pel to him, but to tell him where a gospel-preacher was, Acts x. Suffering for Christ is a great honour; angels are not capable of it, it does not stand with their blessed state. The apostle seems to call this a higher matter, than the honour of believing, Phil. i. 29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Let us pass these, and consider wherein there is an ho nouring of God by believing; for it is a point very rarely believed. Who is there of believers that think, that by bare believing they give God more glory, than any other way they can do?

1st, Faith gives glory to God, because it brings nothing to him, but poverty, want, and emptiness. All graces bring something to God, but faith brings nothing. Love brings a flaming, burning heart to God; repentance brings a bleeding, broken heart to God; obedience brings a working hand to God; patience brings, as it were, a broad back to God, let him lay on what he will; poor faith brings just nothing, but the poor man's bare hand and empty dish. The poorer man comes to God, the more glory to God. It is remarkable, that in those cases, wherein we bring something to God, we are very apt to carry away something of the glory that belongs to him faith brings nothing at all to God; it brings no more than broken bones, and sores to the great Physician. As a condemned prisoner, it brings his chains and fetters to the great Redeemer, but nothing to commend him to God, nor carries away any thing from God.

2dly, Faith glorifies God; for it seeks all in him, and from him; as it brings nothing to him, so it expects every thing from him, whatever its wants be. The language of faith is, "All my wants be upon thee, O Lord;" there is no other way of bearing them; it expects all from him, and from the single warrant of his word.

3dly, Faith always glorifies God, for it ventures its all upon his word. The believer is still in this frame, in the exercise of faith: "Now here I have God's faithful promise; and if "it should fail me, I should certainly sink for ever. My soul, "body, reputation, privileges of the gospel, all my concerns ff whatsoever, are all laid upon the faithfulness of God; they

"are all put in that bottom of the ship: if I miscarry, I am " gone for ever." Who is there of believers that believes this, that a bare adventuring of thy eternal salvation upon the Son of God, by virtue of the promise of God, brings more glory to God, than all things else can do?

Lastly, Faith glorifies God, because all other acts of glorifying God are only so as faith is in them, and as they spring from faith. When the apostle is commending the great exploits of believers, Heb. xi. he saith, they all obtained a good report through faith. If their works had been done without faith, there is never a good word to be said of them, whatever they did. All our duties, obedience, sufferings, the great things that are done for God, only tend to the glory of God, as they are spirited and enlivened by faith. Take away faith from your prayers and God gets no glory, and you no comfort, by your praying, James i. 5, 6, 7. Let faith be separated from the word, and God gets no glory by your hearing. Whatever you do, there is no glorifying God, unless in the doing of the thing you do believe: Whatsoever is not of faith, is sin, Rom. xiv. 23. Heb. xi. 6.

Fourthly, Hence we see how faith is said to have the soul, because it answers God's faithfulness. Such is approaching to the saving God, and its nearest abode with him. It is running to, and abiding with him. It is going in the nearest way to heaven: Heb. x. 39. We are not of them, says the apostle, who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe, to the saving of the soul. The poor jailor asks a question, What shall I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, says Paul. Pray now, what is the meaning of this? "There is a man, Jesus Christ, whose servant I am," would Paul say;" and thou hast persecuted me for his sake, and for "preaching of him; now believe on him, venture thy soul " on him, take his word for thy salvation, his righteousness for "thy cloathing, his Spirit for thy sanctification, and thou "shalt certainly be saved as well as I, or any others." I need not insist upon the frequent connections that are in the gospel, betwixt believing and salvation; this only is that which I drive at, to shew you, how faith comes to be saving to the soul; it is an echoing to God's faithfulness. Take the mat

1st, My

ter in these four plain principles, to begin at the top. eternal salvation stands in the enjoyment of God. 2dly, This God comes down to me in Christ Jesus, for otherwise he is not to be known, not to be enjoyed. 3dly, This Christ Jesus comes to me in the promise of the gospel, otherwise he is not to be known, he is not to be received. 4thly, This promise, in the day of God's power, is joined with my faith, and my faith with it. It came to me, and I received it. See for this, Gal. iii. 23, 25. Hence the believer rises up again, and says, God has wrought faith in me: Therefore (1.) The promise is mine. (2.) Christ inseparable from the promise is mine, and then God inseparable from Christ is mine, and I must be saved for ever. So that wherever the believer begins, at the top, at God; or at the bottom, at the dependence of his soul on God, the reason backward or forward holds perpetually: now, there is no parting of any of these; God never revealed himself a faithful God to any, but in Christ; Christ never revealed himself as a Saviour to any, but in the promise; the promise does no good to any, but a believer. It is true, God in his great wisdom makes use of the promise, as the means of faith, as well as the ground of faith. The reason why faith saves the soul, is not because of any mighty thing in faith, for faith is a poor weak thing; but it is fixed to the faithfulness of God, and the faithfulness of God through Christ is in it, and God is in it. You may take faithfulness from God the Father, as soon as take salvation from a believer in Christ Jesus. Hence comes it, I say, that faith is saving. The rope of salvation is in the promise; the poor believer hath but a trembling hand in catching hold of it; but, if I may so speak, the higher end of the rope is in heaven, at the right hand of God, and it catches hold of the believer; unless it break, saved he must be; break it cannot, and therefore saved he must be. See Phil. iii. 12.

Fifthly, I might add, Hence we may see something of the easiness of believing. I do not say, it is an easy thing for a man to believe; this a deceiving flattery of wicked, ungodly men. I intend, if the Lord will, to prove the contrary, that there is great difficulty in the working of faith. All my meaning is, that it is an easy thing to act faith, where God hath

wrought it already. In this case, it is but the soul's echo to the faithfulness of God, it is only the soul's saying amen when God promises. I hear the word of him that cannot lie, amen, so be it; that if I may compare this ordinary instance with an extraordinary one, Luke i. 38. The angel of the Lord that brought the virgin Mary the tidings of the conception of our blessed Saviour, he sent her the news; she staggers at it at first, through unbelief, at last, by the power of God, faith is begotten in her: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word; that, if I may so speak, was the very consent of faith, that the miraculous conception of the Son of God began with. So may it be with us, if the Lord will put that life, and power, and stamp on the promise of the gospel, that here is life, and salvation, and righteousness, and all good, both of grace and glory, tendered to faith through Christ Jesus. Trust him, trust God's word, and it shall be done. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. Though there be nothing more incredible, though there is nothing that is more impossible, than that such a vile creature as I am should be saved; yet God hath said it, God hath bid me believe it, and believe it I must, or call the speaker a liar. Believing is hard only to the unbeliever: but let the Spirit of faith (as the apostle calls it) be stirring, and a believer cannot forbear to believe. Let the word of God be heard as the word of God, and this is by the preaching it as his word, 1 Thess. i. 5. and the assent of true faith will be given to it, 1 Thess. ii. 13. And thus will its fruit be both unknown to the unbeliever, and to the non-feeling believer.

Lastly, Hence we see why so much is spoken of faith in our Saviour, John iii. 36. He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

names.

SERMON VIII.

HEBREWS X. 23.

-For he is faithful that promised.

THE faithfulness of God is one of his great and glorious Whenever he makes it appear before the eyes of a poor sinner, when he proclaims this name, then they believe, but never till then. It is a sad thing to consider, that when there is so much of faith spoken of in the word, there should be so little of it in the exercise of Christians. The New Testament name that is given to the godly, is that of believers. A man is not called a believer, because he hath faith, or because he once acted faith; as long as he lives, he should be still believing.

1. We find the gospel is called the word of faith. The apostle speaks of it expressly in distinction from the law, Rom. x. 8. The word of faith which we preach, Gal. iii. 2. it is called the hearing of faith; that is, the doctrine of faith. The gospel is called the word of faith, as it is the only ground of faith. All the hope that is raised in the heart of man, as to good in time, or as to eternity, is all founded upon the bare word of God. We can believe nothing but his word; and we believe it, because it is his word. Again, it is called the word of faith, because it is the means of faith, and begets faith. What think you is faith? but only the impression, the stamp, that the word of the gospel, when brought home with power, leaves upon the soul. It is the heart's echo to the voice of salvation by Christ in the gospel; and when the Lord proclaims it, as he can, and always does to the chosen, this echo will still follow. Again, it is the word of faith, because it is the food of faith, that which we are to desire, that we may grow thereby, 1 Peter ii. 2. The whole gospel is the word of faith; people get no good by the gospel unless they get faith; they cannot profit by the gospel but by faith, and by the increase of that faith.

2. We find Christ gets a name from faith, Heb. xii. 2.