in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me;" Gal. ii. 20.

Direct. 5. Remember therefore that God and heaven, the unseen things, are the final object of true faith; and that the final object is the noblest; and that the principal use of faith is to carry up the whole heart and life from things visible and temporal, to things invisible and eternal; and not only to comfort us in the assurance of our own forgiveness and salvation.'

It is an exceeding common and dangerous deceit, to overlook both this principal object and principal use of the Christian faith. 1. Many think of no other object of it, but the death and righteousness of Christ, and the pardon of sin, and the promise of that pardon: and God and heaven they look at as the objects of some other common kind of faith. 2. And they think of little other use of it, than to comfort them against the guilt of sin, with the assurance of their justification. But the great and principal work of faith is, that which is about its final object; to carry up the soul to God and heaven, where the world, and the things sensible, are the terminus à quo,' and God, and things invisible, the terminus ad quem:' and thus it is put in contradistinction to living by sight, in 2 Cor. v. 6, 7. And thus mortification is made one part of this great effect, in Rom. vi. throughout, and many other places: and thus it is that Heb. xi. doth set before us those numerous examples of a life of faith, as it was expressed in valuing things unseen, upon the belief of the word of God, and the vilifying of things seen which stand against them. And thus Christ tried the rich man, (Luke xviii. 22.) whether he would be his disciple, by calling him to sell all, and give to the poor, for the hopes of a treasure in heaven. And thus Christ maketh bearing the cross, and denying ourselves, and forsaking all for him, to be necessary in all that are his disciples. And thus Paul describeth the life of faith, (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.) by the contempt of the world, and suffering afflictions for the hopes of heaven: "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen, are temporal, but the things which are not

seen, are eternal." Our faith is our victory over the world, even in the very nature of it, and not only in the remote effect; for its aspect and believing approaches to God and the things unseen, and a proportionable recess from the things which are seen, is one and the same motion of the soul, denominated variously from its various respects to the ⚫ terminus ad quem,' and 'à quo.'

Direct. 6. Remember, that as God to be believed in, is the principal and final object of faith; so the kindling of love to God in the soul, is the principal use and effect of faith and to live by faith, is but to love (obey and suffer) by faith.' Faith working by love, is the description of our Christianity; Gal. v. 6. As Christ is the way to the Father, (John xiv. 6.) and came into the world to recover apostate man to God, to love him, and be beloved by him; so the true use of faith in Jesus Christ is to be as it were the bellows to kindle love; or the burning-glass as it were of the soul, to receive the beams of the love of God, as they shine upon us in Jesus Christ, and thereby to inflame our hearts in love to God again. Therefore if you would live by faith indeed, begin here, and first receive the deepest apprehensions of that love of the Father, "who so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life:" and by these apprehensions, stir up your hearts to the love of God; and make this very endeavour the work and business of your lives.

Oh that mistaken Christians would be rectified in this point! How much would it tend to their holiness and their peace? You think of almost nothing of the life of faith; but how to believe that you have a special interest in Christ, and shall be saved by him: but you have first another work to do you must first believe that common love and grace before-mentioned; Job iii. 16. 2 Cor. v. 19, 20. 14, 15. 1 Tim. ii. 6. Heb. ii. 9. And you must believe your own interest in this; that is, that God hath by Christ, made to all, and therefore unto you, an act of oblivion, and free deed of gift, that you shall have Christ, and pardon, and eternal life, if you will believingly accept the gift, and will not finally reject it. And the belief of this, even of this common love and grace, must first persuade your hearts accordingly to accept the offer, (and then you have a special in

terest) and withal, at the same time must kindle in your souls a thankful love to the Lord and fountain of this grace: and if you were so ingenuous as to begin here, and first use your faith upon the aforesaid common gift of Christ, for the kindling of love to God within you, and would account this the work which faith hath every day to do; you would then find that in the very exciting and exercise of this holy love, your assurance of your own special interest in Christ, would be sooner and more comfortably brought about, than by searching to find either evidence of pardon before you find your love to God; or to find your love to God, before you have laboured to get and exercise it.

I tell you, they are dangerous deceivers of your souls, that shall contradict this obvious truth; that the true method and motive of man's first special love to God, must not be by believing first God's special love to us; but by believing his more common love and mercy in the general act and offer of grace before-mentioned. For he that believeth God's special love to him, and his special interest in Christ, before he hath any special love to God, doth sinfully presume, and not believe. For if by God's special love, you mean his love of complacency to you, as a living member of Christ; to believe this before you love God truly, is to believe a dangerous lie: and if you mean only, God's love of benevolence, by which he decreeth to make you the objects of his aforesaid complacency, and to sanctify and save you; to believe this before you truly love God, is to believe that which is utterly unknown to you, and may be false for ought you know, but it is not at all revealed by God, and therefore is not the object of faith.

Therefore if you cannot have true assurance or persuasion of your special interest in Christ, and of your justification, before you have a special love to God, then this special love must be kindled (I say not by a common faith, but) by a true faith in the general love and promise mentioned before.

Nay, you must not only have first this special love, but also must have so much knowledge, that indeed you have it, as you will have knowledge of your special interest in Christ, and the love of God: for no act of faith will truly evidence special grace, which is not immediately and intimately accompanied with true love to God, our Father and

Redeemer, and the ultimate object of our faith: nor can you any further perceive or prove, the sincerity of your faith itself, than you discern in or with it, the love here mentioned. For faith is not only an act of the intellect, but of the will also: and there is no volition or consent to this or any offered good, which hath not in it the true nature of love and the intention of the end, being in order of nature, before our choice or use of means; the intending of God as our end, cannot come behind that act of faith, which is about Christ as the chosen means or way to God.

Therefore make this your great and principal use of your faith, to receive all the expressions of God's love in Christ, and thereby to kindle in you a love to God; that first the special true belief of God's more common love and grace, may kindle in you a special love, and then the sense of this may assure you of your special interest in Christ; and then the assurance of that special interest, may increase your love to a much higher degree: and thus live by faith in the work of love.

Direct. 7. 'That you may understand what the faith is which you must live by, take in all the parts (at least that are essential to it) in your description; and take not some parcels of it for the Christian faith; nor think not that it must needs be several sorts of faith, if it have several objects; and hearken not to that dull philosophical subtlety, which would persuade you that faith is but some single physical act of the soul."

1. If you know not what faith is, it must needs be a great hinderance to you, in the seeking of it, the trying it, and the using it. For though one may use his natural faculties, which work by natural inclination and necessity, without knowing what they are; yet it is not so where the choice of the rational appetite is necessary; for it must be guided by the reasoning faculty. And though unlearned persons may have and use repentance, faith, and other graces, who cannot define them, yet they do truly (though not perfectly) know the thing itself, though they know not the terms of a just definition: and all defect of knowing the true nature of faith, will be some hinderance to us in using it.

2. It is a moral subject which we are speaking of; and terms are to be understood according to the nature of the

subject: therefore faith is to be taken for a moral act, which comprehendeth many physical acts: such as the act of believing it, or taking such a man for my physician, or my master, or my tutor, or my king. Even our philosophers themselves know not what doth individuate a physical act of the soul: (nay, they are not agreed whether its acts should be called physical properly, or not.) Nay, they cannot tell what doth individuate an act of sense; whether when my eye doth at once see many words and letters of my book, every word or letter doth make as many individual acts, by being so many objects? And if so, whether the parts of every letter also do not constitute an individual act; and where shall we here stop? And must all these trifles be considered in our faith? Assenting to the truths is not one faith (unless when separated from the rest) and consenting to the good, another act: nor is it one faith to believe the promise, and another to believe the pardon of sin, and another to believe salvation, and another to believe in God, and another to believe in Jesus Christ; nor one to believe in Christ as our ransom, and another as our Intercessor, and another as our Teacher, and another as our King, and another to believe in the Holy Ghost, &c. I deny not but some one of these may be separated from the rest, and being so separated may be called faith; but not the Christian faith, but only a material parcel of it, which is like the limb of a man, or of a tree, which, cut off from the rest, is dead, and ceaseth when separated to be a part, any other than logical (a part of the description.)

The faith which hath the promise of salvation, and which you must live by, hath, 1. God for the principal Revealer, and his veracity for its formal object. 2. It hath Christ, and angels, and prophets, and apostles, for the sub-revealers. 3. It hath the Holy Ghost by the divine attesting operations before described, to be the seal and the confirmer. 4. It hath the same Holy Ghost for the internal exciter of it. 5. It hath all truths of known divine revelation, and all good of known divine donation by his covenant, to be the material general object. 6. It hath the covenant of grace, and the Holy Scriptures, (and formerly the voice of Christ and his apostles) or any such sign of the mind of God, for the instrumental efficient cause of the object in esse cognito :' and also the instrumental efficient of