denying the power of it. When God has but the outfide; drawing near to him with the mouth, and honouring him with the lips: a formal carnal way of worshipping God, inftead of worfhipping him in the Spirit. Unftable fouls, that take up a profeffion of religion, which degenerates into a formal outfide hypocritical devotion, are in a very dangerous cafe, as appears from the many woes Chrift denounced against the Pharifees and hypocrites. 7. Unftable times are times of fecurity. Where there is no spiritual fettlement there will be a carnal fettlement, like Moab, that was at eafe from his youth, and fettled upon his lees and dregs, not being emptied from veffel to veffel, Jer. xlviii. 11. It is a dangerous time, when the wife and foolish virgins are fleeping and flumbering; when men cry, Peace, peace; and like the old world, put the evil day far off from them, fudden deftruction may be at the door. 8. Unftable times are times of carelefs indifferency about the matters of God, and lukewarmnefs. When people are unstable in the truth, they can never be zealous for it the dangeroufaefs of this difeafe you read of, Rev. iii. 16. "Because thou art lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will fpew thee out of my mouth;" that is, reject thee with abhorrence. This, among others, is the fin of our day, and fhows we are living in perilous times. There are two things very fad in Scotland. (1.) Our light has worn out our zeal. It is feldom heard tell of, that light fhould be an enemy to zeal and practice, till now it feems to be our mifery, that our light, knowledge, wifdom, and politenefs has blunted our zeal for God and for reformation-principles and practice. (2.) Our hazards have drowned our zeal; our apprehended hazards and difficulties have quenched the fire of zeal in many. The days have been in Scotland, when our difficulties and croffes, hazards and dangers, have been as a burning coal to quicken our zeal for God, and make it the more fervent; but now, our difficulties and dangers are like fo much wet timber laid upon the top of our zeal, like to drown it all out; and yet, where ་་ is the danger of ftanding up for God and his caufe? Where is the fury of the oppreffor?" Is it our frength and fafety to run away from God and duty? No, by no means: rather, is it not our fìrength to fit fill? II. We now proceed to the fecond thing proposed, which was, To open up the nature of this flability in the faith, or fteadinefs and eftablishment therein. I would here, 1. Offer a fcripture or two for fhewing how this duty is commanded and commended. 2. What it fuppoles. 3. What it includes. 4. What it excludes. 5. What it infers. 1f, I would show that it is both commanded and commended. I might cite many fcriptures for this end; but I fhall only quote one fcripture, where it is commanded, and another where it is commended. 1. This ftability in the faith is commanded, 1 Cor. xvi. 13. "Watch ye, ftand faft in the faith, quit you like men, be firong. Stand faft in the faith;" this is that duty which the apofile calls a continuing in the faith, grounded and fettled, and not being moved away from the hope of the gofpel, Col. i. 23. This is that which he calls a being ftedfaft and immoveable, yea, always abounding in the work of the Lord, 1 Cor. xv. 58. This is that which is called an earneft contending for the faith, once delivered to the faints, Jude 3. And again, it is called a ftanding faft in one mind and fpirit, flriving together for the faith of the gofpel, in nothing terrified' by your adverfaries, &c. Phil. i. 27. In a word, it is called a being faithful to the death; "Be thou faithful unto the death, and I will give thee a crown of life," Rev. ii. 10. In all which feriptures this duty of ftability is commanded; and it is called a flanding faft in the faith, to thow the influence that faith has upon perfeverance: for By faith we ftand," by faith we walk, by faith we live, by faith we fight, by faith we overcome; and all this, becaufe by faith we ftand ftill, and rest upon a God in Chrift, eftablifhed in the faith. Thus it is commanded. Again, 2. This ftability in the faith is commended, Rev. ii. 13. there the church of Pergamus is commended in thefe words, "Thou holdest fast my name, and haft not denied my faith," &c. Where the thing they are commended for being ftable in, is Chrift's name, and his faith; that is, his gospel, and the doctrine thereof. Paul is called a chofen veffel to bear his name among the Gentiles; that is, his gofpel, and it may well be fo called, because, by the gofpel he makes his name known: and it is called the faith, because it is the object of faith, the thing to be believed; and it is called his faith, because he is the author of it; the fum and fubflance of it. The giver of this gofpel doctrine fubftitutes himself in Adam's room, and fulfils the law, which to him was a covenant of works: and hence it is, that out of his obeying the law, the fweet doctrine of the gofpel flows unto us; "He is the end of the law for righteoufnefs, to every one that believeth." Now, this is what the church of Pergamus held, and would not deny, but gave their teftimony to it against all the enemies that oppofed it; no wonder, for it is the words of eternal life. We are not to think the worfe of any truth, that it is oppofed and controverted, and requires faft holding, and violent holding; "The kingdom of heaven fuffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Nay, the more a truth is controverted, the more commendable is a fteady adherence to it. While we are in this militant ftate, we cannot hold the truth without fighting; it is faid of the builders of the walls of Jerufalem, Neh. iv. 18. "That every builder had his fword girded by his fide, and fo builded:" fo, in adhering to the truth of the gofpel, we are not to think strange to hear of a banner in the banquetting-houfe of the gofpel; "He brought me to the banquetting-house, and his banner over me was love." Why a banner in a banquetting-houfe? Because we cannot keep the feast without oppofition either from without or within. Many, when they fee their believing promised to be joined with a combat, they are difcouraged; but fpiritual builders must be spiritual foldiers, holding the promise in one hand and the weapon in the other; the word in one hand, and the fword in the other; the truth in one hand, and the armour of proof in the other. Faith without trouble or fighting is a fufpicious faith; for true faith is a fighting, wrestling faith; and this is the faith that is here com mended mended, as it is alfo, Rev. iii. 10. "Becaufe thou haft kept the word of my patience, I will alfo keep thee in the hour of temptation. Thou holdeft faft my name, and haft hot denied my faith," Rev. ii. 13. As to the denying of faith, there are four degrees of it. (1.) When men are filent thro' fear, unable to fay, with Paul, “I am not afhamed of the gofpel of Christ.” (2.) When men diffemble as Peter, "I know not what thou fayeft." (3.) When they halt between two opinions, like thefe in the days of Ahab, that halted between. God and Baal. (4) When they exprefly deny the faith, as Peter denied Chrift, "I know not the man;" and am not upon that fide of the houfe, nor of that party. Thus, Christ is many times wounded in the houfe of his friends; fometimes by a traiterous Judas, fometimes by a timorous Peter. However, the denial of the faith goes on by fuch degrees as thefe; every one of them draws on another: filence, through fear, draws on diffimulation; diffimulation draws on a halting between two, as it were, in a demurring what to do; and this halting draws on denying of the faith exprefly; for, apoftacy is a flippery precipiece; therefore men fhould beware of the leaft beginning, and of the leaft fhifting of the profeffion of the faith, when called thereunto. 2dly, What this ftability in the faith fuppofes? Surely it fuppofes peoples being once in the faith; as Paul defigns Timothy, his fon in the faith, 1 Tim. i. 2.; for, till once people be in the faith, they can never be eftablifhed in the faith, as the word is, Col. ii. 7. No more than a tree can be firmly rooted in the earth, that was never truly planted into it. Stability in the faith then, fuppofes a being in the faith; and that as it refpects either the word of faith, the grace of faith, the obedience of faith, or the profeffion of faith. True ftability in the faith fuppofes, I. That we know the word of faith. 1. That we have the grace of faith. 3. That we make a profeffion of faith. 4. That we yield the obedience of faith. 1. That we know the word of faith, or the doctrine of faith, or truth; for a man can never be ftable in the faith which he is ignorant of. If ever we will be efta blished in fcriptural principles, we must be acquainted with the fcriptures, the word of God, and know the truth as it is in Jefus; and that not only a head-knowledge, but a heart-knowledge, that it may be a heart-establishment in the faith: this is called a receiving the faith in love, or a receiving the love of the truth, 2 Thef. ii. 19. Knowledge and affection fhould grow together; for thefe people are molt prone to error, who gain knowledge of truth, without affection to it; "Becaufe they received not the love of the truth that they might be faved. For this caufe God fhall fend them ftrong delufions that they fhould believe a lye; that they all might be damined who believe not the truth but had pleafure in unrighteoufnefs.” 2. It fuppofes that we have the grace of faith; for, ftability in the faith, being an establishment in the grace of faith, as well as in the word or doctrine of faith, it muft prefuppofe, that a man has the grace of faith, otherwife he cannot fit ftill, or be ftable in it; no more than one can be faid to fit fill who has never fat down: true ftability then fuppofes, that a man hath once been made to fit down and rest upon Chrift as his righteoufnefs and flrength. We are called, 1 Pet. v. 9. to resist the devil, fledfaft in the faith; and that not only by a ftedfaft adherence to that word of faith, which was the weapon Chrift made ufe of against the devil, when he quoted fcripture to him, he refuted him by fcripture ; and this fword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is the weapon by which we are to refift every temptation to fin: but alfo, by a ftedfast acting and exercising of the grace of faith, I mean, true juftifying faith; because this weapon of the word of faith cannot be ufed but by the grace of faith: for, to make ufe of the word of faith, without the grace of faith, is to do no more than the devil and his inftruments can do, who will quote fcripture as well as we; but to wield that weapon with the arm of faith, is what none but true believers, through grace can do. ; 3. It fuppofes that we make profeffion of the faith ; why fo? Because stability in the faith, is a holding fast the profeffion of our faith without wavering, Heb. x. 23. They cannot be faid to hold faft the profeffion thereof, who |