rance; yet it is rather an affurance of the truth of God in the promise, than an affurance of intereft in it. I will, by the Lord's affiftance, and in a dependence upon his bleffed guidance and teaching, endeavour to fet before you, what you are called upon to believe, and in fo doing, give you to understand, what believing in Christ is. Let us then, in the first place, confider what we are called upon to believe. And fecondly, the ground or warrant we have for believing.

In the first place, we are called upon to believe in the glorious person, and in the finished work of the Lord Jefus Chrift. The very first revelation that was made after the fall, was concerning him, who, as the feed of the woman, was to bruise the serpent's head. In which the incarnation and fufferings of Chrift were hinted at and discovered to our fallen parents, which caused the woman when she brought forth her first-born, to exult, faying, I have gotten a man from the Lord: or, as fome read it, I have gotten a man, the very JEHOVAH. We are called upon to believe in the incarnation of the Son of God; that God fo loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son; and that herein the love of God is manifefted, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and fent his Son to be the propitiation for our fins. Chrift in his perfon as the Son of God, and as God-man, is the object of our faith, and his personal obedience and sufferings, are what our faith is to be exercised upon, and hence it derives its ftrength, comfort, and holy boldnefs. It is by the knowledge of Chrift, that faith is

begotten in our hearts; for it lies in thefe two faculties of the foul, the understanding and the will. To fatisfy the understanding, God propofeth the greatest truth which he himfelf can utter-even life and falvation for every one that believeth in Jefus. To fatisfy the will, God propofeth the greatest good, for all good and every grace and bleffing are in Chrift. And the understanding, enlightened by the Holy Ghost to apprehend Chrift in his effential, personal, and mediatorial glories, fees him to be one who is all fufficient to fatisfy the foul for ever with unfpeakable pleasure and delight; and this draws the will to choose him, the heart to love, and the whole foul to delight in him, as its all in all. We preach Christ crucified, faith Paul; and what they preached the people were to believe: by the gofpel, Christ was evidently fet forth as crucified amongst them. Chrift is the object of faith. It is by him we believe in God, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit, to lead us into a knowledge of his perfon; hence it is obferved that the apostle being about, in the first chapter of the Coloffians, to treat of redemption by the blood of Chrift, he first fets out the person of Chrift, as God by nature, and as effentially confidered in his diftinct perfonality, the Son of God, and as God-man, Mediator, the image of the invisible God, the head of his body the church, their Redeemer, who made peace by the blood of his crofs. So likewife in the Epiftle to the Hebrews, which is of fuch ufe and importance to the church, that the great Dr. Owen says, "The world "might do as well without the fun, as the church of

"Chrift could do without this divine and moft excel"lent Epiftle." In it he is proposed to us as the object of our faith, in the eternal dignity of his person, and in the transcendent excellency of his offices. God gave him and fent him, as the only begotten Son of God, and we apply unto and believe on him as fuch. We are fanctified by faith that is in him, Acts xxvi. 18. Not faith in his word fevered from his perfon; for indeed there can be no true faith, if he be not known and confidered in the excellency of his perfon. Faith confiders Chrift dying and obtaining thereby eternal redemption, which it cannot do unless it confiders him in the excellency of his perfon, above that of a fimple man, even the Son of God, and by his incarnation God-man, our bleffed Immanuel, God with us. But Chrift as crucified is the more immediate object of faith. God the Father hath fet him forth in the word as a propitiation through faith in his blood, and Christ in his blood and facrifice is the object of faith, as is likewife the righteoufness which he hath wrought out and brought in. Hence the apostle Peter addreffeth himself to believers thus: Simon Peter, a Servant and an apofile of Jefus Chrift, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us in the righteousness of God, (for fo faith Dr. Goodwin it should be rendered) our Saviour Fefus Chrift. This is then an object of faith, and this righteousness is recommended unto us, it being the righteousness of God our Saviour, whose name is JEHOVAH our righteousness. So then Chrift in his divine person as the Son of God, and in his mediatorial character, work, and offices, as God-man, the

righteousness and facrifice of his church and people, is the object of our faith; and this we are called upon by the word to believe concerning him, that he hath been incarnate, and that in his life and in his death, he bath finished tranfgreffion, made an end of fins, made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righte ousness; that all the ends of his living and dying are anfwered, and that being rifen from the dead as the justifying head of his church and people, and being afcended with great triumph into his Father's kingdom, he is feated at God's right hand, and from thence fends down the Holy Ghost to open blind eyes, and draw the hearts of poor finners by the cords of invincible love and grace to himself.

Secondly, this brings me to confider the ground and warrant we have for believing; and this is the infallible word of God, in which it is propofed to us under the nature of a divine record, confirmed by the joint oath of the eternal Three, who declare, that there is life and falvation for every one that believeth in Jefus. God fo loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whofoever believeth on him fhould not perish, but have everlafling life. It is declared in the word, that the Father gave him to be a covenant for the people, to fulfil all righteousness in his life, and to be their atoning facrifice; and that he is infinitely and everlastingly well pleafed with Chrift, and all his, he having magnified the law, and made it everlastingly honourable, and that his blood cleanfeth from all fin. Faith receives this teftimony which the Father hath given of his Son, and fets its feal to God's infal

lible truth; and in believing it, the Holy Ghoft fills believers with all joy and peace. We have not

joy and peace given us that we may from thence believe; but are brought to give God full credit for the finished falvation of his Son, and in receiving the fcriptural teftimony of it upon the authority of God's own word, that the blood of Jefus Christ his Son has everlasting worth and efficacy to cleanse from all fin, we are in believing this filled with peace and joy, and our actual walking with God is the fruit and effect of our believing it. From what has been delivered we learn, that Chrift, as set forth in the word, is the object of our faith; that the word of God is the only ground of our faith; and that the matter of fact, that he who is coequal and coeternal with the Father, undertook to be and is become the author of eternal falvation, is what we are to exercise our faith upon. And the Father's teftimony that he has given eternal life unto us, finners of mankind, and that this life is in his Son, is worthy of all credit. Here let it be obferved, that Chrift is given unto and fet before us in the gospel; and by the Holy Ghost he is revealed unto us in the word, and by it in our hearts, in believing, as the hope of glory. So that in believing, we have to do entirely with Chrift without us; and by exercifing faith upon him it is, that we find him in us, dwelling in our hearts, and fupping with us; and thus he becomes truly precious to our fouls, under every relation, title, and character which he bears and fuftains.

This brings me to my third particular, wherein I