the blood of Christ. If our hearts be trou bled, where is our faith in God? What doth God, and all that is in God, signify to us? What are we the better for all that infinite all-sufficiency and goodness that is in God, if we do not act faith upon it? our heart-trou bles would be cured, could we act faith on God as we ought to do.

Immoderate sorrow then is very unbecoming believers in God. If we will prove ourselves, believers in God, let us discharge ourselves from heart trouble, and let us draw out consolation for our hearts by faith, from all those comfortable considerations of God, and from all those abundant excellencies that are in God. O let us labour for faith, and act it; let us live in the exercise of it, and then surely we shall find comfort.

Secondly, Let us all labour to get an interest in God, by faith in Jesus Christ, that so we may be able to look upon God as our God, and then we may claim an interest in all that God is, and in all that God hath, and so shall we have no cause of heart trouble in any condition, For if God be ours, all his attributes are ours, his gracious covenant is ours, his word and promises are ours. All is ours;

therefore should we labour in this above all things, spending all our thoughts, affections and spirits upon this.. O let us lay hold on God and his covenant; let us chuse him for our portion, and resign up our whole selves unfeignedly to him, terminating and

centering all our desires, hope, love, delight in him alone, placing all our happiness in him and then commit all to him. "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee," Psal. lxxiii. 23.

The Second Question.

Seondly. What is it to believe in Christ? For, saith he in the text, "believe also in me.” It is God in Christ that we must believe in; not in God without Christ, not in God out of Christ, but believe in God in Christ.

Now what this believing in Christ is, I shall endeavour to shew; looking up to the father of lights, and to the author and finisher of our faith for light and assistance.

In general; It is to believe all that which is revealed in the holy scriptures concerning Christ, to believe the record that God hath given of him in his word, as 1 John v. 10, 11, 12, 13. To believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, John i. 18. That he came out from the father; was made flesh took upon him our nature; was born of a virgin; lived on earth in the form of a servant, a poor despicable life; preached the gospel, working miracles, &c. That he suffered upon the cross, with all the sins of his people upon his soul and body; that he bore the cross of the law, the wrath of God, which was due to man for sin. That he died a most painful, shameful, and cruel death, dying as a sacrifice, to satisfy God's justice, to atone

and pacify his wrath, to make our peace, and to reconcile us to God: that he rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, to prepare a place there for his people: that he sitteth at the right hand of God everlasting, to make continual intercession for us: and that he shall come to judge the world at the last day; and while he is absent from us in person here on earth, he promised to send his spirit the comforter into the world, to convince and convert all those which his father hath given him, to call them by his word, to quicken, strengthen, stablish, comfort and confirm them until he come again, "to take them to himself, that where he is, they may be also," John xvi. 1, 2. This is the record that God hath given of his son; "that whosoever bèlieveth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life;" John iii. 16, 36. Now, to believe in Christ, is to believe all this testimony of him. And also, out of a deep sense of our sin and misery, and sight of Christ's infinite excellency, all sufficiency, and willingness to save sinners; and upon his call to us in the gospel, to come unto him weary and heavy laden with our sins, heartily willing to except of the Lord Jesus upon his own terms, to take him for our only Lord, to give up our whole selves, souls and bodies, to his blessed government by his word and spirit in all things, and unfeignedly and unreservedly to enter into covenant with him, to become his, and his alone, and his for ever; and to rely

upon him for life, for grace and salvation; this is to believe in Christ. Thus to believe

in Christ, and let not your hearts be troubled. The acting of this faith on blessed Jesus, is a singular means to prevent and cure all heart trouble, all heart sorrows, cares, fears, vexations, despondencies, dejections and distractions whatsoever, that may arise in our hearts, by reason of any loss, cross, disappointment, distress, or affliction, that may befal us. If we can but thus believe in Christ, and rest and rely upon him, and trust in him, our hearts shall not be troubled.

Q. But what is that in Christ which faith must act upon, to effect this cure of heart trouble when afflictions come upon us?

A. Such-like things (as I shewed before) as are in God for faith to act upon, which are these that follow:

First, Faith must be acted upon the loving gracious sweet nature of Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus is of a most loving and sweet nature, he is love indeed, the son of his father's love, and altogether lovely. His thoughts of us who believe in him, were thoughts of love from everlasting. All his words are sweet, his mouth is most sweet. O what sweet language doth he give his church! "My dove, my love, my fair one, my sister, my spouse, &c. Cant. v. 5, 16. He loved us, and gave himself for us, loved us, and washed us in his blood," Rev. i. 6. He is one of our nature, our kinsman, our husband, our father, our elder brother,

Act

your

&c. So that, if there be any love in the head to the members, if any in the father to the child, if any in the husband to the wife, or in any near and dear relation, then sure, there is love, strong love, in Jesus Christ to all believers; for in him is the love all relations, and therefore he expresseth it under all these relations. He calls us his friends. He is of a most tender, a most merciful nature, full of bowels of compassion, and of tender mercies. It would be endless to express the loving nature of Jesus Christ to poor believers; which when a believer duly considers, ponders upon, and acteth faith upon, it cannot but support him under all heart trouble faith on Christ as yours, your Je sus he that died for you, he that sweated great drops of blood for you in the garden, wrestling and grapling with his father's wrath for you in your name and stead there, and upon the cross. Consider, that this your dearest Jesus now in glory, knows your souls in adversity; he seeth all the trouble of your hearts, he sympathizeth with you in all your afflic tions, his heart, now in heaven, "is touched with the feeling of your infirmities" on earth, Heb. iv. 15. He hath human nature still, though glorified. He feels our losses, crosses, griefs, pains, and sorrows; his heart, his most tender heart is affected. O that we could but believe this! and thus consider with ourselves; here I sit solitary as a widow, or a widower, or childless, or fatherless; or motherless, or friendless; my family is broken, I feel