith defined. 
 
 6. Christ is 7nine, expressive of the application itself; 
 
 in what sense the declarations of the Gospel make 
 Christ our own^ antecedent to this possession and 
 enjoyment. 
 
 7. More than a conviction of some pre-evident truth, 
 
 and yet helieving no more than what is strictly true. 
 
 8. It is the soul's echo to the Gospel declaration. 
 
 9. Cleared from presumption, insincerity, and self-de- 
 
 ception. 
 
 10. Not believing- a He. 
 
 11. It implies no contradiction, on the strictest supposi- 
 
 tion of election. 
 
 12. It answers to the Scripture denominations of faith. 
 
 13. And to the metaphorical descriptions of it. 
 
 14. This persuasion or assurance imphed in the term 
 
 reliance. 
 
 15. Every persuasion that Christ is mine, &c., is not 
 
 the faith pleaded for. 
 16^. A man saying he has faith, and thus appropriating 
 Christ, are widely different. 
 
 17. Its peculiar properties. 
 
 18. It implies not only sincerity, desire, and approbation, 
 
 but also a peculiar confidence in the divine vera- 
 city and faithfulness. 
 
 19 . To be distinguished from the opinion, He has died for 
 
 all, and consequently for me ; or from the giving 
 credit to any doctrine, without an actual receiving 
 the person of Christ. 
 
 20. Assurance by self-examination is hereby put in its 
 
 proper place. 
 
 21. It is an assurance the hypocrite never attains, nor 
 
 any man, but by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 22. Why it cannot justly be condemned. 
 
 23. Coming thus to Christ for a salvation from sin, is, 
 
 in its nature, a departing from sin. 
 
SUMMARY OF APHORISMS. 1 9 
 
 24. We are to call nothing Christ but him who was cru- 
 
 cified, or nothing faith in him but that which ap- 
 propriates. 
 
 25. To endeavour to make any convictions, desires, &c., 
 
 the grounds of appropriation, perplexes, and pre- 
 vents direct believing. 
 
 26. This application always a direct act. 
 
 27. A sinner's right to Christ arises not from the opera- 
 
 tion of God's Spirit, &c. 
 
 28. Doubtings of the soundness of our conversion, or 
 
 reality of our faith, motives to this immediate ap- 
 plication, in order to put all out of doubt. 
 
 29. Doubts, fluctuations, and mistrustful suggestions, 
 
 when condemned and resisted, are to be carefully 
 distinguished from the nature of faith, which, in 
 its own act, assures the soul of salvation notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 30. Terrors and wrath upon the soul to be prevented, if 
 
 possible, by this believing application. 
 
 31. They do not at all fit the heart for Christ. 
 
 32. Why the hungry, thirsty, and heavy laden are invited. 
 
 33. These are terms used to signify a sad, rather than a 
 
 desirable condition. 
 
 34. Are different from that appetite to Christ and his 
 
 salvation which arises from a Gospel-discovery of 
 him ; and no more to be sought for than pei^secu- 
 tion, captivity^ or blindness. 
 
 35. To seek them, a contradiction to Christ, and to faith. 
 
 36. How the promise, "They shall be filled " (Matt. v. 6), 
 
 is to be understood. 
 
 37. The words, " If any man thirst " (John vii. 37), what 
 
 they imply. 
 
 38. " I will give freely " (Rev. xxi. 6), i.e., without con- 
 
 dition. 
 
 39. Desires not faith. 
 
 40. Desires not to be depended on. 
 
 41. When prayer for faith is right. 
 
 42. The hoHness of this faith. 
 
 43. Why this account of faith displeases. 
 
 44. Cruelty to weak souls. 
 
20 SUMMARY OF APHORISMS. 
 
 45. Proper encouragement to such. 
 
 46. Self-diffidence does not hinder this assurance. 
 
 47. A specific difference in the jjeisuasion of justifying 
 
 faith. 
 
 48. 49. 50. This point farther proved. 
 
 51. Regenerate desires are not before this faith. 
 
 52. How the will is accepted for the deed. 
 
 53. How faith saves. 
 
 54. Simon Magus considered. 
 
 55. 56. Habit of faith, how begotten. 
 
 57. Requires no previous sense of power or goodness. 
 
 58. Misbehaving professors no real objection. 
 
 59. Wherein this persuasion is different from all false 
 
 faith, summed up. 
 
 FREE SALVATION DEFENDED, 
 
 AND SEVERAL COMMON OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 
 Hell cares not how crude holiness be preached, 
 It sinners' match with Christ be never reached ; 
 Knowing their holiness is but a sham, 
 Who ne'er are married to the Holy Lamb. 
 Let words have never such a pious show. 
 And blaze aloft in rude professor's view, 
 With sacred aromatics richly spiced. 
 If they but drown in silence' glorious Christ ; 
 Or, it he may some vacant room supply. 
 Make him a subject only by the by; 
 They mar true holiness with tickling chat 
 To breed a bastard Pharisaic brat. 
 They wofully the Gospel message broke, — 
 Make fearful havock of their Master's flock ; 
 Yet please themselves and the blind multitude. 
 By whom the Gospel's little understood. 
 
 Proud nature may reject this Gospel theme, 
 And curse it as an Ant'momian scheme. 
 Let slander bark, let envy grin and fight, 
 The curse that is so causeless shall not light. 
 
FREE SALVATION DEFENDED. 21 
 
 If they that fain would make, by holy force, 
 
 'Tvvixt sinners and the law a clean divorce, 
 
 And court the Lamb, a virgin chaste, to wife, 
 
 Be charged as foes to holiness of life, 
 
 Well may they suffer gladly on this score, — 
 
 Apostles great were so maligned before. 
 
 " Do we make void the law through faith ?" Nay, why, 
 
 We do it more fulfil and magnify 
 
 Than fiery seraphs can with holiest flash ; 
 
 Avaunt, vain legalists, unworthy trash. 
 
 Erskine's Gospel Sonnets. 
 
 Those who conclude that Christ is theirs from some- 
 thing- in them, or done by them, are upon a self-righteous 
 foundation. But those that believe Christ is theirs upon 
 a g-ood foundation, do it from this, " That he is given to 
 us freely." For " this is the record, That God hath g^iven 
 to us eternal life : and this life is in his Son," &c. And 
 "he that believeth" not that God hath g-iven to him eternal 
 life in his Son, " makes God a liar," — 1 John v. 10, 11 ; 
 and can never, inr that state, receive Christ by faith, be- 
 cause he has not so much faith as to believe that He is 
 g-iven unto him ; for a man can receive nothing, except 
 it be g-iven him from heaven, — John iii. 27. 
 
 Again, the Comforter's office is, to convince the world 
 [i. e., unbelievers, people of the world) of sin, because 
 they believe not on him (Christ) ; and to the conviction 
 of that Spirit they must be left, that go about to defend 
 their unbelief by denying this great truth. 
 
 When ministers invite sinners to trust ih Christ as 
 their Saviour, it is because they know him to be so freely 
 given, that they may safely do it ; and that he is so free, 
 is to be declared as the truth of the Gospel ; and the 
 hearers left to the Spirit of God, to be convinced of it. 
 
 ObJectio7i 1. " If I could believe, I should know Christ 
 was given to me." 
 
 Answer. On the contrary, if you knew that Christ was 
 given to you in the Gospel you could believe ; you are 
 invited to believe in him as your Saviour. 
 
 Objection 2. " I would fain believe and trust in Christ 
 as my Saviour, but I cannot." ' 
 
22 FREE SALVATION DEFENDED. 
 
 Answer. It is because you do not believe that you 
 safely may. May the Lord reveal this unto you! 
 
 Objection 3. " This is free-will, as if it was in a man's 
 power to believe when he would." 
 
 Answer. No ; it is only free grace, that whosoever 
 will may come, and him that cometh Christ will in no 
 wise cast out. 
 
 Objection 4. " But no man can come, except the 
 Father draw him." 
 
 Answer. All that are taught of the Father to come to 
 Christ, are taught that Christ is a free Saviour ; and then 
 they come joyfully, without contradiction or reasoning ; 
 therefore you may be sure you are not taught of the 
 Father these reasonings on account of which you stand off. 
 
 Objection 5. " If this doctrine was true, every body 
 would believe, and be saved." 
 
 Answer. No ; you that make the objection are an in- 
 stance to the contrary. The declaration of this truth, 
 that Christ is freely given to us in that Gospel, which is 
 to be preached to every creature, does not at all infer that 
 you have either will or power to believe it. The con- 
 trary is rather evident, if you reason about it. When it 
 is said, you may come to Christ freely, you are not to 
 understand by it, that you may come from any power you 
 are endued with, but from the liberty of access allowed in 
 the Gospel, to the end that sinners may have a founda- 
 tion for their venturing upon Christ as their Saviour, 
 and not be justly accounted presumptuous for so doing. 
 If it was said of a certain place, that it was free for any 
 person to go into, it could not be understood as of a pro- 
 perty in the persons, but as of a property in the place. 
 
 That Christ is freely given to sinners in that Gospel 
 which is to be preached to every creature, is as great a 
 truth, as that none but these that are chosen to salvation, 
 and to whom it is given to believe, can in their heart 
 make use of the gift. 
 
 Objection 6. To tell souls in particular, Christ is given 
 to them, is taking the work of the Spirit into our own 
 hands. 
 
FKEE SALVATION DEFENDED. 23 
 
 Answer. It is true, it is the office of the Spirit to 
 make known to particular persons that Christ is given 
 to them ; but let it be observed, that the Spirit reveals no 
 more to a soul that receives Christ, than what is already 
 revealed in the Word, giving- us an understanding to 
 know the things that are already in the Gospel freely 
 given to us of God. It is not taking the work of the 
 Spirit into our hands, for to declare these tidings to the 
 outward ear, which it is His office to speak to the heart. 
 The Word and Spirit concur together, and do not at all 
 oppose one another ; as it is written, " The things of 
 God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God ; which 
 things also we speak." — 1 Cor. xi. 11, 13. The Spirit 
 does not reveal to us our title to the things of God, by 
 showing to us, in the first place, our election, but by en- 
 lightening us spiritually to discern the things that are 
 freely given to us as sinners, and our title in the freeness 
 of the gift ; so that the grace stands in the Gospel free 
 for any ; but the enlightening of the Spirit to discern this 
 free grace is particular to the elect. 
 
 Objection 7. The Gospel speaks only in general terms, 
 it is the Spirit that makes particular application. 
 
 Answer. The general terms of the Gospel warrant our 
 particular application of Christ to ourselves ; the Spirit 
 demonstrates this to particular persons ; and then they, 
 by faith, receive and rest upon him. And through this 
 witnessing of the Spirit, the word that appeared before 
 but as a dead letter, becomes spirit and life. 
 
 Objection 8. If none can receive Christ but the elect, 
 what need is there for Christ to be preached so free ? 
 preach Him ever so free, you can have no more than the 
 number. 
 
 Answer. The reason why He is to be preached so free, 
 is, not that more may be gathered than the elect, but for 
 their sakes, that all boasting in them may be excluded. 
 That they may know their salvation, not from any thing 
 they find in themselves, but through believing in that 
 Saviour, who is declared in the Gospel as free to others 
 as to them. And also, that those who reject this free 
 
24 FREE SALVATION DEFENDED. 
 
 salvation may be left without excuse, because every man 
 that hears this Gospel, either vvilling-ly embraces it, or 
 wilfully rejects it. 
 
 *' They ought, who royal grace's heralds be, 
 To trumpet loud salvation, full and free ; 
 Nor safely can, to humour mortal pride, 
 In silence evangelic mysteries hide. 
 What Heaven is pleased to give, dare we refuse. 
 Or under ground conceal, lest men abuse ? 
 Suppress the Gospel-flower, on pretence 
 That some vile spiders may suck poison thence ? 
 
 We must, who freely get, as freely give 
 The vital word — that makes the dead to live. 
 For even to sinners dead within our reach 
 We in His living name may most successful preach. 
 
 We're charged to preach the Gospel, unconfined, 
 To every creature of the human kind; 
 To call, with tenders of salvation free, 
 All corners of the earth to come and see ;' 
 And every sinner must excuseless make. 
 By urging rich and poor to come and take. 
 
 Ho, every one that thirsts, is grace's call 
 Direct to needy sinners great and small : 
 Not meaning those alone, whose holy thirst 
 Denominates their souls already blest. 
 If only those were called, then none but saints; 
 Nor would the Gospel suit the sinner's wants. 
 But here the call does signally import 
 Sinners and thirsty souls of every sort ; 
 And mainly to their door the message brings, 
 Who yet are thirsting after empty things ; 
 Who spend their means no living bread to buy, 
 And pains for that which cannot satisfy. 
 Such thirsty sinners here invited are, 
 Who vainly spend their money, thought, and care. 
 On passing shades, vile lusts, and trash so base 
 As yield immortal souls no true solace. 
 The call directs them, as they would be blest, 
 To choose a purer object of their thirst. 
 All are invited by the joyful sound 
 To drink who need, as does the parched ground, 
 Whose wide-mouthed clefts speak to the brazen sky 
 Its passive thirst, without an active cry. 
 
FREE SALVATION DEFENDED. 25 
 
 The Gospel preacher then, with holy skill, 
 Must offer Christ to whosoever will, 
 To sinners of all sorts that can be named, — 
 The blind, the lame, the poor, the halt, the maimed. 
 Not daring to restrict th' extensive call. 
 But opening wide the net to catch them all. 
 No soul must be excluded that will come. 
 Nor right of access be confined to some. 
 Though none will come till conscious of their want, 
 Yet right to come they have by sovereign grant ; 
 Such right to Christ, his promise, and his grace, 
 That all are damned who hear and don't embrace. 
 So freely is th' unbounded call dispensed, 
 We find therein even sinners unconvinced; 
 Who hiow not they are naked, blind, and j)oor, 
 Coujiselled to buy or beg at Jesus' door. 
 And take the glorious robe, eye-salve, and golden store. 
 This prize they are obliged by faith to win. 
 Else unbelief would never be their sin. 
 Yea, Gospel offers but a sham we make, 
 If every sinner has not right to take." 
 
 Gospel Sonnets. 
 
 THE r.NP. 
 
 Printevi hy John Johnstone, High Street, Edinburgh. 
 
POPULAR WORKS 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 3, line 18, for assurance, read assurances. 
 >. 7, ,, 1, /or ado vocate, rt'flc/ advocate. 
 
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THE NATIONAL ATLAS 
 
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 eONSTRDCTED FROM THE MOST RECENT AND AUTHENTIC SOURCES. 
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