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close with the goodneffe of truth, and to embrace Chrift.

2.There is a wonderful faith, a faith of miracles, to remove mountaines, to raise the dead, which had fome special and immediate promife, and yet it was a gift bestowed on those who had no faith to fave themfelves: Many who have caft out devils, may at the last day be cast among the devils: Lord, Lord, have not we Prophefied in thy name, and in thy name cast out Devils? And yet Chrift bid them depart, Nan novi

vos.

3. There is a temporary faith:which hath in it fome great apprehenfions of the truths of God; yea, and reverent affents; yea, and fome delightfull contentations in the fame; yea, and fome fruitfull expreffions, and with all thefe, a fingular degree of profeffion, even to a zealous forwardneffe, and notorioufnefs, fo that a man may be in the eye of others like a tall Ship, and yet there is a Leake in the bottome, which on the sudden finks all.

This temporary faith though in many refpects it handles the fame object with faving faith it is tampering much about Chrift, and the promises, yet it is intrinfically, and extreamly different from it.!

It doth not differ from it in respect of eminency or degrees, nor in refpect of existence or duration onely, (for the one is a living Spring, and the other is a decaying Flood,) but in refpect of formal nature allo : The temporary faith doth not indeed bring all the heart and fettle it on Chrift.

4.There is this juftifying and saving faith, which be ftowes the whole heart on Chrift, and takes Ch. ift unfeignedly to be Lord and Saviour. Now where there are fo many forts, it is not a great difficulty, nor an impoffibility to mistake, error is fold, (faid the Phylofopher) but the truth is fingle, and there is but one line to hit the mark, but many to miffe it.

many

Nay, fecondly, there is a great confimilitude of one of the extreames of faith, with faith it felf; viz. credulity. It is ftrange(yet ordinary) that a man should make a heaven of his own, and a God of his own, and a Chrift of his own, and a faith of his own, and a way to heaven of his own. Prefumption is a work.

M.3.

much

3.

much of an idle fancy, and a graceleffe beart, like a thiefe, very apt to finger the Kings coine, but without a warrant.But to the thing:Is there knowledge in faith? why, prefumption pretends to that is there confidence in faire? what more bold then prefump tion: is there any sweet affurance in faith? why,presumption never denbied, but could believe ever fince a man was borne: is there any joy in faith? why, presumption is as jocond and careLeffe, as if there were no heaven to be got, no finne to be bewailed, nor courfe to be reformed.

content ouT

Laftly, thefe are easie and we are apt to felves with these, instead of a true boleaving in fefus Christ. To get a little feeming knowledge, to carry Religion upon the lip, and Chrift on the tongue, to be bold upon Gods mercy, and Chrifts death, and with all thofe, to have a heart glued to the world, folded up in the love of finne, refolved against afl hazards, to shift off all profeffion rather then to endure any forme, what fo great a task is this? But to have a minde taught of God, and to have an understanding bowed with the ftrength of Divine light, and inward change to the obedience of truth, and to have a will fweetly renewed, and with an holy trembling, bumbly receiving Chrift in his perfon, and offices, and beftowing the whole foul and body on him againe; here the work sticks.

Chap.

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CHAP. XII.

The fure and dangerous mifery
of unbeliefe.

He laft thing which may ftirre us to try our felves,
is the confideration of that amazing danger,
and unspeakable mifery, to which the foul is
affuredly obnoxious in cafe of unbelief.

Why,will you say? What danger if we believe

not?

I answer, there are three special dangers.

First, all thy finnes ftand upon record against thee, like fo many fad debts which thou baft run thy felf into, from thy conception to this very day. They are all written with the pen of a Diamond: there is no blotting out of a mans finnes, but by the blood of Cbrift,and the unbeliever hath not his portion in that blood,and therefore there are all thy finnes uncancelled, thy finnes of nature, and all thy finnes of life; fuch a fin, and fuch a fin, then and there, and againe, committed, &c. Ohow great is the volume of them,the number of them cannot be numbred, and the guilt of them cannot be conceived, if one fin binds thee over to hell, Good God! To what flames of vengeance and horrible de gress and intenfions of mifery and wrath do all thy fins oblige thee?

Yea, and as Solomon faid in another cafe, Prov. 9 12. f thon (corneft, thou alone fhalt beare it: fo I fay here,if thou remain an unbeliever, thou alone must answer for all thy finnes. Whatfoever the wrathful displeasure of God is; whatsoever the borrors of confcience are; whatfoever the gnawings of that worm are, whatfoever the heat of hell flames are; Whatsoever the doleful feparation from God is; Whatsoever curfe the Law implies for fin, that maift thou expect, who wilt not believe in Chrift. O! if that

wrath

Obj.

I..

3.

Obj.

Sol.

wrath was fo hot, when it (obliquely as it were) fell on Chrift (where it had no unholy and felf-guilty quality to admix with it felfe) that he/weat drops of blood, and cryed out,my God, &c. How wilt thou with any patience, eafe, poffible quietneffe; fufteine the exrream wrath of the Almighty Judge, who art vile, and filthy, and haft a confcience with all thy torments, to gall and vex thee with the ftings of mifery, guilts, and felf-accufati ons? tell me how art thou able, what canft thou say, how canft thou beare up before the Lord, if he fhould arife, if he should terribly arife to judge the nations? He is the Holy God and Just, and is True and Great in power. What fatisfaction canst thou bring, where are thine oblations, or with what wilt thou reconcile thy felf to the Lord? Whereby canft thou either make thy former fins, to be no fins, or perfwade the Lord to be propicious to thee without Chrift?

Nay, verily, he will judge thee as an unrighteous perfon, for if thou haft not Chrift, what righteousneffe haft thou? there is no bepe for thee to be acquitted, nay,nor hope to be faved, nay, thou art fure to be damned.

Mark 16. 15. Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be faved, but be that beleeveth not shall be damned.

John 3, 18. He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not beleeved in the name of the only begotten Sonne of God. 36. He that beleeveth on the Son hath ever lasting life, and he that beleeveth not the Son fha! not fee life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Rev. 2.8. The fearful and unbelieving are caft into the lake of fire and brimstone.

But you will fay, Why? This is ftrange! Why fuch extreame mifery for not beleeving? what finne is

it?

It is one of the greateft fins in the world, not to believe (that is) not to receive the Lord Jefus Chrift. Because,

It is a finne against the greatest love to the world, Job.3. 16. God fo loved the world that he gave, &c. Rom. 5. 8. But God com mendesh kis love towards us, that whiles we were yet finners, Chrift dyed for us.

God fhewed the greatnese of bis love, to bestow his Sonne,

and

and Chrift fhewed the greatneffe of his love, to dye for us. Greater love (faid Chrift) can no man shew, then to lay down his life, &c. Now for the Lord to finde cut a way of Salvation, and in love to our foules to offer this Son of his unto us, and to befeech us to be reconciled, and then for us (like them who were envited to the supper) we cannot come, we will not come. O this,

&c.

It is a fin for which there can be no remedy for afmuch as it is a fin against the only remedy of a finful foul. The fentence of the Law may be repealed by the Gofpel, but not è contra. There is no plaifter for the foul but the blood of Chrift, which yet unbelief will not take and receive.

It is a finne which (as much as in it lies) makes void and vaine all the Covenant of Grace, turning all the goodneffe of it into nothing, and all the truthes of it into lyes, and makes the blood of Chrift to be shed in vaine. He that beleeveth not makes God a lyar, God a lyar, because he beleeveth not the record that God gave of bis Sonne, 1 John

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It is a fin which directly murders the foul: because it doth wilfully hold it off from Chrift, who would upon believing pardon and juftifie and fave.

All these things being premifed let us now defcend towards the triall or evidences of true faith in Chrift, where I beseech obferve.

you

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