it with justice, mercy, and truth: of fuch a fupreme being whose glory no eye can behold; whofe majefty no thought can comprehend; whofe power no ftrength can refift; from whose presence no fwiftness can flee; from whofe knowledge no fecret can be concealed; whofe juftice no art can evade; whofe goodness every creature partakes of: fo that the duty of believing in God implies, not only our believing his being, and his being governor and judge of the world; but also that we have worthy and honourable apprehenfions of his nature and attributes. Now as, without belief in God there can be no religion: fo where there is fuch a belief in God, the fcripture always in courfe fuppofes it accompanied with every other part of true religion; and what thofe parts are I fhall now inform you. Wherefore Our first approach to God is by FAITH; without which it is impoffible to pleafe God. Now faith is a firm of faith in belief of things at prefent not feen; a conviction Ged upon the mind of the truth of the promises and threatenings of God made known in the fcriptures; of the certain reality of the rewards and punishments of the life to come; which inables a man, in oppofition to all the temptations of a corrupt world, to obey God in expectation of an invifible reward hereafter. As faith alfo is a fincere perfuafion of the mind, concerning the certainty or credibility of any truth or fact arifing from another's teftimony, the reafon of faith in the holy fcriptures is ftrong and forcible; becaufe that is the teftimony of God, concerning thofe things in which are contained the means of eternal life, which may properly be reduced to these particulars; affirmations, commands, threatenings, and promifes. And Firft of his affirmations: fuch are the creation of the world; the difpenfations of providence in former ages; Libis affirand, above all, the Son of God manifefted in the mations. flesh: his life, and death, and refurrection, and afcenfion into heaven; the diftinction of the bleffed Trinity into Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft; the fecond coming of Chrift; the refurrection of the dead; the laft judgment, and the rewards and punishments which will enfue upon it. These affirmations of God contained in fcripture, tho' above our underC ftanding, ftanding, and not to be perceived by fenfe, nor to be feen through with the clofeft application, yet, if we have faith and truft in his promifes, become prefent unto us. In big commands. The next inftance by which we are to fhew our faith in God's word is to believe that all his commands are true, juft and fit to be commanded; and that they are the rule and measure of our obedience, to fhew us wherein, and how we must obey him. Therefore our faith in his commands must be conftantly fhewn by our fincere obedience. The third thing in fcripture, which demands our belief, In his pre- are God's promifes of outward neceffaries, prefent mifes. eafe and refreshment, and of all the benefits of Chrift's death and paffion; the promise of divine guidance to the weakness of our understandings and judgments; of ftrength in tribulations; grace under temptations; and of acceptance and pardon upon our faith and fincere endeavours; which is always to be accounted a neceffary condition on our part. The end therefore of our belief in God's promifes is to ftir us up to perform the conditions, which when we have done, we may justly apply the promises to ourselves, and expect our fhare in them: but till then, how fure foever we believe these promises to be, we can't hope for any benefit from them; feeing we are not the perfons to whom they were made, until we have performed the conditions they require. We are alfo to believe that God is juft and powerful, that In his he will and is able to punish finners both with fpithreatenings ritual and temporal afflictions, and eternal deftruction; and we are not only to believe that the terrors of the Lord are recorded for our admonition and caution; but to preferve us from thofe fins to which thefe punishments are justly threatened; and to recover us to repentance, when we have fallen; or to fortify us against compliance in the hour of temptation. This is the object of faith fitted to work For what upon our minds on account of its certainty and reafons. importance. We have all the affurance of the truth of these that we are capable of in this life, from the dictates of reafon, and a general confent of mankind; befides the moft credible revelation of thefe things in the gospel. How How strange then is it, that some satisfy themselves with the zeal they exprefs for the profeffion of the true religion, tho' they dishonour that profeffion by unrighteous works! That others expect to obtain falvation by the strength of their faith, utterly mistaking the very meaning of the word faith; apprehending it to fignify credulity, instead of fidelity; and that they shall be accepted for being confident, instead of faithful fervants! That fome depend upon certain things that can be done for them by others; as if any thing could, in the religious fenfe, be of advantage to any man, which does not at all make him the better man! That others rely upon the merits of Chrift; deceiving themfelves with an expectation that Chrift will refcue them from punishment, tho' they themselves reject all the motives by which the gofpel proposes to rescue them from fin! And as to the importance of this faith, every one must own, that the highest hopes and the greatest fears are fufficient fprings of human actions: for, What can concern us more than eternal happiness and eternal mifery? Thus we may obferve, that faith in God, thro' Jefus Chrift, includes our obedience to his laws, and duceth in the heart of a fincere and true believer an humble hope in his promises. pro III. A fecond duty to God is HOPE; which is a ftrong reliance and dependence upon the truth and good- Hope in nefs of the Lord, for his performance of thofe Gid. things promised on his part; which alfo is a condition of our acceptance with him. So that an humble hope, the effect of faith, is a proper homage to God upon the foot of his infallible truth, that he neither can be mistaken himself, nor is under any temptation to deceive us. Whatever he fays muft be true, and accordingly claims our firm hope and dependence, tho' we can have no other evidence for it befides his word; yet we should indeed be very careful, that we have the word of God to fupport our hope, and that we on what to have used the best means in our power to under- be grounded. ftand the true meaning of God's word; which are the only means to guard us against thofe two pernicious Its ufe. extremes, prefumption and defpair, which interrupt or deftroy this duty. Therefore, though the apostle has С 2 taught taught in general to hope all things, we must watch our own corruption, and not fuffer it to rely too much upon our own Prefump ftrength. For we are guilty of the great fin of tion. prefumption, when we neglect those means of grace, which are established in order to inable us to perform our duty; when we rafhly run ourselves into temptations, prefuming upon our own ability to encounter them; and, even in thofe trials that the providence of God brings upon us, when we truft more to our own refolution than to his divine affiftance; and confequently he who hopeth for pardon of fins and eternal life, without that repentance and obedience, to which alone they are promifed, is a prefumptuous hypocrite, whofe hope fhall perish. For this felf-confident temper often betrays us to undertake what we have neither capacity nor ability to perform. It makes us neglect thofe previous measures, which are neceffary to accomplish what we defign. It teaches us by dear-bought experience the frailties and infirmities of our nature. It frequently makes fhipwreck of a good confcience, and provokes God to withdraw his grace; which we lay fo little stress upon, in order to our prefervation. And therefore, To cure this fort of prefumption, we should confider the weakness and frailty of human nature, and the freIts remedy: quent inftances of it in our own conduct, and how unable we are of ourselves to do any thing that is good; we fhould reflect upon those eminent examples, that have been fatally betrayed by too great a confidence in them felves; and which are fet up as fo many marks for us to avoid those rocks upon which they fplit. Yet, We are not to be fo borne down with our fins, and miftruft the mercy of God, as to fall into the contrary Of despair. fault, which is defpair. For, tho' it be true, that fin is the faddeft flavery in the world; yet it muft not break and fink men's fpirits, and make them fo bafe and fervile, as to deprive them of that courage neceffary to refcue theinfelves from it. For, as long cuftom and continuance is fin deprives us of our ftrength; fo it difcourageth our hopes, both of God's grace and affiftance, and of his mercy and for giveness. giveness. But, when this defpair is the effect of religious melancholy, which is frequently an indifpofition When the of body, then there is no fuch reafon to be caft effect of me down. For whoever complain of want of im- lancholy. provement under the exercife of religious duties and want of a fervent zeal and love towards God; only because they want warmth and affection in the performance of their duty, which duty they nevertheless do perform fincerely and carefully; then there is no juft ground for trouble of mind upon that account; but they must be taught to comfort themfelves by confidering, that the different degrees of affection, with which different perfons ferve God, depend much more upon the accidental difference of their conftitution of body, than it is any true measure of the goodness of their minds; that in one and the fame perfon there will unavoidably be different degrees of affection at different times according to the prefent temper of his body, the order or diforder of his fpirits, the natural paffions and commotions of his mind, without any real change in his moral difpofitions; and that no man can at all times keep up an equal vigour of mind. Or, if, after his best endeavours in the course of a virtuous life, he cannot yet find in himself that paffionate love of the fupreme Good, which he finds fome writers have described in an unintelligible manner; this is no juft ground of uneafinefs at all; for whoever fincerely obeys the commandments of God, in the course of a virtuous and religious life, needs no other mark or proof of his love towards him. Or, if it be an apprehenfion that poffibly they may be excluded from mercy by fome pofitive decree and fore-appointment of God; this is abfolutely contrary to all our natural notions of the divine attributes, to conceive that the infinitely merciful and good God fhould for his own pleafure, and not for any wickedness of theirs, eternally decree any of his creatures to be miferable. Neither in fcripture indeed is there any foundation for any fuch apprehenfion, whatever there may be in the writings of fome unfkilful interpreters. Nor When the can there be any juft reafon of despair even to effect of our thofe, whofe minds are troubled at the remem- Jins. brance of paft fins; for tho' these are, and ought to be fuch a |
