deeply affected thereat, and to exert all their rational powers in opposition to their sloth and corruptions, labouring to lie open to the means of conviction; avoiding every thing that tends to promote security, and to render ineffectual the methods of divine grace, and practising every thing that tends to their further awakening. And O, let this be remembered, that it is sinners' resisting the methods of grace, which causes God to give them over. Psal. lxxxi. 11, 12, 13. But my people would not hearken to my voice: and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up to their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels. O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

2. From what has been said, we may learn that it is madness and folly for poor sinners to use the means of grace under a notion of doing their whole duty, and so pacify their consciences. The means of grace are designed, in the first place, to convince sinners of their sinful, guilty, ruined state and for them to forget, totally forget, this their end, and to go about to attend upon them under a notion of doing that duty which they owe to God, as something in lieu of that perfect obedience which the law requires, is quite to lose the benefit of the means of grace; yea, to thwart their very design; and tends to keep men from conviction and conversion, and seal them down in spiritual security. That which God directs them to do, to the end their consciences might be more awakened, they do, that their consciences might be more quieted. The means which were appointed to make them more sensible of their need of Christ and grace, they use to make themselves the more insensible thereof.

3. Sinners are not to use the means of grace under a notion of making amends for their past sins, and recommending themselves to God, (Rom. x. 3.) nor under a notion that by their strongest efforts they shall be ever able to renew their own nature, (Eph. ii. 1.) nor under a notion they can do any thing at all to prevail with God to renew them, (Rom. xi. 35, 36.) But, on the in the use of the means of grace, contrary, they are to seek for and labour after a thorough conviction, that they can neither make any amends for their past sins, nor in the least recommend themselves to God; that they

cannot renew their own nature, nor in the least move God to show them this mercy, to the intent, that being thus con vinced of their ruined, helpless state, they may be prepared to look to the free mercy and sovereign grace of God through Christ, for all things; which is the very thing that the gospel aims at, (Rom. iii. 9-20.) and which the means of grace are designed to promote, and bring them to; and to which the spirit of God, by his inward influences, does, in the use of means, finally bring all who are saved. Rom. vil. 8, 9. Gal. iii. 24.

For sinners to use the means of grace, under the other notions aforesaid, is practically to say, "We are not fallen, sin ful, guilty, helpless, undone creatures; nor do we need the redeemer or the sanctifier which God has provided; nor do we lie at his mercy, or intend to be beholden to his mere sovereign grace. If we have sinned we can make amends for it if we have displeased God, we can pacify him again : if we are wicked, we can become good: or, if we do as well as we can, and then want any further help, God is obliged to help us."

If, therefore, sinners would take the wisest course to be the better for the use of the means of grace, they must try to fall in with God's design, and with the spirit's influences, and labour to see and feel their sinful, guilty, condeinned, helpless, undone state. For this end they must forsake vain company, leave their quarrelling and contention, drop their inordinate worldly pursuits, and abandon every thing which tends to keep them secure in sin, and quench the motions of the spi rit; and for this end must they read, hear, meditate, and pray; compare themselves with God's holy law, try to view themselves in the same light that God does, and pass the same judgment upon themselves; that so they may be in a way to approve of the law, and to admire the grace of the gospel; to judge and condemn themselves, and humbly to apply to the free grace of God, through Jesus Christ, for all things, and through him to return to God.

Thus we have gone through what was proposed under this third general head. We have considered the necessity there was of satisfaction for sin, and of a perfect righteousness.

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We have considered what satisfaction for sin has been made, and what righteousness wrought out, and wherein their suff ciency consists. We have considered how the way of life has been opened by the means; and we have considered what methods God has actually entered upon for the recovery of lost sinners to himself. And thus, now, upon the whole, we see upon what grounds the great Governor of the world considered mankind as being in a perishing condition, and whence his designs of mercy originally took their rise, and what necessity there was for a Mediator and Redeemer, and how the way to life has been opened by him whom God has provided and so may now pass to the next thing proposed.

SECTION VII.

SHOWING THE NATURE OF A GENUINE COMPLIANCE WITH THE GOSPEL.

IV. To show the true nature of a saving faith in Christ. And because, by the whole, I am to explain the nature of the gospel, and of a genuine compliance therewith, therefore I will begin with a more general view of things, and afterwards proceed to a more distinct survey of faith in particular.

Now, a genuine compliance with the gospel, in general, consists in a spiritual and divine sight and sense of the great truths therein presupposed and revealed; and in a firm belief of those truths, and an answerable frame of heart; as is evident from 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4, 5. 1 Thes. ii. 13. Matt. 13. 23. John viii. 32.

It is divine light, imparted by the spirit of God to the soul, which lays the foundation of all. Matt. xi. 25. Gal. i. 16. 2 Cor. 3. 18. This spiritual and divine light, according to the language of St. Paul, shines in the heart, and consists in the knowledge of GLORY; 2 Cor. iv. 6.; that is, in a sense of MORAL BEAUTY; a sense of that beauty there is in the MoRAL PERFECTIONS of GOD, and in all spiritual and divine things; that HOLY BEAUTY which is peculiar to spiritual, and divine, and holy things; of which every unholy heart is

per

fectly insensible. 1 John i. 3. 6. And by it, things are made to appear to us, in a measure, as they do to God himself, and to the angels and saints in heaven. And so, by it, we are made to change our minds, and are brought to be of God's mind concerning things. And so we are hereby disposed to understand, believe, entertain, and embrace the gospel. John viii. 47.

GOD, the great Governor of the world, who sees all things as being what they are, does, in the gospel, consider mankind as perishing; as fallen, sinful, guilty, justly condemned, helpless, and undone. He looks upon the original constitution with Adam as holy, just, and good; and that, by and according to that constitution, he might have damned the whole human. race, consistently with his goodness, and to the honour of his holiness and justice. He looks upon the law of nature as holy, just, and good; and that, by and according to that, he might damn a guilty world, consistently with his goodness, and to the honour of his holiness and justice. Now, by this divine light, we are brought to look upon things as God does, and to have an answerable frame of heart.

Again; GOD, the great Governor of the world, who sees all things as being what they are, does, in the gospel, consider a guilty world as lying at his mercy. He saw that he was under no obligations to pity them in the least, or in the least to mitigate their punishment; much less under any obligations to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life; and still much less under any obligations, by his holy spirit, to subdue and recover such obstinate rebels, who hate him and his Son, his law and his gospel, and are perfectly averse to a return. saw a guilty world lie at his mercy, and that he was at liberty to have mercy or not to have mercy, according to his sovereign pleasure; and that it was fit, and becoming his glorious Majesty, to act as a sovereign in this affair. And now, by this divine light, we are brought to look upon things as God does, and to have an answerable frame of heart.

He

Again; GOD, the great Governor of the world, who sees all things as being what they are, at the same time that he designs mercy for a guilty world, does consider a Mediator as being

necessary to answer the demands of the broken law, and se cure the divine honour. In such a perishing condition he sees mankind; so guilty, so justly condemned, that it would be inconsistent with the divine perfections, and contrary to all good rules of government, to pardon and save such wicked, hell-deserving rebels, without some proper atonement for their sin, and suitable honour done to his law. But the honour of his holiness and justice, law and government, is sacred in his eyes, and of infinite importance, and must be maintained: better the whole world be damned, than they in the least be sullied: And now, by this divine light, we are brought to look upon things as God does, and to have an answerable frame of heart.

Moreover, Gon, the great Governor of the world, who sees all things as being what they are, views his only begotten Son as a meet person for a mediator, and himself as having sufficient power to authorize him to the work. Of his sovereign, self-moving goodness, he, in his infinite wisdom, contrives the whole scheme; lays the whole plan, and puts his design in execution; the door of mercy is opened; the news of pardon and peace is sent through a guilty world, and all are invited to return home to God through Jesus Christ: and God looks upon this way of salvation as being glorious for God, and safe for the poor sinner, And now, by this divine light, we are brought rightly to understand these things, and look upon them as God does, and believe them, and to have an answerable frame of heart.

Lastly, Gop, the great Governor of the world does, in the gospel, consider our return unto him through Jesus Christ, not only as a duty to which we are under infinite obligations, but also as a privilege of infinite value; and, in this view of the case, he commands and invites us to return. And now, by this divine light we are brought to look upon this also as God does, and to judge it the ttest and happiest thing in the world to return unto him through Jesus Christ, and to have an answerable frame of heart. For,

By this light we come to have a right view of the most high God to sec him, in a measure, as the saints and angels in heaven do: to see him in his infinite greatness and najesty, and in the infinite glory and beauty of his nature. And hence