Name they fball caft out Devils, they fhall take up Serpents, if they drink any deadly thing it Jhall not hurt them, They shall lay hands on the Sick; and they shall recover. Where Faith really is, it cafts out Devils ftill, the Spirit of Envy and of Pride, of Uncleanness and Revenge, every Foul and Evil Spirit that poffeffes Man. It works now as mighty things upon the Souls, as in the first and miraculous Age it did upon the Bodys of Men: If it do's not indeed exert Works really more Miraculous, than those visibly perform'd by the firft Believers. Such, as if they make lefs fhew without, yet need as great, if not greater, Efficacy within to Effect them. Doubtless Sanctification, Juftification, Salvation, all which are in a right Sense afcrib'd to Faith, are Arguments of as Divine a Power, as to caft out Devils, or to heal the Sick, or to raise the Dead. Nay, if we may prefume to compare the Works of Omnipotence, how much harder feems it to inspire Virtue into the Vicious Soul, than to breath the breath of Life into a dead Carcafs? To make the Children of the Devil become the Sons of God, than out of the Stones to raise up Children unto Abraham? To animate a Lump of Earth, is but to Determin to one Form that Matter which is capable of any. To cure à Disease or to caft out a Devil is but to remove an Unnatural Oppreffion, a weight weight that a Man labours under and groans to be discharg'd of. The Subject in these Cafes, is purely paffive, or elfe affiftant and willing to contribute to the Effect. But the raifing us up to a new Spiritual Life, the healing of the inward Sickness of the Soul, the difpoffeffing every Evil Spirit that had taken up its dwelling there, thefe Works are attended with no fuch favourable Circumftances: inftead of a meer inactivity, there is a warm and vigorous Refiftance, instead of an inclination to comply with the change, an obftinate purpose to hinder and refift it; An Oppofition not to be overcome, but by as much or more of Virtue fupernatural, than was requir'd to the production of the most aftonishing Wonders that were wrought, even by the Apoftles, or by Chrift himself. So much is imply'd in what our Saviour tells us, John 14. 12. He that Believes in me, the Works that I do he ball do alfo, and greater Works than thefe fhall be do. Every true Believer then doth not Work Miracles, yet fomewhat greater it seems by the Grace of God and Faith in Chrift he performs. Thanks therefore be unto God for This his unspeakable Gift! fruitful in the production of fuch Glorious and Bleffed Effects! and chiefly of that moft Bleffed Effect of all, which, as the Crown of its other Excellencys and Perfections is here affirm'd of Faith in the Text, R 2 that that Through it ye are Sav'd, which is the other thing that comes next to be confider'd. 2dly, Te are Sav'd through Faith. That We are fuftify'd by Faith, and that He that Believeth Jhall be Sav'd, can be no doubt to any one that Reads and Believes the Gospel, the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that Believes. Rom. 1. 16. This great and comfortable Truth is therein fo plainly exprefs'd, or fo neceffarily imply'd in places fo many as were endless, fo obvious as 'tis needless to repeat. But what this Faith is, and in what manner it produces such admirable Effects, as are on all hands allow'd to be afcrib'd to it in Scripture, is the great Question and Subject of Debate. But not to trouble you with Scholaftick niceties, by Faith ye may understand a deep and full perfuafion of, and a Real and Cordial affent to, all Truth reveal'd in Scripture, upon the account that it is the Word of God fo Infinitely Wife, that he cannot be deceiv'd, and fo Infinitely Good, that he cannot deceive. Which is fo juft a Foundation of Affurance, that Faith is therefore rightly defcrib'd by the Apoftle, Hebr. 11.1. The Subftance of things hoped for, the Evidence of things not feen. By which is meant that a found and firm Belief makes that, as it were were, Subfift, which yet is not, gives a prefent Exiftence to things yet to come, sets diftant Futurities before the Eye of the Soul, and represents them as lively to the Enlighten'd Mind, as if they were before us expos'd naked to our Bodily Eye; giving them thereby the fame Efficacy and Power to excite in us workings fuitable to fuch important Difcoveries, as if what we are perfuaded certainly must be, actually were in Being, and now prefent in our View. And if this be the Nature of Faith, as from the Apostle's defcription of it we may conclude it is, We need only to confider what thofe things are, which are thus reveal'd, and of what vaft concern, what mighty importance to us, to learn in what manner fuch a Belief of them, as has been defcrib'd hould Operate, and be to us the EffeAtual Inftrument in working out our Salvation. Certainly the Glorious and Gracious, the Awful and Terrible Objects of our Faith, are fuch as cannot choose, if heartily Believ'd, and actually attended to, but produce in us fuch apprehenfions of God and ourselves as to engage us to the perfecting of Holineß in the Fear of God, 2 Cor. 7. 1. and if we have our Fruit unto Holineß, we know the End is Everlafting Life. Rom. 6. 22. To illuftrate this in fome of the grand and moft concerning Points of our Belief. He that firmly and ftedfaftly Believes, that the Soul that actuates this Body is an Immortal Being, a Subfiftence which fhall and must endure to Eternity; That after Death he muft appear before the Tribunal of God and Chrift, to answer for the things done in the Body, That from thence he fhall be tranfmitted to a State either of Eternal Happiness, or Eternal Mifery, either to be entertain'd in the Vifion of God, in the Fellowship of Saints and Angels, with Joy unfpeakable and full of Glory, or excluded from the fight of God, and treated with the Devil and his Angels, with Torments unexpreffible, Unconceivable, and that to all Eternity, This Man, thus actually Believing, if he might gain all the Profits, and Honours, and Pleasures, if he might decline all the Loffes, Difgrace, and Afflictions of this World, will not lofe his own Soul. Confidering that light and momentary things bear no proportion to the exceeding Weight of thofe that are Eternal, he will forthwith endeavour to lay hold upon Eternal Life, and make haft to Escape the Wrath to come. He that is fully in his Mind perswaded, that there is an Omniscient and Omniprefent God, of purer Eyes than to behold "Iniquity without infinite Deteftation, yet neceffarily feeing all whatever he do's, who is about his path, and about his bed, and spies out all |