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But God is

And, ver. 28.

sire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth. the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. It is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord. 3. It is the way of godly men to live under a spiritual sense of God, as the great Governor of the world, to whom it belongs to maintain the rights of the godhead, and the honour of the law; and under a sense of themselves as poor sinners, worthy only of destruction, according to law and justice, and too bad to be pitied or to have any mercy shown them, without some sufficient salvo to the divine honour; and under a sense of Christ as a Mediator appointed to be a propitiation for sin, to deciare God's righteousness and secure the divine honour, and so open a way wherein God might be just, and yet justify the sinner that believes in Jesus; even under such a living sense of these things, as that they are firmly believed; whereby they are influenced not to draw nigh to God in their own names, emboldened by their own goodness, but only in the name of Christ, depending entirely upon him, and emboldened only by his worth and merits, mediation, and intercession, to look for acceptance in the sight of God. Hence, because of this dependance, they are said to pray in Christ's name. John xvi. 23. To have access to God by him. Eph. ii. 18. To come to God through him. Heb. vii. 25. To believe in God by him. 1 Pet. i. 21. And are represented as being EMBOLDENED by his worth and merits, mediation and intercession, to approach the Majesty of heaven. Heb. iv. 16, and x. 19. And now this is called a coming to Christ. John vii. 37. A receiving him. John i. 12. A believing in Christ. John iii. 15. 16. A believing on Christ. John iii. 18. 36. A believing in HIS NAME. John i. 12. And a TRUSTING in Christ. Eph. i. 12, 13. And this is that act of faith by which we are justified and entitled to life, as is evident from Rom. iii. 24, 25, 26. where it is, by the Apostle, called faith in Christ's blood. The Apostle considers God as the righteous Governor of the world, (chap. i. 18.) all mankind as being guilty before God, (chap. iii. 9-19.) Christ as being set forth to be a propitiation for sin, (ver. 25.) That God might be just and yet justif, &c. (ver. 26.) And affirms that we are justified by free grace through the REDEMPTION that is in Jesus Christ, (ver.

24.) by faith without the deeds of the law, (ver. 28.) being considered in ourselves as UNGODLY, (chap. iv. 5.) And this justifying faith he calls faith in Christ's blood; because it was principally by the death of Christ that the ends of moral government were answered, and so law and justice satisfied, and a way opened for the honourable exercise of divine grace, But although the word faith be thus used in scripture in these different senses, yet we are lo remember that these various exercises of a godly soul are connected together, and always concomitant with one another; yea, and, in some respects, implied in each other: and perhaps sometimes all these actings of soul are designed by the word faith; nevertheless they are evidently, in their own nature, so distinct, as that they may be conceived of as distinct acts of the soul. And it may also be noted that the two first of these, viz. a firm belief of divine truths, and a hearty reliance on the divine all-sufficiency, are acts of faith common to angels as well as saints; but the last, which immediately respects Christ as Mediator, is peculiar to penitent, returning sinners. The two first are common to every holy creature; for all such do, in a firm belief of divine truths, live in an entire dependance upon God, the infinite fountain of all good: but the last is peculiar to sinful creatures, who, because they are sinful, need a mediator to make way for the honourable exercise of the divine goodness towards them. Those who never were sinners may receive all things, from the free grace and self-moving goodness of the divine nature, without a mediator; but those who have been sinners perhaps will receive all through a mediator to eternity.

10. A heart to love God supremely, live to him ultimately, and delight in him superlatively; to love our neighbours as ourselves; to hate every false way; to be humble, meek, weaned from the world, heavenly minded; to be thankful for mercies; patient under afflictions; to love enemies; to forgive injuries, and, in all things, to do as we would be done. by; a heart for all this, I say, is always in exact proportion to the degree of true faith; for the same views of our own wretchedness; of God; of Christ; of the way of salvation by free grace through him; of the glory, reality, and importance of

divine and eternal things, which lay the foundation for true faith, and always accompany the exercise of faith, do, at the same time, lay the foundation for this divine temper. And besides, this divine temper is what every true believer feels to be the fittest and happiest thing in the world, and, as such, longs for it, and goes to God to have it increased and strengthened; and, being unworthy to go in his own name *, he goes in Christ's name: so that the obtaining more and more of this divine temper is one main end of his exercising faith in Christ. And whatsoever he asks the Father in Christ's name, he receives. God is readier to give his Holy Spirit to such an oue, than parents are to give bread to their children, (John xvi. 23. Mat. vii. 11.) and therefore every true believer does obtain the end of his faith; and not only has, but grows in this divine temper, and is governed by it, and brings forth fruit according to it: and thus shows his faith by his works, according to St. James' doctrine. James ii. And herein true faith stands distinguished from all counterfeits. Never had a hypocrite a spiritual sense of that ineffable beauty of the divine nature, which lies at the foundation of all the experiences of the true saint, and from whence all true holiness originally springs. The formalist may, from legal fears and merce

tition,

Unworthy to go in his own name. As thus, if, in prayer, I offer up this peLord, enable me to love thee with all my heart!" it implies, (1.) That I do not love God with all my heart, notwithstanding the infinite obligations I am under to do so; for which defect I am infinitely to blame, and deserve an infinite punishment; to be instantly driven from God's presence for ever, and spurned to hell as a creature fit only for destruction. (2.) It implies that all the external manifestations which God has made of himself to me in his works and word, and all the external means he has used with me, are not able to win my heart wholly to God; so great is my sottishness and alienation from the Deity, and love to the world and sin. And now, surely, such a vile wretch cannot have, a thought of any mercy from God, on the account of any goodness in me; yea, rather I am too bad to be pitied, unless there be some sufficient salvo to the divine honour. How, therefore, can God give me the greatest of gifts, even the sanctifying influences of his Holy Spirit, but through the great Mediator, consistently with his honour as moral Governor of the world. Now, therefore, being thus unworthy to go to God in my own name, I go in Christ's name; as knowing that, through him, God can exercise his infinite, self-moving goodness to the vilest of creatures, consistently with his honour; although law and justice call for their immediate destruction, considered as in themselves.

nary hopes, be so strict and conscientious in his ways, as to think himself a choice good man: and the enthusiast, from a firm persuasion of the pardon of his sins, and the love of Christ, may be so full of joy and love, zeal and devotion, as to think himself a most eminent saint: but there is nothing of the nature of true holiness in either; for it is self, and nothing but self, that is the principal, centre, and end of all their religion. They do not believe in Christ, that through him they may return home to God, and be consecrated to him for ever, and obtain grace to do all his will. They do not know God, or care for him, but are wholly taken up about their own interest. That Moravian maxim, "That salvation consists in the forgiveness of sins," exhibits the true picture of the heart of the best hypocrite in the world; while that in 2 Cor. iii. 18. is peculiar to the godly. We all with open fuce beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory.

11. And lastly. In true believers there is a principle of faith, which abides and grows, and perseveres to the end. That spiritual sense of God, of themselves, of Christ, and of the gospel-way of salvation through him, which lays the foundation for the first act of faith, becomes habitual. They have a spiritual understanding to discern spiritual things. (1 Cor. ii. 12.) They were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord; and hence they are called children of the light and of the day. Eph. v. 8. 1 Thes. v. 5. Spiritual light does not come upon believers like flashes of lightning at midnight; now and then a flash, and then as dark as ever again; but their light is habitual, like day-light. And from the first dawning of divine light at the hour of conversion, that daybreak of heaven, their light shines more and more, year after year, to the perfect day. Prov. iv. 18. The flying clouds in the day time, although they may hide the clear shining of the sun for a while, yet they do not make it dark as in the night; yea, the thickest clouds are not able to do it. Believers are never destitute of a spiritual sense of God and Christ, and divine things, as other men are. They are children of the light and of the day; and not of the night and of darkness. The spirit of God does not come upon them by

fits, as it did upon Balaam; but dwells in them. (Rom. viii. 9.) And they grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. iii. 18. If at any time they should have no more sense of divine things than the unregenerate, they would be as much without grace; they would not differ from the stony-ground hearers, who fell away. And now their divine light being thus habitual, growing and persevering, hence their faith is so too. Through the course of their lives it is their way to grow more and more sensible of their sinfulness; the sinfulness of sin; their un worthiness, ill-desert, poverty, and absolute need of free grace and of Jesus Christ. And they also see more and more into the gospel-way of salvation; the glory and safety of it; its suitableness to exalt God, magnify the law, discountenance sin, humble the sinner, and glorify grace; and more and more come off from all self-dependence, to an entire reliance upon Jesus Christ, and the free grace of God through him; seeking to be found not in themselves, but in Christ; not as having on their own righteousness, but his. Phil. iii. 7, 8, 9. They more fully ap prove of the law of nature, and of the original constitution. with Adam, as being holy, just, and good: they more fully get into a way of looking upon themselves as God does; as being naturally, and in themselves, fallen, sinful, guilty, justly condemned, helpless, and undone they see more and more of their infinite obligation to perfect holiness, and of the reasonableness of eternal damnation being threatened for the least sin, and of the insufficiency of all their best doings to make any satisfaction for sin : the grace of God, as revealed in the gospel, appears more rich, and free, and wonderful they feel more and more of their need of Christ, his worth and merits, mediation and intercession; and of their utter unfitness to approach the Majesty of heaven any other way but by him: they feel themselves more full of wants, and further off from any worthiness to receive, and yet more and more into the temper of humble beggars, and into a way of coming to God more entirely in Christ's name. At first conversion such a temper begins; and this temper grows like the mustardseed, and spreads like the leaven, and is like a well of living water, which is never dry, but is springing up into everlasting life.

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