"my unbelief," Mark ix. 24. The thing then that I mean, when I say faith is easy, is, that it is easy in the acting; there is no great difficulty in the acting of it, when once received. This I would shew you in two particulars.

1. Faith is sweetly drawn forth. 2. It sweetly acts when it is drawn forth.

(1.) Faith is sweetly drawn forth. The hand that works faith, deals gently with the soul. It is a drawing with lovingkindness, Jer. xxxi. S.; it is a causing of a man to approach to God, Psalm lxv. 4.; it is a drawing with such an arm of love and power, as there is no pain in it, but a great deal of pleasure; there is a heavenly pleasure in feeling, as it were, the hand of God drawing the soul sweetly and kindly to himself; it is a gentle motion. Now, here is the mystery of the wisdom of the grace of God: A natural heart is averse from faith; but when the Lord comes to work faith, he offers no violence unto the nature of the man; the way whereby he overcomes unbelief, is by an overpowering, gracious influence of his Spirit, whereby people are made willing. This day of power makes a man willing, as the promise is, which, blessed be God, hath been often fulfilled, Psal. cx. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.

(2.) It is kindly acted too: as the Lord works it kindly, so does the believer act it kindly. What is there in believing, that should not be very kindly and sweetly done? There is no other relief found for the distressed soul, but only in God through Christ Jesus. This relief is found to be a very amiable and taking one. Is there any pain, think you; is there any trouble; is there any regret seizing upon the spirit of a poor creature, when he gives his consent to a blessed bargain? When the condemned prisoner takes his pardon, what pain is there? is it not an easy thing to accept of pardon? the captive is willing to have his chains loosed, and loosed by him that can take them off sweetly. Sirs, the thing that I drive at is only this, and in it I do appeal unto all the consciences of them that hear me, that ever knew what believing is, That when God proclaims his name, and shines in his glory in the promise, and draws the heart sweetly towards himself, was there ever any thing you did in all your life more sweetly

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done than to trust God? It is one of the most cheerful acts that ever the soul put forth.

6. The sixth inference is about the sensibleness of faith. If so be that faith answers God's faithfulness, why, then, surely it seems faith may be a sensible thing; my meaning is, that a man may know it when he does it. I know there are a great many believers who are very doubtful of their faith, and I believe they will be doubtful as long as they live, if they go that way to work that commonly they do. They want a clearer discovery of the causes and grounds of their faith, they want a clearer discovery of the fruits of their faith, and truly both the one and the other are pretty hard to be obtained. May I now offer an advice, that may be shorter than this, and that is, Look to faith itself. The Spirit of God calls faith an evidence, Heb. xi. 1.; and is it so mystical, so involved, so intricate a thing, that people must go so far about, as it were, to find it out? Pray go to faith itself: It is the evidence of things not seen, says the apostle. Faith brings light to dark things, but dark things will not bring light to it. I know the Spirit of God can shine upon faith, and the grounds of faith, and can make the fruits of faith appear to the comfort of his people; but in the ordinary practice of believers, if they would mind the acting of their faith more, they would come better to understand, whether they have it or not. It is a great word the apostle hath, 1 John v. 10. He that bleveth on the Son of God, says he, bend the womenin kino 13. The weeds in the original had been better translated, if it had boer, He that believer, hath ths Norming an đầu. ( for men, 2 sometimes signifies the roy me so people commer make it; but the words na Redmario,, kokie teen, a Les 3 his faith reet God 1802 18e ruth of the gospel, so es una his fil Menenheats and has it.

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What think you of God, and of his faithful promise? Do you in your heart account him faithful? and do you account the promises sure in your heart and thought? So faith is described in the words, Sarah judged him faithful who had proanised, Heb. xi. 11. So that, in a manner, if Sarah had been to examine herself, Whether have I faith in God? the matter was to be determined thus, What dost thou think of God? He hath passed his word to thee, dost thou judge him faithful? David thought him so, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Psal. 1. x. Paul thought him so, 2 Tim, i. 12. Cannot a man tell whether he judges God faithful in his great promises of salvation through Christ Jesus? 2dly, Cannot you tell what you do? In all other things people know what they do. A poor child can tell you plainly, as soon as it is able to speak, whom it trusts for its daily bread and raiment. It is careless and thoughtless about the things of this life; and the ground the child can give, is this; My parents take care of me. Shall a child, as soon as come to the use of reason, argue so plainly as this? and shall not a child of God be able to do so too? Cannot you tell where you have lodged your great salvation ? where you have lodged your darling? It is marvellous if people cannot do this; but I know and shall speak farther of it. There are a great many Christians dare not deny, that there is in them the direct act of faith, who yet, for the want of other things they would fain have, complain that they have not the comfort of the truth of their faith.

7. Hence we may see the greatnest of the sin of unbelief, so much spoken of in the word. Faith answers God's faithfulness; unbelief will not stir, but reflects on God's faithfulness: He that believeth not God, says the apostle, 1 John v. 10. hath made him a liar; made God a liar! A hard word. If it had been, He that believes not, is afraid that God is a liar, that is bad enough; and, He that believes not, calls God a liar, that is yet worse; but this is a dreadful word. He that believes not, hath made God a liar. It is impossible he can make him so, it is impossible for God to lie; but the poor man does all he can to make him so, and shall be reckoned as if he had done the greatest wrong and hurt to God imaginable. Unbelief is aggravated by two things up and down the world.

1st, That it is the boldest and most provoking affront that a sinful creature can give to God, not to believe his word. To call God weak, is blasphemy; to call him foolish, is blasphemy; to deny him his eternal power and Godhead, all these is blasphemy: but to deny his truth, is something above these. See how it is among poor silly men. There is many a man will think it no great affront to be called poor; another will think it no great affront to be called weak and foolish, a man of small parts to be called shallow; but to call a man that hath any thing of a principle of honesty in him, a liar, this is not well to be endured. A man that hath a great many other infirmities, yet may be one that makes conscience of what he says, Rom. iii. 4. Now, shall the pride of man rise so readily against reflections of lying cast upon him by his fellow-creatures, and yet shall he cast this unsufferable affront upon the God of truth? The grand transgression is to disbelieve God; and all that do not believe, do so. 2dly, Unbelief hath this in it, that it is the most certain, the most sure, and dreadful way of ruin to men; it brings destruction upon men with a special vengeance. If ye believe not that I am he, says our Lord, ye shall die in your sins, John viii. 24. If I had not come, and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin, John xv. 22. See also verse 24.

Now, of this inference, that is so native, concerning the greatness of the sin of unbelief, there are two things mightily to be regarded. (1.) As great as this sin is, and as surely damning as it is, yet it never disturbs the conscience of a natural ungodly man. He may be disturbed in his mind for sin, he may be disturbed in his conscience for his own lying, but is never disturbed in his conscience for calling God a liar; he may be disturbed in his conscience for his disobeying God's law, but never thinks it a sin to disbelieve God's promise; shaking off of God's authority and yoke of obedience, he may have some challenges for, but in despising God's grace and the offers of it in the gospel, he is never disquieted; therefore sometimes you may marvel, whence this comes. A great many people, may be, have a hell-storm raised in their consciences, but wait a little while, and you will find, in many cases, it comes to nothing; they are only sea-sick, it is the

effect only of some sharp affliction or some temptation, or some alarm upon conscience: when they come to shore, and the weather grows fair, and the wind down, they are as quiet, and secure, and harder than ever they were. The reason is, because they never were convinced of the sin of unbelief; they never felt any thing in their exercise about this, that they have been great sinners before God; because this grace offered to them in Christ Jesus was not made precious to them. More hopeful a great deal is the state of that person who is bewailing the heart of unbelief, than of those that are bewailing a covetous, worldly, proud, and filthy heart; though these deserve their own bemoanings in their own places. (2.) As great as this sin is, and as much as there is of it in the godly, yet it is a sin that very rarely disquicts even godly mens consciences. This is sad, that Christians are seldom troubled about their unbelief. Our Lord speaks concerning it, John xvi. 9. that he will send the Comforter to convince the world of sin, because, says he, they believe not on me. Moses may convince men of sin, of murther, of adultery, of swearing 'falsely, of profaning the holy day of God; Moses may convince them of a great many transgressions against the law; but the Spirit of God only can convince a believer of the sin of unbelief. Judge you now how rare this is, in all the professions, in all the humblings of believers, when they are alone. I pose your consciences about it; what Christian is there. to be found? Not one among a thousand have their hearts broken, their consciences disquieting them, as broken bones within them, because of their unbelief, their jealousies of Christ's love, their doubting of the faithfulness of the promises: nay, of the same promises that they have believed formerly, and have given glory to God by believing, they take back again the glory by unbelieving. The most spiritual attainment of a Christian in the world, the most spiritual, evangelical mourning and repentance that can be acted by a Christian, is a mourning over his unbelief; that the word of the Lord is not more precious to him; that he cannot trust God's word barely without props; that he doubts of it so often, when darkness comes on; that he lets go his hold of this great rock, the faithfulness of God.