SERMON VII.

SAVING FAITH-CONTINUED.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God: even to them that believe on his name. John i. 12.

HAVING considered the nature and excellency of saving faith, with its relation to justification, as an instrument in receiving Christ and his righteousness, I now come to make APPLICATION of this weighty and fruitful doctrine.

And

This point yields us MANY GREAT AND USEFUL TRUTHS for our information.

INFERENCE 1. Is the receiving of Christ the vital and saving act of faith, which gives the soul right to the person and privileges of Christ; then it follows, that the rejecting of Christ by unbelief, must be the damning and souldestroying sin which cuts a man off from Christ, and all the benefits purchased by his blood. If there be life in receiving, there must be death in rejecting Christ.

There is no grace more excellent than faith; no sin more execrable and abominable than unbelief. Faith is the saving grace, and unbelief the damning sin: "He that believeth not shall be damned," Mark xvi. 16. See John iii. 18, 36, and viii. 24.

In the justification of a sinner, as there must be free grace as an impulsive cause, and the blood of Christ as the meritorious cause, so, of necessity, there must be faith as the instrumental cause, to receive and apply what the free grace of God designed, and the blood of Christ purchased for us. For where several causes concur to produce one effect, the effect is not produced till the last cause be in action.

"To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins," Acts x. 43. Faith, in its place, is as necessary as the blood of Christ in its place: it is "Christ in you the

hope of glory," Col, i. 27. Christ in the grave, nor Christ in heaven, except he be also Christ in you.

Not Christ in the womb, not

Though Christ be come in the flesh; though he died and rose again from the dead; yet if you believe not, you must for all that "die in your sins," John viii. 24. And what a dreadful thing is this! better die any death whatever, than die in your sins. If you die in your sins, you will also rise in your sins, and stand at the bar of Christ in your sins: you can never receive remission till first you have received Christ. O cursed unbelief! which damns the soul; dishonours God, 1 John v. 10; slights Jesus Christ, the wisdom of God, as if the glorious design of redemption by his blood, the triumph and master-piece of Divine wisdom, were mere foolishness, 1 Cor. i. 23, 24: it frustrates the great design of the gospel, Gal. iv. 11; and, consequently, it must be the sin of sins; the worst and most dangerous of all sins; leaving a man under the guilt of all his other sins.

2. If such a receiving of Christ as has been described be saving and justifying faith, then faith is a work of greater difficulty than most men understand it to be, and there are but few sound believers in the world.

Before Christ can be received the heart must be emptied and opened but most men's hearts are full of selfrighteousness and vain confidence: this was the case of the Jews: " They being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God," Rom. x. 3.

Man's righteousness was once in himself, and whatever liquor is first put into the vessel, it ever afterwards savours of it. It is with Adam's posterity as with bees, which have been accustomed to go to their own hive and carry all thither; if the hive be removed to another place, they will still fly to the old place, hover up and down about it, and rather die there than go to a new place. So it is with most men. God hath removed their righteousness from doing to believing; from themselves to Christ: but who shall prevail with them to forsake self? Nature will venture to be damned rather than do it: there is much submission in believing, and great self-denial: a proud, self-conceited heart will never stoop to live upon the stock of another's righteousness.

Besides, it is no easy thing to persuade men to receive Christ as their Lord in all things, and submit their necks to his strict and holy precepts, though it be a great truth that "Christ's yoke doth not gall, but graces and adorns the neck that bears it;" that the truest and sweetest liberty is in our freedom from our lusts, not in our fulfilling them; yet who can persuade the carnal heart to believe this? And much less will men ever be prevailed with to forsake father, mother, wife, children, inheritance, and life itself, to follow Christ: and all this on account of spiritual and invisible things. Yet this must be done by all that receive the Lord Jesus Christ upon gospel terms; yea, and before the soul has any encouraging experience of its own, to balance the manifold discouragements of sense and carnal reason, improved by the utmost craft of Satan to dismay it for experience is the fruit and consequence of believing. So that it may well be placed among the great mysteries of godliness, that Christ is believed on in the world, 1 Tim. iii. 16.

3. Hence it will follow, that there may be more true believers in the world than know or dare conclude themselves to be such.

As many ruin their own souls by placing the essence of saving faith in naked assent, so some rob themselves of their own comfort by placing it in full assurance. Faith, and the sense of faith, are two distinct and separable mercies you may have truly received Christ, and not receive the knowledge or assurance of it, Isa. 1. 10. Some there be that say, Thou art our God, of whom God never said, Ye are my people: these have no authority to be called the sons of God: others there are, of whom God says, These are my people, who yet dare not call God their God: these have authority to be called the sons of God, but know it not. They have received Christ, that is their safety; but they have not yet received the knowledge and assurance of it, that is their trouble: the father owns his child in the cradle, who yet knows him not to be his father.

There are two reasons why many believers, who might argue themselves into peace, live without the comforts of their faith this may arise

(1.) From the want of evidence that they have truly received Christ. Many great objections lie against it, which they cannot clearly answer.

One objection is this: Light and knowledge are necessarily required to the right receiving of Christ, but I am dark and ignorant; many carnal, unregenerate persons seem to know more than I do, and to be more able to discourse of the mysteries of religion than I am.

Answer. But you ought to distinguish between the kinds and degrees of knowledge, and you would then see that your bewailed ignorance is no bar to your interest in Christ. There are two kinds of knowledge. There is a natural knowledge even of spiritual objects, a spark of nature blown up by an advantageous education; and though the objects of this knowledge be spiritual things, yet the light in which they are discerned is but a mere natural light. And there is a spiritual knowledge of spiritual things, the teaching of the anointing, as it is called, 1 John ii. 27; that is, the effect and fruit of the Spirit's sanctifying work upon our souls, when the experience of a man's own heart informs and teaches his understanding, when, by the working of grace in our own souls, we come to understand its nature; this is spiritual knowledge.

Now a little of this spiritual knowledge is a better evidence of a man's interest in Christ than the most raised and excellent degree of natural knowledge. As the philosopher says, "A small degree of knowledge of the most excellent things, is better than much knowledge of common things;" so here a little spiritual knowledge of Jesus Christ that has life and savour in it, is more than all the natural, sapless knowledge of the unregenerate, which leaves the heart dead, carnal, and barren: it is not the quantity, but the kind; not the measure, but the savour. If you know so much of the evil of sin as renders it the most bitter and burdensome thing in the world to you, and so much of the necessity and excellency of Christ as renders him the most sweet and desirable thing in the world to you, though you may be defective in many degrees of knowledge, yet this is enough to prove yours to be the fruit of the Spirit: you may have a sanctified heart, though you have an irregular or weak head: many that knew more than you, are in hell: and some that once knew as little as you, are now in heaven: God has not prepared heaven only for clear and subtle heads. A little sanctified and effectual knowledge of Christ's person, offices, suitableness and necessity, may bring thee thither; when others, with all their curious speculations, may perish for ever.

But you object again, "Assent to the truths of the gospel is necessarily included in saving faith, and though it be not the justifying and saving act, yet it is presupposed and required to it. Now, I have many staggerings and doubtings about the certainty and reality of these things; many horrid atheistical thoughts, which shake the assenting act of faith in the very foundation, and hence I fear I do not believe."

Answer. There may be, and often is, a true and sincere assent in the soul that is assaulted with violent atheistical suggestions from Satan, and thereupon questions the truth of it. And this is a very clear evidence of the reality of our assent, that whatever doubts or contrary suggestions there be, yet we dare not in our practice contradict or slight those truths or duties which we are tempted to disbelieve. We are assaulted with atheistical thoughts, and tempted to slight and cast off all fear of sin and practice of religious duties; yet when it comes to the point of practice, we dare not commit a known sin, the awe of God is upon us; we dare not omit a known duty, the tie of conscience is found strong enough to hold us close to it; in this case, it is plain we do really assent when we think we do not.

A man thinks he does not love his child, yet carefully provides for him in health, and is full of griefs and fears about him in sickness: now so long as I see all fatherly duties performed, and affection to his child's welfare manifested, let him say what he will as to the want of love to him, whilst I see this, he must excuse me if I do not believe him when he says, he has no love to him. Just so is it in this case: a man says, I do not assent to the being, necessity, or excellency of Jesus Christ; yet, in the meantime, his soul is filled with cares and fears about securing an interest in him; he is found panting and thirsting for him with vehement desires; nothing in all the world would give him such joy as to be well assured of an interest in him—while it is thus with any man, let him say or think what he will of his assent, it is manifest by this, that he does truly and heartily assent, and there can be no better proof of it than these real effects produced by it. But,

(2.) If these and other objections were never so fully answered, yet believers are afraid to draw the conclusion that they truly receive Christ. For