state of unbelief wherein all lie, till God by his Spirit does begin to make himself known within the soul. Then he begins to be taken notice of, he is seen as a real object before the eyes of the mind, and the effect on the heart follows in trembling or love, as God is seen absolutely or through a Redeemer. And this is the awful difference between true and false faith or knowledge.

The second remark is concerning true believers. The matter now explained shows us the very reason why they are not more steadfast in their love and obedience; namely, because their knowledge of God in Christ is not enough deep and clear, or not sufficiently impressed on the mind so as to keep the blessed object present therein. Some do not earnestly follow on to know the Lord, what he is in himself, and what in the face of Jesus Christ; and others, when they have obtained some more lively discoveries of the divine glory, are not careful enough to keep them in view. The consequence of which, whether imperfect knowledge or forgetfulness, is, that the heart is without that due influence, which a more distinct and abiding knowledge would maintain upon it; and the goings out of the affections in love, desire, delight, trust, and zeal for the honour and service of God, are cold, unfrequent, and without sufficient strength to keep the soul in a state of readiness for all duty, and of resolute preparedness to repress all the risings of corruption, and to bear up under all temptations and sufferings. So that, if we expect to maintain a healthy, vigorous, active, and advancing state of soul, we must acquaint ourselves with God, and walk in the sense of his presence. Otherwise we suffer a veil to be thrown over our eyes, which hinders us from the only sight by which the Spirit works upon our hearts to engage them unto God.

What we have been saying on this head sufficiently shows that obedience from the heart does necessarily follow a right and true knowledge and faith. And if so, then, First. Obedience from the heart is an infallible proof of the truth of our knowledge or faith. For if the knowledge of God in Christ does and can only draw over the heart unto God in a true spirit of obedience, then that obedience from the heart must needs prove such a knowledge or faith to have an actual

No man can love,

being, existence, and abidance within us. fear, honour, and serve God, without some reason; and whoever really does this can only do it because he knows God in Christ to be infinitely worthy of, and entitled to, all this obedience of the inner and outward man. Do you really love God, and choose to serve him? Observe why you do so. Is it not for that which you see in him, as he hath manifested himself in the face of Jesus Christ? Does he not appear to you there bearing a commanding and amiable character, so that you cannot refuse him your heart and service? And does not every repeated view you take of him in that glass draw out your heart to him afresh? Or is it anything but such a knowledge of the blessed God which restrains you from indulging your natural inclinations, or engages you to the performance of his will? Hereby therefore you know that you really know him. Your obedience proves it to your own conscience, because you plainly see that you only love and serve him because you know him to be such a God as he is, and as he has shown himself to be in the Gospel. Obedience from the heart then is an infallible proof of a right knowledge or faith; it issues from it; and, were the actings of the mind observed, would be evidently seen to do so. This, I say, infallibly proves the knowledge or faith to be real, for, if it were not so, it could not possibly produce any such fruits of obedience. Nay, and the habit and course of obedience necessarily proves the faith to be more than a mere hasty notion, and to have a subsistence in the mind, because it does habitually work by love. So that if we do really love God, and from our hearts obey him, we may hereby assuredly know that we know him. Here then the point of importance is before us; do we know God in Christ? If we do, we obey him from the heart. If we obey him from the heart, we know that we know him. This is the order; and we must take heed we do not confound it; neither seeking to obey God without knowing him in Christ, which is impossible, nor conceiting that we know him in Christ if we do not obey him, which is a lie. This leads to the other consequence of this doctrine; namely,

Secondly. If we say we know him, and keep not his commandments, we lie.' You see how plain and peremptory the Apostle is. To say we know God in Christ, and not to obey

him, is a mere lie. Well, then, I fear there are many liars in the world; for it is too evident that there are many who profess to know God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, who are very far from keeping God's commandments, take no manner of care to do so, indeed are with the utmost carelessness breaking them every day. But how is this a lie?

Why, First, It is a lie, because the thing is absolutely false in itself. They who do not obey God do not know him, have actually no faith or knowledge of God in Christ in them; and, if they say they have, they say that which is not true for it has been shown incontestably, that, wherever that knowledge of God is, it brings forth obedience to him; so that, where the obedience is not, there the faith cannot be.

And, Secondly, It is a lie, because the person who says it knows it to be no other; for, while he says that he does know God, he is very sensible in his own conscience that he does not know him. Will a man seriously say that he certainly and steadfastly knows God to be a holy, jealous, and almighty Being, privy to all his conduct, and to whom he is accountable, when at the same time he finds no fear of him in his heart, though he be acting in such a manner as is exactly suited to provoke him? Or, again, that he knows God to be reconciled, merciful, infinitely good and gracious, and in all the fulness of his eternal perfections his God, when he does not at the same time love him? The truth is, God is not an object whom we may know as we do a thousand other things, with which we have little or no concern. We are so related to him, and our happiness or misery is so wrapped up in his favour or displeasure, that, the very moment we know him to be what he is, our hearts feel the impression of that knowledge in fear or love as we behold him against us or for us. And therefore for a man to say, I know God, when he neither fears nor loves him, is to assert what he absolutely knows to be false: for he knows very well that he does not know God to be that God he is, that he does not know him to be that almighty, eternal, and ever-present Being, who is about his path and bed, and spieth out all his ways, in whose favour is life, and his frown hell; for when at any time he should reflect on what is laid up in his mind, he would find no such knowledge of God there. So that if any

man should dare to say, I know God in his absolute character, when he does not fear him, and, much more, I know him in Jesus Christ, when he does not obey him from the heart, he ventures to say what he knows to be false, and the truth is not in him.

Consider therefore, sinners, who live after the courses of the world, and have no heart to serve the Lord, that you are altogether faithless, and in fact as ignorant of the true God as are the Heathen who have not your advantages. You profess to know God, but in works you deny him, and therefore you know him not. You may conceit, perhaps, something from your supposed knowledge; but that conceit is, you find, a lie. It is proved to be so every day by your conduct: and how dreadfully will it be proved to be no better another day? O sirs, consider how dreadful it will be for you to go down to the grave with this lie in your hand, and then to have it proved to be such before the tribunal of Christ, in the presence of the assembled world, to your inconceivable confusion, and to the utter loss of your soul in the fire that never shall be quenched!

The conclusion of the whole is, let us all acquaint ourselves with God. Gloriously has he unfolded his perfections and will in the Gospel. There let us look, even on God manifest in the flesh; nor ever take off our eyes, till in that glass we see God awful in justice, rich in mercy, unsearchable in wisdom, and the ever-blessed object takes our hearts along with it, transforming them into a conformity therewith in love, and desire, and holy fear, and the most complacential obedience. So shall we know that we know him in this world, and be assured of our interest in him, and be prepared for the enjoyment of him in the world that is to come. To which most blessed knowledge of God, may he vouchsafe to bring us all.

SERMON L.

ROMANS i. 16.

I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

AMONG the various things which hinder us from embracing, or living agreeably to the Gospel, shame is not the least considerable; and without question has been the occasion of forcing back many from receiving a Saviour, whose followers are of that sect which is everywhere spoken against, and has perhaps more or less restrained all from that freedom and boldness of profession which their Bibles and consciences have demanded of them. It is indeed an easy matter for a proud heart to say, I would not regard what people should say of me but when we come to make the word of God the rule of our conduct, and not the ways and customs of the world, as hereby we become singular, so we find the dread of particularity has a force we were not before aware of. If the Gospel of Christ be designed to reform the world, it must needs follow that the unreformed part of the world is in a state directly contrary to the Gospel ; and while these make up the bulk of mankind in every place, the general countenance will be on their side; and the few, who will venture to have more religion than the fashion of the times allows, must incur the censure of being odd and particular. Their lot must be the same with those of the same good character in the day of Amos, They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly."* If the Gospel was to lie a dead letter, a wicked world would find no fault with it but whenever it appears in its power, and is manifested in the life, it makes the minds of the children of

* Amos v. 10.