Page images
PDF
EPUB

3. The testimony upon which you give assent is different, according to the nature of the things testified of. Things human we assent to upon the testimony of man, if competent and faithful; but things divine we cannot assent to upon man's testimony (because the things of God no man knoweth), but upon the testimony of God. Wherefore, though human testimony may well beget human faith, that is, belief concerning human things; yet human testimony cannot beget divine faith, that is, belief of divine things. Man cannot know the things of God any further than he is told them by God himself, one way or other; so that divine faith stands simply upon divine testimony.

4.-Human testimony being no ground of divine faith, therefore there is in the world what is called by that name, and is not; as also there is what is called divine faith, and is so. There is in the world what is called divine faith, yet is not so, being what is taken up upon man's testimony. And this is the faith that is common in the world. The most believe the Scriptures, not from any real discernment that they are truly the record of God, but on no other footing than because they are currently received as such in the country and church in which they were born and bred; just as the Turks believe the Alcoran to be a divine book, because every one about them says it is from God. This every sensible person sees to be mere prejudice, and which sets Christianity on that very footing, upon which all the various things that are called religion, throughout the divers nations of the world, may be alike justified; since all they, as well as we, can say, it is the religion of my country, and all say it is the true religion. But possibly, though the absurdity be glaring, yet the true cause of such a false faith may not have been enough attended to, namely, the standing upon the incompetent testimony of man for the belief of divine things; and in the want of such a consideration, many, who have seen the absurdity of believing thus upon custom, may have run upon an absurdity not a jot less glaring, by taking it for granted there was no truth. in Christianity, because the most of those who profess it are capable of giving no better a reason for their doing so. But,

5.-Besides this vulgar prejudice, misnamed faith, as standing only on man's testimony, there is also true faith, standing on the testimony of God. And this is the faith here in question,

the true saving faith, to which all the promises of the Gospel belong. Concerning this saving faith, four things must be noted, as abundantly sufficient to distinguish it from whatever else is called faith. (1.) The subject, or person, in whom it is wrought, an humbled sinner. The promises of the Gospel are absolutely confined to the humble; so that neither he who is not brought to a sense of his lost estate as a sinner, nor even he who, awakened to a sense of his ruinous condition, is only desirous that he may not perish, can be the subject of this faith; but he who, besides seeing his danger, is convinced of the evil of his sins against the blessed God, their heinous guilt and deep demerit, and earnestly longs after reconciliation with him; who, in opposition to the unawakened, knows himself to be a sinner; and, in opposition to the only awakened, not alone desires to escape hell, and go to heaven, from a mere selfish regard to his own happiness, but rather desires the approbation, favour, and love of God, as his chief good; this is the only person in whom this saving faith is ever wrought. (2.) The object, or the thing believed by this humbled soul, which is the promise, God in Christ, holding himself out to the sinner by and in the promise. God in Christ is the object upon which faith fastens; none other can satisfy the humbled soul's occasions, nor in any sort fill up its desires. It is no true faith if Christ be not the supreme object of the soul's desire; if there be a looking to other than him for hope or happiness. (3.) Besides the subject and the object, there is the testimony of God unto the promise, making out the truth of it to the humbled soul. The promise lies in the Scripture, which the Spirit opens and explains to the mind by his secret illuminations, in answer to the soul's inquiry, search, and prayer; making it plainer and plainer; showing the suitableness of it to God's glory, and the soul's necessities; answering and silencing objections to the truth of it, and gaining a belief of it in the soul upon the authority of a faithful God, who cannot lie, and will not change. The testimony here is as immediately and directly God's, as a man's testimony to what he declares is his. And this God's testimony is not made out by any new revelation to the soul (that being merely an enthusiastical fancy, and a very dangerous opinion), but by casting light upon the promise, explaining it, and making it out in the mind

by a rational discovery of the evidences upon which it stands, as they lie in the Scripture. Upon this follows, in the fourth place, the assent, which is always in proportion to the degree of clearness wherewith the divine testimony is made in the soul. But wherever it is gained in any degree it is saving, having the very same effects in kind, though not in degree, as when it is grown up to absolute assurance past all doubt; and particularly warring against the fear of God's wrath, from a sense of guilt and unworthiness, which is the most proper office and business of faith. Having shown you now what the true nature of faith is, I would observe,

6. That, according to the account given of it, it must needs admit of the division into weak and strong. The belief is in proportion to the testimony, which the Spirit may give with a convincing fulness all at once, if he pleases, as it looks as if he did in the case of St. Paul: but it appears by the Bereans that this is not always the case; for it is said of them, that they "searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so ;' whereby it is manifestly implied, that God's testimony was not given them all at once in its satisfying fulness and incontestable evidence. And experience shows that this is ordinarily the case, as is most reasonable it should, to excite our care, diligence, prayer, and meditation, for increase in this great gift of God. God's testimony lies in the Scripture, to which we cannot assent any further than we know it. But this Scripture-testimony is of large extent and scope, in a competent knowledge of all which the mind must be instructed before it can attain unto such an assent as will admit of no doubt. And although it be the Spirit which makes out this Scripture-testimony, yet there is no reason to expect he will do it, but increasingly, in correspondence with our searching the Scriptures, and in answer to our prayers.

And therefore, to conclude, let me address a word of advice. for the increase of faith.

First. We should be abundantly diligent in humbling ourselves before God for our manifold and daily sins and provocations; this is our duty; but the effect of it, in regard of increase of faith, is manifest, inasmuch as such exercises keep the soul awake to see its real vileness and utter want of Christ, and

thereby preserve and increase its longings and desires after him. This experience teaches; as we remit or are diligent in these exercises, we are cold or earnest after Christ.

Secondly. We must hear, read, and meditate on the Scriptures, in a dependence on divine illumination to make out to us from them more evidently God's testimony concerning his Son Jesus Christ. God's word must be our study as often as we can; and, when it is not, we must be recollecting what we have learnt from it, and pondering upon it on all occasions; else, as I may say, we do not give the Spirit opportunity to explain and fix on our minds the testimony of God.

Thirdly. We must use the faith we have. This is a special means of increase. Behold, he giveth more grace. Stir up your faith to oppose all sinful fears; keep it in exercise upon God as he appears in his glorious majesty, and mercy in Jesus Christ. Lose not the sight of the great Redeemer, seated, as he now is, at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and manifested, as he will soon be, in the clouds of heaven. Let your faith in the divine promises, such as it is, be constantly kept at work in opposing the whole body of sin, and the special lusts thereof. Stir yourself up unto every duty. See that faith have the chief place in all you do, and in all your approaches unto God. See that your faith be working, and you will find God giving you increase.

[ocr errors]

Lastly. Be thankfully observant of God's faithfulness to his promises in Jesus Christ, manifest in his gracious daily dealings with you in soul and body. Compare his dealings with his declarations. Through grace it will wonderfully confirm you to see how they agree. How, as he has said, he hears your prayers; does not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; heals your backslidings; corrects you in measure; comforts you in all your tribulations. O, my friends! to see by long experience from of old how he has carried us in his hand, and still to this day has not left nor forsaken us; how through his mercies we are not consumed, and still his compassions fail not; to see how his mercies are new to us every morning; and every day he blesses us according to his word, in body, that we live and have health, and everything needful, and everything convenient, and

every comfortable thing, as it is this day; in soul he keeps us, preventing us with gracious motions, upholding us against our enemies, stirring us up to good, and preserving us from sin. What shall we say to these things? Were the mercies of God but one day duly remembered, how should we be forced to own the faithfulness of God, and the merits of Jesus Christ! The Lord enable you so to do, to the increase of your faith and joy, and of his praise and glory through Jesus Christ.

« PreviousContinue »