is what makes the belief of God an article of Christian faith. Without a Mediator, there is a great impassable gulf between a holy Governor of the world and a rebellious creature. God stands off on one side, and man dares not draw near on the other. But, when Jesus comes in between, the breach is healed, the intercourse is opened; God offers himself to the sinner; and he, encouraged by the promise, and laying hold on the righteousness of Christ, says unto the Lord, "Thou art my God." Whatever belief any one may have of God, that he is everything glorious, excellent, and desirable, yet, considering him absolutely, he not only may not, but even he dares not, come near him with confidence; sin, guilt, and the curse of the law, forbid. It is to a covenant-God only that there is access, it is through Christ only that we come unto the Father. If any presume to come otherwise, they have no command or other warrant to bear them out; they come in ignorant and arrogant security, not sensible that they are sinful, guilty, and miserable creatures; and let them not think (whatever their confidence be) that they are accepted with God. Indeed, unless inexpressibly deluded, they can have no confidence in God. His terrors will make them afraid, because they have that within them which tells them they are sinners, and is continually crying out, How canst thou stand before this holy Lord God? But, not to insist on this, the article before us is Christian, stands at the head of all the articles of our most holy faith, is the key unto and the substance of them all; and therefore must needs have reference unto Christ, as that only Saviour by and through whom we believe in God,

3. "I believe in

God" not only implies our believing that God is what he is; and again, our believing that he is reconciled in Christ, but also our accepting him as he presents himself to us in Christ to be a God unto us. Now this acceptance contains two things. (1.) A taking of God to save and bless us according to the Gospel. To save us, in Christ, from all our enemies; the curse of the law; the power of sin, the world, and the devil; the power of death, and the power of hell. And to bless us in the same Jesus Christ, by being at perfect peace with us; taking us to be his children; granting us his favour; comforting us in all our troubles; making us grow in grace;

keeping us in death; receiving our departing souls; raising our mortal bodies; and causing us everlastingly to behold his face in the world to come. This is an act of faith, the betrusting the soul unto God the Saviour, upon a belief of his all-sufficiency, and of his sure mercy in Jesus Christ. And herein we do evidently renounce any pretence of righteousness in ourselves, as well as all hope of happiness in the creature, laying up all our hope and happiness in a covenant-God. (2.) A taking of God to rule over us according to the Gospel; that is, to rule over us according to his revealed will by the power of his Spirit, wherein we renounce our own wisdom, submitting to his word; our own strength, subjecting ourselves to the guidance of his grace; and our own will, yielding ourselves up entirely unto his. This is the surrender of ourselves unto God to be a Lord and Master unto us. And in these two things lie our acceptance of God to be our God according to the offer that he makes of himself in Jesus Christ. In short, to believe in God is to believe that he is what he is, that is, what he hath revealed himself to be; to believe that, having reconciled the world unto himself by Jesus Christ, he offers himself to be a God unto us; and to declare our acceptance of this offer by betrusting our souls unto him, and surrendering up our whole selves to his service.

"I be

From the whole it appears, that when any one says, lieve in God," according to the true design and meaning of the article, his intention is to declare, "I believe there is one God, though subsisting in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; who, I steadfastly am assured, is a most glorious Spirit; that liveth of himself alone, being the life of all creatures; neither limited by place nor time, but infinitely filling all things, and subsisting from everlasting to everlasting; his power without bounds, and his blessedness incapable of addition or diminution; the Governor of the world, and in every respect qualified to be so, being unspottedly upright in all his commandments, just and equal in all his dispensations, and good in all his dealings; unchangeable, because incapable of mistake, as infinitely wise to order all things, and who cannot fail for ever in his nature or will. I do confess that I have most sinfully departed from the government of this my rightful King, and

that for the same I am deserving he should never look upon me but seeing he has sent his only-begotten Son into the world to save sinners, and has commanded me to believe in his name, I do solemnly declare, that I have no hope towards God but through Jesus Christ, in whom, and for whose sake, I desire always to believe God is reconciled to me to the alone glory of grace. I publish this as the sole ground of my confidence towards God, and would have you all take notice, that I do most cordially join with you in our common and professed faith towards God through Jesus Christ our Lord only; in whom, I do hereby solemnly declare, that I have taken, and do take God, according to his most condescending offer, to be my God, to pardon and accept, to sanctify, defend, and keep me to his use while I live, and to glorify me after this life, and this without any known reservation, and in a willing renunciation of all idols. In the full force and meaning of all which things I now say in the presence of you all, and call upon you all to bear witness to this my declaration, I believe in God."

And now, brethren, I may ask, have you understood these things? If you have, I must say unto you, happy are you, if you do them. For it was just now said, that this first article is the substance of all the Creed; so that if you truly say, "I believe in God," then God is your God, you have God the Father for your Father, God the Son for your Redeemer, and God the Holy Ghost for your Comforter. And if God be your God, then of course all things are yours; life, death, things present, and things to come, are yours: you are a true member of Christ's body the church, are in the communion of saints, your sins are forgiven you, and the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting wait for you. In a word, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, are actually and always with you. And is all this nothing? Be sensible, I beseech you, of the noble honour and high privilege you are exalted to. Consider from whence you were taken, what you were, and whither you were going; be attentive to the now happy difference. How did you once think of God? With what hatred! with what terror! And now to behold the blessed object of your heart smiling upon you, O what a difference! What a forlorn creature once were

you! uncomfortable amidst all the comforts of life, and O how uncomfortable in the day of your affliction! But now, what a refuge you have in God under all your troubles, what a calm within in the most tempestuous seasons, what a peace, passing all understanding, in all your tribulations, while you look up and see it is your loving Father, your eternal Guide, your almighty Friend, that appoints and orders every affliction; while you look up and see his countenance bespeaking all love, while you look up and hear him say, "It is I, be not afraid!" Happy, happy difference! How you once trembled at death; were filled with horror in the prospect of judgment, and looked upon heaven without hope! "Alas!" you said in the anguish of your heart, "heaven is not my home, I have no part in the blessed inheritance of the saints; hell, hell, I fear, is my portion; I shall be cast into the bottomless pit, and howl through the ages of eternity from amidst the fire that shall never be quenched. But now God is my God; Jesus died for me; Jesus has interceded and prevailed; the eternal, almighty, living God, permits me to call him Father; he hath taken me among his children; he hath given me the spirit of a child, and I love him; I call him my Father, and he answers me; I cast all my care upon him, and he careth for me; he doth not, he will not leave nor forsake me, he is mine for ever and ever; I shall see his face; shall live at his right hand; I shall come with singing, and everlasting joy shall be upon my head. How is the bitterness of death passed! What is become of the King of Terrors? How is his visage changed! Blessed messenger of heaven, to bring me home to my God! Where is thy sting? And how are the wonted horrors of the judgment-day vanished! I shall meet my Lord in the air, I shall be for ever with my God." There were no end of displaying the difference there now is between the state of him who is alive from the dead, in comparison of what he was in the days of his unbelief.

And what! will none of these things move the unbeliever? That unhappy soul, who lies before God as often as he says "I believe in God," neither believing that God is what he is, nor believing in Jesus Christ as the only Mediator between God and man, nor accepting God to be his God; but, notwithstanding all these outward professions of believing in God, yielding

himself daily to sin, and refusing God and his service! Will none of these things move him? My dear brother, what the believer once was, all that you still are, unpardoned, unholy, unhappy, hopeless, trembling at death.-What! do not you tremble at death? No. What! do you defy Death? Do you say to him, "Come on, here am I, ready to meet thee; come now, come this night, while I sleep, this night come and take me?" What! can you say so? Alas! I know you do not like to hear of that ugly word, death. The very word makes you

uneasy-you would be glad I should mention it no more. Death, death, death and damnation; you have been often angry with me in your hearts for using such terrifying words. What! will the man never have done? Must we never hear of anything else but hell and damnation ? You have been angry with me

for this, you know you have. And why so? Was it because I did anything amiss, anything contrary to duty or contrary to charity, in telling you of these things? or was it not solely because you were made uneasy by the hearing them? Ah, there lies the truth of the matter. Had you thought your state good, you had not been a jot displeased with my utmost freedom; but your conscience was against you; and so it is now; it is pressing home upon you this moment, and forcing you to say, "I know I am in that very state he has been just describing the believer to have been formerly in. He has been speaking the plain truth of my case; as he says, I am neither easy, nor happy. It is true enough, I am dreadfully afraid of death, and horribly afraid of judgment; and if he had said further, that I wish I were in the condition of that believer he has been speaking of, he would not have said a word more than is true; for I should think myself the happiest man in the world to be in the state that he is. But then he does not know what trials, and troubles, and difficulties are in my way. I would do something, but how can I? Were he in my place, he would speak another language." Why, my dear friend, bear witness for me, did I ever say, either you, I, or any one, could go to heaven without difficulties and troubles? And yet I would needs have you go thither; I would not have the severest trials, the most formidable difficulties, to hinder you, because I am sure heaven would make you amends for all. In short, all that I have said