more importance in general, or more fuited to our prefent employment, than what is prefented to us in the words of the text: This is his commandment, That we bould believe on the name of his Son Jefus Chrift.

In the context, the apoftle is speaking of the Chriftian's confidence or perfuafion of his relation to God, ver. 20. 21. 22. "For if our

" heart condemn us, God is greater than our "heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if 66 our heart condemn us not, then have we "confidence towards God. And whatsoever "we afk, we receive of him; because we keep "his commandments, and do thofe things that "are pleafing in his fight."

Having thus mentioned the commandments he points out in the words now read, the great commandments of the gospel, in their order, And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jefus Chrift, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. My purpose at this time is, to confine myself to the first of these; and open, in as comprehenfive and practical a manner as I am able, what it is to believe on the name of Jefus Chrift the Son of God; and having done fo, to make fome practical improvement of the fubject; particularly, by preffing every hearer, in the most earnest manner, to obey this commandment of God

I. IN the first place, then, I am to explain what it is to believe on the name of Jefus Chrift the Son of God. Many have been the controverfies

verfies raised and agitated on this fubject, most of them unprofitable, and fome of them very hurtful, as tending to difquiet and perplex the minds of ferious perfons, and fometimes even to furnish an objection to the enemies of the gofpel. I fhall therefore avoid every thing of this kind, as in general undefirable, and at this time highly unfeafonable; and endeavour to lay it down in fuch a manner as I hope may be un. derstood by the meaneft real Chriftian, and may afford to every exercifed foul inward confolation, and peace with God.

As

For this purpose, I hope it will be fufficient to obferve, that faith may be confidered in two views; its object, and its actings: 1ft, The object of faith; that is to fay, the truths to be believed: 2dly, The actings of faith; or what it is to believe these to the faving of the foul. to the object of faith, it is thus expreffed in our text, This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jefus Chrift. Chrift Jefus, the Saviour, then, is the object of faith. This, in its full extent, includes every thing that is revealed in the holy scriptures, with refpect to his perfon, character, and work. It may indeed be faid to include the whole revealed will of God; becaufe every part of this will has a more remote or immediate reference to him. Chrift Jefus is "the Alpha and Omega, "the firft and the laft, the beginning and the ending," of the will of God as revealed for our falvation. But as every thing else was only introductory and preparatory to his atone

ment,

ment, or confequent upon it, I fhall chiefly direct your attention to him as a faviour from guilt and pollution. This the name of Jefus immediately imports: Matth. i. 21. " And thou "fhalt call his name Jefus : for he fhall fave "his people from their fins." In this view, I think the object of faith may be fummed up in the following particulars:

1. That we are, by nature, in a ftate of fin, alienated in heart from God, tranfgreffors of his law, and liable to his wrath. If this were not the cafe, a faviour would not be neceffary; falvation would be a word without force, and even without meaning. It is accordingly found in experience, that till there be a conviction of this truth upon the confcience, the tidings of a faviour are always treated with neglect or difdain. Nothing can be ftronger than the language of fcripture on this fubject in many paffages; particularly, Matth. xviii. 11. "For the Son of man is come to fave "that which was loft." Luke v. 31. 32. "And Jefus answering, faid unto them, They "that are whole, need not a phyfician; but "they that are fick. I came not to call the "righteous, but finners to repentance." I fhall alfo read to you the account of our natural ftate, and the end of Chrift's coming, given by the apostle Paul, Eph. ii. 1. -5. "And

"you hath he quickened who were dead in tref"paffes and fins, wherein in time past ye "walked according to the course of this world, "according to the prince of the power of the "air, the fpirit that now worketh in the children " of difobedience. Among whom alfo we all "had

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"had our conversation in times paft, in the "lufts of our flesh, fulfilling the defires of the "flesh, and of the mind; and were by nature But

the children of wrath, even as others. "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love "wherewith he loved us, even when we were "dead in fins hath quickned us together with "Chrift, (by grace ye are faved)." I forbear to mention the proof of this from the hiftory of the world, from the marks of God's difpleafure against fin in the course of providence, and from the teftimony of confcience, as I have illuftrated them at confiderable length in other difcourfes. Let it fuffice at prefent to fay, that the first truth which is the object of faith, is the guilt and mifery of our nature.

2. The next part of the object of faith is, that there is no way of recovery from this ftate but by Chrift: Acts iv. 12. "Neither is there "falvation in any other: for there is none o«ther name under heaven given among men "whereby we must be faved." If there were any other, it would not be the command of God that we fhould believe in the name of his Son Jefus Chrift. After men are in fome measure fenfible that they are guilty, it is often difficult to convince them that they are helplefs. There is fomething fo mortifying in this confideration, and fo humbling to our pride, that it is with great unwillingness we yield to it. Nay, after we have feemed to confefs it, we are often ready to retract it. The finner has always a pronenefs to feek fome refource in himself. Hence

Hence the difpofition to extenuate his guilt; and if he cannot plead abfolute, to place fome dependence upon comparative innocence. Hence the difpofition to magnify human merit, as if, by the value of fome good deeds, we could balance or cancel the guilt of our difobedience. Hence the endless variety of human inventions, of coftly facrifices and voluntary penance: Micah vi. 6. 7. "Wherewith fhall I come before "the Lord, and bow myself before the high "God? fhall I come before him with burnt"offerings, with calves of a year old? Will "the Lord be pleafed with thousands of rams, 64 or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? fhall "I give my first-born for my tranfgreffion, the "fruit of my body for the fin of my foul?" The truth is, till the finner is ftripped of every plea, and found to be without excufe, he will ftill refuse to be indebted to the grace of his Redeemer. But hear ye the Spirit of God, Rev. iii. 17. 18. Because thou fayeft, I am rich, "and increased with goods, and have need of

nothing; and knoweft not that thou art "wretched, and miferable, and poor, and “blind, and naked. I counfel thee to buy of "me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayeft be "rich; and white raiment, that thou mayeft "be clothed, and that the fhame of thy naked"nefs do not appear; and anoint thine eyes "with eye-falve, that thou mayeft fee."

3. This leads me to the third part of the object of faith, viz. That the pardon of fin, and peace with an offended God, is freely offer