faved in a confiftency with his glory? Now, when Christ is difcovered, and the method of falvation through him opened to the foul's view, it is made to fee these questions fweetly answered in him, it fees how Chrift reftores glory to God and to all his attributes, and falvation to the loft ruined finner: "Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace kifs each other," in this method of falvation; and this draws out the foul's cordial approbation of this glorious device, faying, "this is my reft, for my foul defires it, and likes it well." 3. It has in it a renouncing of all other ways and means of relief, faying with thefe, Jer. iii. 23. "In vain is falvation expected from the hills, and multitude of mountains; in the Lord alone is the falvation of his people." And Hof. xiv. 3. "Afhur fhall not fave us, we will not ride upon horses, neither will we fay any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods. Phil. iii. 3. "For we are the circumcifion, which worship God in the fpirit, who rejoice in Christ Jefus, having no confidence in the flesh." O Sirs, Chrift is never the first courfe or method that a finner takes for falvation, no, no, he is ay the last shift; many a way will the man try before he land in Chrift. While in a ftate of profanity, living in a ma nifest contempt of the law, the man, he ordinarily trufts to the general mercy of God, imagining with fome, that it is enough to bring them to heaven, if they have as much time in a dying hour, as to cry, God have mercy upon my foul. When the man is brought, through a fpirit of conviction, to fee that this will not do, he then runs to the way of works by the law, and tries what he can do for his own falvation by his reformation, his prayers, tears, vows, penances, and the like. When the man has wearied himself in pursuit of falvation in this way, and finds the law fo holy, fo fpiritual and extenfive, that it is impoffible for him to obey it perfectly, then he will join Chrift and the law together, I mean Chrift and his lawworks, and thinks with himself, Now I cannot fcale heaven, or make out falvation by my own obedience, it is so defective; but wherein I am deficient in obedience to it, I will rely upon Chrift's righteousness to fupply my defects. Thus he takes the new cloth of Chrift's righteoufnefs to patch up his own filthy rags. And here it is that many a man ftays, without going a ftep further, fecking falvation by Chrift and the law together, which is the thing the apoftle calls a "feeking righteousness, not directly, but as it were by the works of the law." But when a finner is brought really to truft in the Lord Jefus, he receives him, and refts upon him alone as he is offered in the gofpel, difclaiming his own righteoufnefs as filthy rags, faying with the apoftle, "What things were gain to me, those I counted lofs for Chrift. Yea doubtlefs, I count all things but lofs, for the excellency of the knowledge of Chrift Jefus my Lord." 4. This trufting in Chrift carries in it a fatisfaction with the warrant that God affords in his word for intermeddling with Chrift and his falvation. It is a very ordinary cafe with these that are awakened to a due concern about falvation, to have this language in their mouths, O it is true, Christ is a fuitable and fufficient Saviour, able to fave to the uttermoft; but, alas! I do not know if I have a right or warrant to intermeddle with him, I am afraid I be guilty of prefumption. Now, when a man believes in Chrift, or trufts in him for falvation from fin and Satan, hell and wrath, he looks to the word, and there he sees that Chrift is held out as the ordinance of God for the falvation of finners of mankind; that this Son is given to us, born to us; there he finds the word of grace and falvation indorfed and directed to all and every creature, that "the promife is even to us, and our children, and to all that are afar off, and to as many as the Lord our God fhall call" by the joyful found; there he finds God commanding and requiring every man to believe in the name of his Son Jefus Chrift, to look unto him and be faved." And upon thefe and the like grounds the man is perfuaded that he has fufficient warrant to receive Chrift, and rest the salvation of his foul upon him without danger of prefumption; and upon this he ventures his falvation upon him. O Sirs, take care that you set the foot of faith upon a ficker ground; and I do not know how our faith in Chrift can ever be well founded, without finding our warrant for it in the word; the word is the immediate ground of faith, and without it we could never believe, Pfal. cxix. 49 "Remember the word, upon which thou haft Caufed thy fervant to hope." Pfal. cxxx. 5." In his word do, I hope." 5. Thus trufting in Chrift, as our Avenger and Redeemer,, has in it a firm and full perfuafion of Chrift's willingness and ability to rescue and deliver us from the hands of Satan and fin, and all our fpiritual enemies; yea, a perfuafion of his faithfulness, that, according to his promife, he will deliver. The poor foul is perfuaded of his ability from the word, because there it finds the record of God concerning him, that he is "mighty to fave, able to fave to the uttermost all that come unto God through him." It is perfuaded of bis willingness, from the fame record; because there he finds it faid, "Come to me who will, I will in no wife caft out." O would he ever Come upon fuch an expedition to avenge the quarrel of loft finners, finners, to "finifh tranfgreffion, and make an end of fin," if he were not willing to fave a loft finner that comes to him! It is perfuaded of his faithfulness, that he will fave according to his promife, that he will pity and pardon, and heal and deliver, according to his promife, because it is impoffible for God to lie. O," hath he said it, and will he not do it?" yea, furely, "yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." 6. And more directly, When a person trusts this glorious Redeemer and Kinfman for falvation, he is not only perfua ded in general of the power, goodness, and faithfulness, of the Lord Jefus; but he is perfuaded of all this with particular application of him and of falvation unto his own foul in particular; the man is confident, that whatever Chrift has purchased with his blood, and whatever he has promised in the covenant, fhall in due time be forthcoming to him, and he relies, and refts on the fecurity he finds in the word, in the promife, or covenant of God fealed with the blood of his bleffed Kinsman; he takes Chrift as held out in his word of grace and fays, "This is all my falvation, God hath spoken in his holiness, I will rejoice;" this is mine, and that is mine, and all is mine, becaufe God hath spoken in his holiness; I have his word for it, and that is enough; this faith is "the evidence of things not feen, the fubitance of things hoped for." And although God may fee fit to defer the actual accomplishment of the promife, whereby his heart is made fick; yet when he views the good things promised, faith reckons them its own, upon the fecurity God has granted in the promife; and therefore fays with the church, Mic. vii. 7-9. "I will look unto the Lord: I will wait for the God of my falvation: my God will hear me. Though I fit in darknefs, the Lord will be a light unto me; he will bring me forth to the light, and I fhall behold his righteousness." I do not fay that this truft and confidence is ay alike ftrong in all believers, or yet in the felf-fame believer; for fad experience makes it evident beyond all contradiction, that the believer's confidence of faith may be, and actually is, many times fadly fhaken, through the prevalency of unbelief, the affaults of temptation, and providences feemingly running cross to the promife; by reafon of this, the poor believer has many doubts, many fears and ftaggerings, fo that fometimes he is made to cry out, "Is his mercy clean gone? will he be favour able no more? doth his promife fail for evermore? One day I fhall fall by the hand of Saul;" and in his hafte he is made to cry out, "All men are liars," the prophets of God not excepted. But thefe doubts, and fears, and ftaggerings, although they they be in the believer, yet they are not in his faith; thefe things argue the infirmity of his faith indeed; but under all this, faith is fighting for the victory, and as much faith in Chrift as the man hath in exercife, fo much confidence will he have anent the outmaking of the promise to him in particular; and according to the degree of one's crediting the promise with application to himself, fo much confidence and perfuafion will he have. But now, that I may clear this act of faith, or of trusting in the Lord Jefus, a little further to you, I fhall endeavour to il luftrate it by two or three fimilitudes. you 1. then, It is just fuch another truft, as when you trust a man of undoubted veracity and faithfulnefs. When an honest man gives you his word, his promife, whether it be a verbal word, or his written and fubfcribed word, for any thing, you all know what it is in fuch a cafe to truft him; if a day of payment be specified in the promife, you are confident and perfuaded of payment against that day; if there be no day named, yet still you are confident, that in due time he will make out his promife. After this manner Abraham, the father of the faithful, believed the promise of God, Rom. iv. 20. “ He ftaggered not at the promife of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God." O Sirs, have truft and confidence to put in the word of a man, will you take his promife, and reft upon it with affured confidence; and fhall we have no trust to put in the man Chrift Jefus, in whofe mouth guile was never found, or in the report or record of God concerning him, for whom it is impoffible to lie! Allow me to tell you, that every mere man, whom you have trusted since you came into the world, will ftand in judgement and condemn you, faying you had confidence to put in me, but you had no confidence to put in a promifing God in Chrift. Will not Chrift fay at the day of reckoning to unbelievers, You trusted such a man's word when he made a promise to you; but though you had my word, my cath, my covenant, fealed with my blood, and though the three that bear record in heaven attested the truth of the promise that I gave you; yet you had no trust or credit to give unto me, I could never obtain that truft from you that you gave unto very ordinary perfons, you treated me and my Father as though we had been liars, diffemblers, and difingenuous? O how will the unbeliever be confounded at the day of reckoning when this fhall be laid home to his door, by the great Judge of all the earth, the man Chrift Jefus, the bieffed Avenger of our blood upon Satan! he himself will then "whet his glittering fword, and render vengeance vengeance to all that know not God, and obey not the gol pel." 2. This trufting in Chrift, is juft fuch a truft as a man hath in a strong-hold or hiding-place to which he betakes himself for fhelter and fafety; or fuch a truft as the chickens have under the wings of the hen, when the covers them with her feathers Ruth ii. 12. "The Lord God of Ifrael reward thee, under whofe wings thou art come to truft." Pfal. xxxvi. 7. "How excellent is thy loving-kindnefs, O God! therefore the fons of men fhall put their truft under the fhadow of thy wings." Pfal. xci. 4." He fhall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings fhalt thou truft: his truth fhall be thy fhield and buckler." O finners, you lie expofed to the wrath of God, to the cruelty of Satan, that enemy and avenger, that goes about like a roaring lion, feeking whom he may de, vour;" you are in danger of the curfe of a broken law. Now, to truft in Chrift, is just to run in under the covert of his blood and righteoufnefs, as the young chickens run in under the wings of the hen, or as the manflayer under the law did run in to the city of refuge, and trufted that he was in fafety there. O" turn to your ftrong-hold, ye prifoners of hope;" for he is a hiding-place from the ftorm and a covert from the tempeft." Confide in his love, his promife, his providence, his righteousness, as a man doth in his houfe where he dwells, not being afraid of cold, or storm, or tempeft, when he has got in under the roof of it. ¢ 3. This trufting in Chrift, our bleffed Kinfman, is fometimes expreffed by a leaning: Song viii. 5. "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" And fo it alludes to a man laying his weight on a strong staff, which he knows will not bow or break, or a man leaning upon the ground, or upon a strong rock, which he knows is fully able to bear his weight, and will not fink under him.-Thus I have endeavoured a little to clear to you the nature of that truft which I would have you to put in Chrift our bleffed Kinsman and Avenger of our blood, who comes from Edom and Bozrah, travelling in the greatnefs of his ftrength for our redemption and falvation. So much for the first queftion in following out this exhortation. Queft. 2. What warrant or encouragement have I to truft him for my falvation? Anfw. 1. The near relation that he stands under to you, both by nature and office, may warrant and encourage you to trust in him. Will you not truft your Kinfman, who, in refentment of your quarrel, has avenged you upon the enemy that ruined you by bruising his head? But Oh! fay you, is he my Kinfman? |