world. It implies humiliation; for as long as men deify themselves, they will not adore Jesus Christ. It implies sanctification; for Christ's beauty, for which his person is delighted in and chosen, is especially his holiness. It implies forsaking the world; for as long as men set their hearts on the world as their chief good, and have that as the chief object of the relish and complaisance of their minds, they will not relish and take complaisance in Christ, and set their hearts on him as their best good. The heart of a true believer consents to three things exhibited in the gospel of salvation. 1. The person who is the author of the salvation. 2. The benefit, or the salvation itself. 3. The way or method in which this person is the author of this benefit. § 69. Faith implies a cleaving of the heart to Christ; because a trusting in others is spoken of as a departing of the heart from the Lord. Jer. xvii. 5. "Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, whose heart departeth from the Lord." So a heart of unbelief is a heart that departeth from the Lord. Heb. iii. 12. "Lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Faith has a double office. It accepts Christ from God, and presents Christ to God. It accepts Christ in the word, and makes use of him in prayer. In the word, God offereth him to you, as Lord and Saviour, to give you repentance and remission of sins. Now, when you consent to God's terms, this is to believe in him....Faith presents Christ to God; Eph. iii. 12. «In whom we have boldness and access with confidence, by the faith of him." All religion lieth in coming to God by him. Heb. vii. 25. "Wherefore he is able also to save them unto the uttermost, that come unto God through him; seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Dr. Manton, vol. V. p. 382. $70. We often read in the New Testament of the calling of Christians, of their high calling; and that effect of God's word and spirit, by which they are brought to a saving faith, is called their calling; and true believers are spoken of as the called of God, called saints, &c. And this call is often represented as an invitation, an invitation to come to Christ, VOL. IV 3 K to come and join themselves to him, to come to follow him, to continue with him, to be of his party, his society, seeking his interest, &c. To come to him for his benefits, to come for deliverance from calamity and misery, to come for safety, to come for rest, to come to eat and drink; an invitation to come into his house, to a feast. And faith is often called by the name of vaxon, hearing, hearkening, yielding to, and obeying the gospel, obeying Christ, being obedient to the faith, obeying the form of doctrine, &c. Hence we may learn the nature of saving faith; that it is an accepting, yielding to, and complying with, the gospel, as such a call and invitation; which implies the hearing of the mind, i. e. the mind's apprehending or understanding the call; a believing of the voice, and the offer and promises contained in it; and accepting, esteeming, prizing the person and benefits invited to; a falling in of the inclination, the choice, the affection, &c. §71. Faith, as the word is used in scripture, does not only signify dependence, as it appears in venturing in practice, but also as it appears in the rest of the mind, in opposition to anxiety; as appears by Matth. vi. 25....34. "Take no thought....shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" So Luke xii. 22....32, "Take no thought....how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith! Fear not little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom," compared with Philip. iv. 6, 7, and Peter v. 7. This is agreeable to that phrase used in the Old Testament for trusting," Roll thy burthen on the Lord." Matth. xiv. 30, 31. "But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and, beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?" § 72. The following inquiries concerning saving faith, are proper and important. 1. Whether justifying faith, in its proper essence, implies, besides the act of the judgment, also an act of the inclination and will? 2. Whether it properly implies love in its essence ? 3. What are the scripture descriptions, characters, and representations of justifying faith? 4. What is the true definition of justifying faith, a definition which agrees with the scripture representation of faith, and takes all in? 5. Whether the word faith, as used in the gospel, has a signification diverse from what it has in common speech? 6. Why the word faith, is used to signify this complex act of the mind? 7. How far trusting in Christ is of the nature and essence of faith? 8 Whether assent, consent and affiance, be a proper distribution of the various and distinct acts of faith? 9. Whether hope, as the word is used in the New Testament, be properly distinct from saving faith? 10. What does the word trust imply in common speech? 12. In what sense faith implies obedience? 14. How selfrighteousness is peculiarly opposite to the nature of faith? 15. In what sense there must be a particular application in the act of saving faith? 16. Whether the first act of faith is certainly more lively and sensible, than some of the weakest of the consequent acts of saving faith ? 17. In what sense, perseverance in faith is necessary to salvation? 18. What sort of evidence is it which is the principal immediate ground of that assent of the judgment which is implied in saving faith? §73. Calling on the name of Christ, is often spoken of as the proper expression of saving faith in Christ. Acts ii. 21; Rom. x. 13, 14; 1 Cor. i. 2; Acts ix. 14, 21, 22, 16. Faith is trusting in Christ. See Doddridge's note on Acts xvi. 31. What in that prophecy of the Messiah in Isa. xlii. 4, is expressed thus, "The Isles shall wait for his law," is, as cit ed in Matth. xviii. 21. "In his name shall the Gentiles trust." Coming to Christ, and believing in him, are evidently used as equipollent expressions, in John vi. 29, 30, 35, 37, 40, 44, 45, 47, 64, 65. This coming, wherein consists believing, implies an attraction of the heart, as is manifest by verses 44, 45. Christ, by eating his flesh and drinking his blood, evidently means the same thing that he intends in the same chapter, by believing in him, and coming to him. Compare John vi. 50, 51, 58, 54, 56, 57, 58, with verses 29, 30, 35, 36, 37, 40, 44, 45, 47, 64, 65. Saving faith is called in Heb. iii. 6. παρρησία και το καύχημα Tns λidos, "The confidence and the rejoicing of the hope." της ελπίδος, Well expressing the act of the whole soul that is implied in saving faith, the judgment, the will and affections. So in Heb. x. 23. "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith.” In the original it is dos, Hope. Justifying faith is nothing else, but true virtue in its proper and genuine breathings adapted to the case, to the revelation made, the state we are in, the benefit to be received and the way and means of it, and our relation to these things. Faith is a sincere seeking righteousness and salvation, of Christ, and in Christ. Rom. ix. 31, 32. "Hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law." See also the promises made, both in the Old Testament and New, to them that seek the Lord. To saving faith in Christ belongs adoration, submission, and subjection, as appears by Isa. xlv. "Unto me every knee shall bow," with the foregoing and following verses. The general description of justifying faith is a proper reception of Christ and his salvation, or a proper active union of the soul to Christ as a Saviour. I say, a proper reception, which implies that it is a receiving him in a manner agreeable to his office and character and relation to us, in which he is exhibited and offered to us, and with regard to those ends and effects for which he is given to mankind, was sent into the world, and is appointed to be preached; and in a manner agreeable to the way in which he is exhibited, made known, and offered, i. e. by divine revelation, without being exhibited to the view of ourselves; and the nature of his person, character, offices and benefits; and the way of salvation, as related to our faculties, mysterious and incomprehensible; and in a manner agreeable to our circumstances, and our particu lar necessities, and immediate and infinite personal concern with the revelation and offer of the Saviour. An union of soul to this Saviour, and a reception of him and his salvation, which is proper in these respects, is most aptly called by the name of faith. § 74. That love belongs to the essence of saving faith, is manifest by comparing Isaiah Ixiv. 4. "Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, &c. what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him," as cited by the apostle, 1 Cor. ii. 9. "It is for them that love him." Now it is evident that waiting for God, in the Old Testament, signifies the same with faith in God, or trusting in God. Dr. Goodwin, in vol. 1, of his works, p. 286, says, "The Papists say, wickedly and wretchedly, that love is the form and soul of faith." But how does the truth of this charge of wickedness appear ? It was of old the coming to the sacrifice, as one consenting to the offering, active in choosing and constituting that as his offering, and looking to it as the means of atonement for his sins, that interested him in the sacrifice; as appears by Heb. x. 1, 2. "Could never make the comers thereunto perfect. For then, the worshippers once purged, should have had no more conscience of sins." Compare chap. ix. 9. Believing in one for any benefit, as sufficient for the benefit, and disposed to procure it, and accordingly leaving our interest with him, with regard to that benefit, is implied in trusting in him, Job xxxix. 11. "Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? Or wilt thou leave thy labor with him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?" |