proposed to apply the queftion closely to each prefent, Do thou believe in the Son of God? This is a foulfearching question, and demands a strict inquiry, for upon believing on the Son of God, our eternal life depends. Hence our Lord faith to his apoftles, and in them to all their fucceffors, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be faved: but he that believeth not fhall be damned. These are the words of Chrift himself, by whom we shall be judged in the laft day; and by them we should try ourselves at prefent. Sirs, I do not afk you, what convictions you have, what your fins are, what experiences you have, nor what your present frames may be. But I afk you, what your thoughts are of Chrift? and whether you believe on the Son of God? In order that we may believe in the only begotten Son of God, the Holy Ghoft muft put forth his divine power and quicken our fouls, enlighten our understandings, and bring us to know Jefus in his Godhead and manhood, in his love and mercy, blood and righteousness. Faith is the gift of God, and it cannot be received but by the mighty operation of the Spirit of God; and by it, Chrift is received into the heart to dwell and abide with the foul for ever. It is one of the greatest works of God to bring a poor finner to believe in Chrift for everlasting life; for, hereby all belonging to a man's felf must be denied and eternally renounced. This is the method which the Holy Ghoft makes use of, in order to beget faith in the soul, and draw it forth into act: he prefents Chrift to the mind

by the word, and hereby reveals Chrift to the underftanding and heart, and thus he draws forth faith, to look unto him, and to exercife itfelf upon him. For as Chrift is the object, fo faith is the act of the foul upon him. It is, in itfelf, the moft fimple thing in the world; it confifts entirely in believing what God declares concerning his infinite plea fure and delight in the perfon of Chrift, and his work of falvation; in receiving Chrift, as the gift of God's love, into the heart, and in living upon him for righteousness and ftrength. Examine what your thoughts of Christ are, and what you believe of and concerning him; and be affured that every error refpecting the perfon of Chrift and his complete and finished falvation, is pernicious to your fouls. I will tell you what believers think of Chrift, and believe of and concerning him. They think that his perfon is inestimably and invaluably precious; that his love paffeth knowledge; that his mercy and grace are truly wonderful; that his righteoufnefs is everlasting, and that he is the Primce of Peace, their glorious ornament and everlasting crown. And they believe him to be God effentially, over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. This is the foundation which fupports their faith in him; upon it their everlasting hopes depend. He being God and man united in one perfon, they believe him to be almighty to fave, and every way fufficient to perform the work for which he became incarnate. They believe him to be JEHOVAH the Saviour, the righteoufnefs of his church and people; that the manhood being united to the Godhead, as

refiding in the perfon of the Son of God, all the fufferings sustained in the human nature of Chrift had an eternal worth and value in them; and that Chrift hath by himself purged our fins, and by his perfonal fufferings fatisfied divine justice; and that God's law being magnified by his obedience, fin being put away by his facrifice, and God's juftice being perfectly honoured and fatisfied by the foul travail of the blessed Redeemer, they fee and believe that God the Father is everlastingly well pleafed with the glorious obedience and facrifice of his Son, and with all that believe in him: he himself having declared that this is his will, that every one which feeth the Son, and believeth on him, fhould have everlafling life. And here I would turn and apply myfelf to fuch as truly believe on the Son of God. You who have fled to Jefus for refuge, and are trufting in his perfon, obedience, and bloodfhedding alone for everlafting life, are the perfons I now address: so that I fhall not propofe the text as a question to you, Doft thou believe on the Son of God? But rather fhall endeavour to speak to it in fuch a manner as to encourage you to go on in the way of believing. Give me leave to fuggeft it to you, that the devil hates your faith, will be daily nibbling at it, and will endeavour all he can to weaken it, and to hinder you from going on continually in the exercife of it. You will find yourfelves at times, ready to call your faith in queftion, and may be liable yourfelves to forget the ground of your faith, which is the word of God. You that are really believers in the

Lord Jefus Chrift are, I conceive, eafily apt to conclude, that the principal defect of your faith is in not believing your perfonal intereft in the Lord Jefus ; whereas the greatest defect lieth in not perfectly and thoroughly believing the truths which God himself reveals in the word, as the matter of our faith. You are often complaining of your cold hearts, ftrong corruptions and dead frames; it is a fimple belief of the truth of God, which only can fet the heart at liberty, when the Holy Ghoft enables you, merely upon the bare credit and teftimony of God, to believe that the blood of Chrift cleanfeth from all fin, and enables you to look God in the face with boldness. You must first believe in the perfect and everlasting atonement made by Chrift, before you can feel the virtue of it in your own fouls. We often that the blood of Chrift may be applied unto us, and sprinkled upon us. How is this to be done? By the Holy Ghoft, the Spirit of promise. The everlafting virtue of Chrift's blood is held forth in the promife of the everlasting gofpel; we receive the promise by faith through the power of the Holy Spirit; and the promise being thus received, the blood of Christ is brought home and fprinkled upon the foul. The preaching of the gospel is, as it were, the fprinkling of this blood, and in believing the everlasting virtue and efficacy of it, the application of it is made. So that believers fhould never forget, that faith, or believing on the Son of God, fets all the faculties of their fouls agoing after Chrift. Whilft the believer is looking wholly off himfelf and every other object,

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and looks fimply at Jefus, all is well. Believing in the righteoufnefs and atonement of Chrift, brings peace into the confcience, and the love of God into the heart; and the belief of the Father's love in Christ unto us, warms the cold heart, inflames the affections, and draws the whole foul after its beloved.

It fhould be observed, believers, that the faith which I have been propofing unto you, is founded entirely upon God's own revelation which he hath made of his Son, and that the bare word of God is the ground, rule, and warrant of our faith; and as our wants and miferies, fins and corruptions, always preach to us our continual need of Jefus, fo the Father's teftimony of him, and our title to him, are likewife one and the fame. Chrift becomes ours by the gift of the Father unto us, and is freely fet forth in the gospel to finners, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. It matters not what we are in ourfelves, for to fuch finners as we are is the word of this falvation fent. The blood of Chrift is more fufficient to cleanse, than fin is to damn the foul. The righteoufnefs of Jefus is every way fufficient to hide all our deformity from view; and fuch as behold Chrift in the glafs of the gofpel, are changed into the fame image from glory to glory.

May the Holy Ghoft lead you on in a fimple dependence upon the Lord Jefus, and keep you looking wholly and only at him, who is the author and finisher of faith; and you will then find that there is bleffed fruit brought forth to the praise and glory of divine grace, by fuch as live by the faith of the Son of