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dence, according to the meafare of it, in oppofition to an uncertain faith. A doubtfome, wavering faith, is not the faith that receives Chrift; nay, it is a faith that receives nothing, if we will take God's word for it, James i. 5, 6, 7. "If any man lack wifdom, let him afk it of God;-but let him afk in faith, nothing wavering; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the fea, driven with the wind and toffed; for let not that man think that he fhall receive any thing of the Lord." Why then, a doubtfome faith receives nothing, far lefs fuch a prize as Chrift. I know how fome have been reproached on this head, notwithstanding of this plain fcriptural doctrine, as if they afferted, that they had no pity upon doubting believers. Really we should have no pity upon ourselves if we fhould fay, that no believers have their doubts. Well fay you, may not a man that hath "faith have doubts? Yea, to be fure he may; but his doubts are not his faith but his unbelief; and who ever faid but a believer may have much unbelief? I would afk fuch perfons, May not a man that hath grace, have corruption? And yet you will own that his corruption is none of his grace; nay, it is the direct oppofite of grace: even fo, a man that hath faith may have doubts, but yet his doubts are not his faith, but his fin, his unbelief, and the quite opposite of faith: there is no doubting in his faith, even as there is no corruption in grace; they are antipodes. And it is not by his doubting, but by his believing, that he receives any thing from God. The Lord deliver us from justifying a doubtful faith which Chrift reproves : "0 thou of little faith, wherefore doft thou doubt?" Some make doubting a mark of faith; but it is fuch a mark of faith as corruption is a mark of grace, as in the following fenfe: Why, fay you, there is a notorious profligate finner, that fays he never doubted all his days, but ftill had a good hope; that is indeed a fign that he hath no faith: whereas the poor foul that finds a world of doubts may yet be a true believer. Very true; and therefore I fay it is fuch a mark as corruption is a mark of grace, in this fenfe; there is an impenitent wretch that fays he never faw what they call corruption within him all his days; nay, he bleffes God he is a good Chriftian, a

good

good neighbour, and hath always had a good heart to God; there is an evidence that he hath no grace: whereas the poor foul that finds corruption working, and fin raging within him, may yet be a true faint. Thus as corruption felt may be a mark of grace, becaufe grace fights against corruption; even fo, doubting felt may be a mark of faith, becaufe faith fights againft doubting, and opposes it, as being quite contrary to its very nature. But will But will any therefore put doubting into the nature of faith, as if it were effential to faith to doubt? Or, will any therefore exclude perfuafion from the nature of faith, as if it were not effential for faith to be perfuaded, because the man that hath faith is fometimes doubting? Juft as if it were not in the nature of the eye to fee, because the man that hath eyes is fometimes fleeping: nay, we fay, it is in the nature of faith to fee, and be affured, and perfuaded, because it is a fiducial act; hence thefe and the like fcriptures, Rom. iv. 20, 21. "He ftaggered not at the promife of God, thro' unbelief, but was ftrong in the faith, giving glory to God; being fully perfuaded, that he that had promifed was able to perform." And Heb. xi. 13. it is faid of all the Old-Teftament believers, to whom notwithstanding the revelation of the object of faith was not so clearly made as under the New Teftament, that they received the promifes: well, but what fort of an act was that receiving act of theirs? Why, it follows, they were PERSUADED of them, and embraced them.

The common fenfe of mankind ufually takes faith, or believing, for a perfuafion: I believe fuch a thing; that is, I am perfuaded, or affured of it; I do not doubt it I believe fuch a man; that is, I am perfuaded it is truth that he says: if the honeft man give me his word, his oath, his bond, this fortifies the perfuafion, and certifies the person that hath ado with him. So here, to believe, is to be perfuaded, affured, and certified upon the word, the oath, the bond, the promife, the covenant, yea, the blood and righteoufnefs of God; and he that believeth upon fuch a ground, as all true believers do, muft believe with perfuafion, according to the measure of faith: if it be a weak faith, it is a weak perVOL. III,

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fuafion;

if a strong faith, a ftrong perfuafion. And it is not a natural perfuafion, a man's perfuading himself, and fo no more of it; nay, it is fupernatural, and comes of God, which the former does not; Gal. iv. 8. “This perfuafion cometh not of him that calleth you;" intimating, that right perfuafion cometh of God.

This act of receiving Chrift then is a fiducial act, a fiducial perfuafion, which fome call a fiducial affurance. I know that one great ground of miftake in this point is, the confounding of fiducial affurance with evidential affurance. The former is the affurance of faith, and in the nature of it; the latter is the affurance of fenfe, and the effect of faith; and is not properly faith at all, but fenfe -They differ in their acts; by fiducial affurance, we receive Chrift as ours; by evidential affurance, we know him to be ours: the former every believer hath, when he acts faith; the latter, many believers want, even when they act faith; because, though they may be confcious that they are acting, yet they may not be conscious of the quality of the act, if it is faving or not.-Again, this fiducial and evidential affurance differ, as in their acts, fo in their order; we firft believe by a fiducial perfuafion, and then we are fure by an evidential perfuafion; the one is the caufe, the other the effect: the perfuafion that is in faith, is like heat in the fire; the perfuafion that is after faith, is like fire in the room, that is the effect of the other.-They differ in their object; the object of fiducial affurance is without the man, and looks to the promise of God, and righteoufnefs of Chrift; but the object and foundation of evidential afsurance is within the man, and looks to the work of God within; fuch as, graces, attainments, and experiences.-They differ in their effects; the effect of judicial perfuafion is juftification, the effect of evidential perfuafion is confolation: a man is not justified by his evidential knowledge, or by knowing that Chrift is his; but he is justified by his fiducial knowledge, or his receiving and refting upon Chrift for falvation, as he is offered in the gofpel. By his knowledge, fhall my righteous Servant justify many," Faith is a fiducial act.

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7. In a word, It is an interefting act, whereby a man

is interested in Chrift and all that he is worth; infomuch, that upon his believing, all his debts are paid: as a woman that is in debt, upon her marriage to a rich man, all her debt is paid; because, by her marriage, all her debt is transferred upon the hufband that Hath married her: fo the foul, being married to Chrift, hath all his debt paid; the foul being now under the covert of its hufband, is not anfwerable for its own debt, nay, hath not its own fins to answer for, but Chrift the hufband anfwers for them.-And thus much concerning the act of faith in receiving Chrift; it is a fpiritual act, a warrantable act, a venturing act, an evangelical act, and a fiducial act, as alfo an interefting act. I come now to confider,

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Secondly, The OBJECT of this act, namely, Chrift; ye have received CHRIST; which admits of a doublé interpretation. 1. By Christ may be meant, Christ doctrinally confidered; or the doctrine of the gospel of Chrift. 2. By Chrift may be meant, Chrift perfonally confidered; or Chrift himself received in and by that doctrine.

1. I fay, by Chrift may be meant, Chrift doctrinally, or the doctrine of the gofpel of Chrift, as Eph. iv. 20. "Ye have not fo learned Chrift:" that is, ye have been otherwise taught the doctrine of the gofpel. And whoever views accurately the context here, both the verfe preceding the text, and the verfe following, as formerly explained, will find, that by Chrift here may evidently be understood the doctrine of Chrift, or the gofpel. And indeed none can receive Chrift, and reject his doctrine; but, in receiving Chrift, muft first receive his doctrine, and fo Chrift therein; and fo he that receiveth Chrift is faid to believe the gofpel; and every true receiver of Chrift is a receiver of his doctrine, because that is the feed by which he is conceived and born; and it is the milk by which he is brought up and nourished to eternal life, i Pet. i. 23. chap. ii. 2. I need not here ftand to commend the gofpel-doctrine: It is enough to fay, that by the Lord's bleffing upon it, it is the feed to conceive, and the milk to nourish all the children of God. Why? it is the channel in which the Spirit runs;

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"Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Gal. iii. 2.-It is the organ of the almighty power of God; "I am not afhamed of the gofpel of Chrift, for it is the power of God to falvation, to every one that believeth:" his power in working faith, his power in meafuring faith, and his power in faving finners in a way of believing, is put forth in the gospel; Why?"For therein is the righteoufnefs of God revealed from faith to faith," Rom. i. 16, 17. The law hath convinced many, but never converted one to this day; and a gofpel-minifter may preach the law for many good ends, but it is the gofpel part of preaching that doth the bufinefs, if the power of God be going along with it; for the gofpel only is the channel wherein the converting power of the Spirit runs; "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God:" Chrift is revealed therein in order to his being received. It is not the gofpel of itself, but Chrift revealed therein that heals the finner. It is like the ferpent lifted up upon the pole in the wilderness; the pole did not heal, but the ferpent upon the pole, that healed the fting; but the pole held it up to be seen : Even fo, it is not the pole of the gofpel that heals, but Chrift lifted up upon the pole. It is Chrift that is to be received, but he is to be received as offered in the gofpel; and the gospel holds out Chrift to the eye of faith : it is with refpect to Chrift what the pole was with respect to the ferpent; and therefore they that pull down this pole of the gospel, in any refpect, they take away Christ from the eye of the wounded foul, the ftinged finner : they that pull down the pole, they take away the ferpent out of view that the finner cannot fee it. Caft down Chrift they cannot, but they will pull down the pole, and fo take him out of fight. They that are concerned to have, or to give others a fight of Chrift, will be concerned to have the pole. ftraight that holds him up; I mean, the gospel found and clear, that holds him

forth.

Now, there is no good merchant for the kingdom of heaven, but for the treafure's fake that is hid in the field, will buy the whole field; Mat. xiii. 44. "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hid in a field; the which,

when

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