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a word, he that made it, can only make it glad afte this manner, with unspeakable and glorious joy. Bu the soul remaining guilty of rebellion against him, and unreconciled, cannot behold him but as an enemy; any belief that it can have of him while it is in that posture, is not such as can fetch love and hope, and so rejoicing; but such as the faith of devils produceth, only begetting terror and trembling : but the light of his countenance shining in the face of his Son the Mediator, glads the heart; and it is the looking upon him so, that causeth the soul to believe, and love, and hope and rejoice. Therefore the Apostle', in his description of the estate of the Gentiles before Christ was preached to them, joins these together, without Christ, that was the cause of all the rest; therefore, without comfort in the promises, without hope, and without God in the world; so he is here by our Apostle exprest, as the object. In all these therefore he is the matter of our joy, because our faith and love and hope of salvation do center in him.

The Apostle writing to the dispersed Jews, many of whom had not known nor seen Christ in the flesh, commends their love and faith, for this reason, that it did not depend upon bodily sight, but was pure, and spiritual, and made them of the number of those that our Saviour himself pronounces blessed, who have not seen, and yet believe. You saw him not when he dwelt amongst men, and walked to and fro preaching, and working miracles. Many of those that did then hear and see him believed not; yea they scoffed, and hated, and persecuted him, and in the end crucified him: you that have seen none of all those things yet having heard the gospel that declares him, you have believed.

Thus observe, the working, or not working of faith, doth not depend upon the difference of the external ministry and gifts of men: for what greater difference can there be that way, than betwixt the master, and the servants, betwixt the great proEph. ii.

phet himself, and his weak sinful messengers? and yet many of those that saw, and heard him in person, were not converted, believed not in him; and thousands that never saw him, were converted by his Apostles, and as it seems, even some of those that were some way accessory to his death, yet were brought to repentance by this same Apostle's

sermon.

Learn then to look above the outward ministry and any difference that in God's dispensation can be there, and know, that if Jesus Christ himself were on earth, and now preaching amongst us, yet might his incomparable words be unprofitable to us, not being mixed with faith in the hearers. But where that is, the meanest and the most despiseable conveyance of his message, received with humility and affection, will work blessed effects.

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Whom not seeing yet believing.] Faith elevates the soul not only above sense, and sensible things; but above reason itself. As reason corrects the errors that sense might occasion; so supernatural faith corrects the errors of natural reason, judging according to sense.

The sun seems less than the wheel of a chariot: but reason teaches the philosopher, that it is much bigger than the whole earth, and the cause why it seems so little is, its great distance.

The naturally wise man, is as far deceived by this carnal reason in his estimate of Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness, and the cause is the same, his great distance from him, as the Psalmist speaks of the wicked", Thy judgments are far above out of his sight. He accounts Christ, and his glory a smaller matter than his own gain, honour, or pleasure; for these are near him, and he sees their quantity to the full, and counts them bigger, yea far more worth than they are indeed. But the Apostle St. Paul and all that are enlightened by the same spirit, they know by faith, which is divine reason, that the excellency of Jesus Christ far sur

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passes the worth of the whole earth, and all things earthly.

To give a right assent to the Gospel of Christ is impossible, without divine and saving faith infused in the soul, to believe that the eternal Son of God cloathed himself, with human flesh, and dwelt amongst men in a tabernacle like theirs, and suffered death in the flesh, that he who was Lord of life, hath freed us from the sentence of eternal death, that he broke the bars and chains of death, and rose again, that he went up into Heaven, and there at the Father's right hand sits in our flesh, and that glorified above the Angels: this is the great mystery of Godliness. And a part of this mystery is, that he is believed on in the world*. This natural men may discourse of, and that very knowingly, and give a kind of natural credit to it, as to a history that may be true; but firmly to believe, that there is divine truth in all these things, and to have a persuasion of it stronger than of the very things we see with our eyes, such an assent as this, is the peculiar work of the Spirit of God, and is certainly saving faith.

The soul that so believes, cannot chuse but love; it is commonly true, the eye is the ordinary door by which love enters into the soul, and it is true in this love; though it is denied of the eye of sense, yet (you see) it is ascribed to the eye of faith, though you have not seen him you love him, because you believe; which is to see him spiritually. Faith indeed is distinguished from that vision that is in glory; but it is the vision of the kingdom of grace, it is the eye of the new creature, that quick-sighted eye, that pierces all the visible heavens, and sees above them, that looks to things that are not seen', and, is the evidence of things not seen", that sees him that is invisible". It is possible that one may be much loved upon the report of his worth and virtues, and upon a picture of him lively drawn, before i Phil. iii. 7, 8. k 1 Tim. ii. 16. 12 Cor. iv. 18. in Heb. xi. .

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sight of the party so commended, and represented; but certainly when he is seen, and found answerable to the former, it raises the affection that it first begun, to a far greater height. We have the report of the perfections of Jesus Christ in the Gospel; yea, so clear a description of him, that it gives a picture of him, and that together with the sacraments, are the only lawful, and the only lively pictures of our Saviour. Now faith believes this report, and beholds this picture, and so lets in the love of Christ to the soul; but further it gives a particular experimental knowledge of Christ, and acquaintance with him. It causes the soul to find all that is spoken of him in the word, and his beauty there represented, to be abundantly true, makes it really taste of his sweetness, and by that possesses the heart more strongly with his love, persuading it of the truth of those things, not by reasons, and arguments; but by an inexpressible kind of evidence, that they only know that have it. Faith persuades a christian of these two things, that the philosopher gives as the causes of all love, beauty, and propriety, the loveliness of Christ in himself, and our interest in him.

The former it effectuates not only by the first apprehending, and believing of those his excellencies and beauty, but by frequent beholding of him, and eying him in whom all perfection dwells, and looks so oft on him, till it sets the very impression of his image (as it were) upon the soul that it can never be blotted out, and forgot. The latter it doth by that particular uniting act, which makes him our God and our Saviour. We proceed therefore to consider,

2dly, The appropriation of the object, Ye love.] The distinctions that some make of love, need not be taken as of differing kinds, but different actings of the same love, by which we may try our so much pretended love of Christ, which in truth is so rarely found. There will then be in this love, if it be • Gal. iii. 1.

right, these three qualities, good-will, delight, and desire.

1st, Good-will, earnest wishing, and (as we can) promoting God's glory, and stirring up others so to do. They that seek more their own things than the things of Jesus Christ, more their own praise and esteem than his, are strangers to this divine love: for it seeks not her own things. This bitter root of self-love is most hard to pluck up: this strongest and sweetest love of Christ alone doth it actually, though gradually. This love makes the soul, as the lower Heaven, slow in its own motion, most swift in the motion of that first that wheels it about; so the higher degree of love, the more swift. It loves the hardest tasks and greatest difficulties, where it may perform God service, either in doing or in suffering for him. It is strong as death, and many waters cannot quench it. The greater the task is, the more real is the testimony and expression of love, and therefore the more acceptable to God.

2dly, There is in true love a complacency and delight in God: a conformity to his will; loving what he loves: it is studious of his will, ever seeking to know more clearly, what it is that is most pleasing to him, contracting a likeness to God in all his actions, by conversing with him, frequent contemplating of God, and looking on his beauty. As the eye lets in this affection, so it serves it constantly, and readily looks that way that love directs it. Thus the soul that is possessed with this love of Jesus Christ, the soul which hath its eye much upon him, often thinking on his former sufferings and present glory, the more it looks upon Christ, the more it loves; and still the more it loves, the more it delights to look upon him.

3dly, There is in true love a desire; for it is but small beginnings and tastes of his goodness that the soul hath here, therefore it is still looking out and longing for the day of marriage; the time is

P Eccles. viii. 6, 7.

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