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laid hold of by faith; expectations raised thereupon, that the good will come unto us. Though many poor believers do not own their expectations, yet such expectations are there, and do discover themselves sufficiently.

II. The second thing is, What is this profession of faith? Certainly, profession and confession is a declaring of this expectation I have been speaking of; it is a public declaring it one way or other. The apostle speaks of such kind of confession and profession, Heb. xi. 13. They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth; they made an open public profession of it. Profession of faith is made two ways; it is made either by word, or by deed.

First, Profession is made with words. This the apostle does expressly limit to the tongue, Rom. x. 9, 10. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth (the same word with profession here in my text) the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Confession or profession by word is made several ways.

1. It is made unto God in prayer. All our prayers, and all our callings on the name of the Lord, are a conf、ssion; all that we say to him is a profession of our faith. O my sout, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my God. What great matter is that? Yes, it was a great word, that David's soul could say to the Lord, Thou art my God. There is a duty lying upon Christians to profess their faith unto the Lord, to avow it before him. Our Lord will have a poor man do so. Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Why, was Christ ignorant whether he believed or no? No; he that was the Son of God knew whether the blind man had faith or no; but our Lord will have it out of his own mouth; he will have him profess it, and avow it: as accordingly he did, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

2. Profession is made by the tongue. In that special case of confession, when gospel-truth is opposed, when it is made the state of suffering, then it is that confession is specially called for. It is with respect to this that our Lord's severe

word is, Matth. x. 32, 33. Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Secondly, The profession of our faith is made by deed. A man that cannot speak may make a profession of his faith. He cannot make it by words, but he may make it otherwise; I acknowledge not so easy, for the tongue is man's glory.

1. The outward attending on the means of grace is a profession of faith. Whoever they be that give but their bodily presence unto prayer and preaching of the word of God, and other institutions of Christ's appointment, they profess their faith of the gospel. A great many are liars in so saying; for they profess what they have not, and God will judge them accordingly. There is more need to be afraid, than people commonly are aware of. It is the most dangerous employment that an unbeliever can be taken up in, to make a secure attendance on the means of faith, when the man knows in his own heart, that he neither hath faith, nor would have it.

2. People may and should make a profession of their faith in their conversations in their families. This is one part of Christian profession, that every one that has a family, that he is master or she is mistress of, are obliged to make profession of their faith there. The Christian conduct of a

family is a very honourable way of professing faith. I will behave myself avisely, says David, in a perfect way: O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart, Psal. ci. 2. Several good words he speaks there of his purpose of owning of God, and declaring his respect to him, by his conduct in his family.

3. People make a profession of their faith by joining to and embodying themselves with the church of Christ. If there were no more but twenty believers in a city, I am persuaded that within a little time these twenty believers would quickly scrape up acquaintance one with another, and would unite themselves in the profession of their faith. Shall we receive faith, this great gift, and the honour of so near a rela

11 tion to God and Christ Jesus as faith brings us to, and shall we not own it? It is remarkable the apostle takes notice of this, 2 Cor. ix. 13. They glorify God, says he, for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ. The word in the Greek is more emphatical; it is for the subjection or stooping of your profession to the gospel of Christ, and your acknowledgment of it. Pray what great subjection is there here? Is it so low a stooping for a man to make profession of his faith, that it must be called a stooping? Is it any wonder that the apostle called it stooping to be subject to the gospel, when he says, Rom. x. 3. that the proud self-justiciary will not submit to the righteousness of God? And it is the same word with subjection in the other place.

4. People make a profession of their faith by an holy conversation. A walk as it becometh the gospel, is a profession of our faith, an outward confession of it. All manner of godly conversation, and the adorning of the gospel of God our Saviour in all things, is what is required even of servants, Titus ii. 10. But, say you, what will the gospel be adorned, is there an ornament added as it were to the gospel, by the faithfulness and obedience of a poor mean servant? Yes, says the Spirit of God, you are to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. We find it instructed in several very like things. There is the giving of charity to the relief of the saints: That is, says the apostle, by the experiment of this ministration, they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ: and you prove your subjection by your liberal distribution to your poor brethren. Nay, to bring the matter yet lower, and I cannot bring it much lower, and that is even in womens apparel: says the apostle, 1 Tim. ii. 9. Likewise let women adorn themselves, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. Let the ornament of a Christian that seeks to adorn the gospel be good works, rather than the vanities of this world, that are utterly unbecoming the gospel; that the gospel never taught, and that it frequently rebukes; for these vanities always bring reproach upon it, and upon mens profession too.

5. The last profession of our faith is the last thing we can

do; that is, dying in faith. After profession, and adorning our profession all manner of ways, as long as we live; in due time, when God calls us, we are to make profession of our faith in dying. There is a dying faith, as the apostle says of the Old Testament saints, Heb. xi. 13. These all died in faith. They confessed themselves, all their life long, to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth; and in the same faith that they professed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, in the same faith they died, and went to heaven. This is the noblest of all; and if it be not only dying in faith, but dying for the faith, it is so much the more amiable. The time of my departure is at hand, says the apostle, 2 Tim. iv. 6, 7. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Well, had he no more to do with faith? No, but one bit. Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, &c. I will die in the expectation of the crown, I will have no more to do with faith. So Stephen, the first confessor, the first professor of faith by his blood, Acts vii. 59. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. "I have confessed thy name before "these enemies, and they are driving this soul of mine out "of my body; now, Lord, receive it; I have believed on "thee, I suffer for thy sake, I commit this expelled soul unto "thy care and conduct; Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

So much now for the explaining the matter of faith and profession. The truth that I would speak a little to, is this:

DOCT. That whoever they be that have Christian faith and hope in them, should make a Christian confession or professiona of it.

It is implied in my text, that a profession of their faith, or a confession of their hope, was made, and the apostle exhorts them about the keeping of it. It is not, Let us therefore make profession, we have done that already; but, Let us hold it fast. When we first gave our name to the Lord, when we first left the Jewish religion, or Paganish idolatry, and turned to the true and living God and his Son Christ Jesus, we then made profession; now let us hold it fast.

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He lies to God and to the world, that makes profession of faith, when he hath it not; he dissembles with God and the world, that has it, and does not profess it. We find much spoken of this profession in the word: Heb. iv. 14. Let us hold fast our profession; a word much to the same purpose with this. This I thought to have confirmed in a few things, and so have made some application. I shall only give a few at this time of the grounds upon which this truth stands, That all that have Christian faith should make a Christian profession of it.

First, The honour of Christ calls for it, Christ's glory and honour. The truth of grace does most immediately tend unto the salvation of a sinner; but the profession of grace tends most immediately to the praise of Christ Jesus. Now remember what severe words I named already: Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, says our Lord, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels, Mark viii. 38. The glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is promoted by our professing of him. Do you think that Jesus Christ, and his saving truth, and his gracious work upon the heart, are matters to be ashamed of? Is it not a great sin whenever this is committed?

Secondly, The good of others calls for this. The truth of faith is profitable to us; the profession of faith is profitabic to others. Were it possible that all the godly could keep in all their grace, that none in the world could see it but God and themselves, none in all the world would be a whit the better for it. It is the displaying of grace and of the faith that God has given, that is the great means of promoting the reputation of the gospel, and convincing of the world: Therefore, says our Lord, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in -heaven, Mat. v. 16. In the very next chapter our Lord se-. verely inveighs against the Pharisees, that managed their religious worship with a design only to be seen of men: that was all they craved, and their hypocrisy was discovered thereby. But our Lord himself craves this of his people, that their light should not only so shine as to direct their own ways, but so

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