a taking for granted that all mercies are communicated in and through Christ, yet so as their thoughts work not so much upon, nor are taken up about Christ; although this may be true faith under the New Testament, in that God and his free grace is the joint object of faith, together with Christ and his righteousness, and the one cannot be without the other,—and God ofttimes doth more eminently pitch the stream of a man's thoughts in one channel rather than in another, and so may direct the course of a man's thoughts towards his free grace, when the stream runs less towards Christ, yet it is not such a faith as becomes the times of the gospel; it is of an Old Testament strain and genius; whereas our faith now should, in the more direct and immediate exercises of it, be pitched upon Jesus Christ, that through him,' first apprehended, our faith might be in God' (as the ultimate object of it), as the apostle speaks, 1 Pet. i. 21. And so much for the first.

2. The second is, that Christ is to be the object of our faith, in opposition to our own humiliation, or graces, or duties.

(1.) We are not to trust, nor rest in humiliation, as many do, who quiet their consciences from this, that they have been troubled. That promise, 'Come to me, you that are weary and heavy laden, and you shall find rest,' hath been much mistaken; for many have understood it, as if Christ had spoken peace and rest simply unto that condition, without any more ado, and so have applied it unto themselves, as giving them an interest in Christ; whereas it is only an invitement of such (because they are most apt to be discouraged) to come unto Christ, as in whom alone their rest is to be found. If therefore men will set down their rest in being weary and heavy laden,' and not come to Christ for it, they sit down besides Christ for it, they sit down in sorrow. This is to make John (who only prepared the way for Christ) to be the Messiah indeed (as many of the Jews thought), that is, to think the eminent work of John's ministry (which was to humble, and so prepare men for Christ) to be their attaining Christ himself. But if you be weary, you may have rest indeed, but you must come to Christ first. For as, if Christ had died only, and not arose, we had 'been still in our sins,' (as it is 1 Cor. xv. 17), so though we die by sin, as slain by it, (as Paul was, Rom. vii. 11, 12, 13, in his humiliation), yet if we attain not to the resurrection of faith (so the work of faith is expressed, Phil. iii. 12, 13), we still remain in our sins.

(2.) Secondly, we are not to rest in graces or duties; they all cannot satisfy our own consciences, much less God's justice. If righteousness could have come' by these, then Christ had died in vain,' as Gal. ii. 21. What a dishonour were it to Christ, that they should share any of the glory of his righteousness! Were any of your duties crucified for you? Graces and duties are the daughters of faith, the offspring of Christ; and they may in time of need indeed nourish their mother, but not at first beget her.

and

3. In the third place, Christ's person, and not barely the promises of forgiveness, is to be the object of faith. There are many poor souls humbled for sin, and taken off from their own bottom, who, like Noah's dove, fly over all the word of God, to spy out what they may set their foot upon, eying therein many free and gracious promises, holding forth forgiveness of sins, and justification, they immediately close with them, and rest on them alone, not seeking for, or closing with Christ in those promises. Which is a common error among people; and is like as if Noah's dove should have rested upon the outside of the ark, and not have come to Noah within the ark; where though she might rest for a while, yet could she not ride out

all storms, but must needs have perished there in the end. But we may observe, that the first promise that was given, was not a bare word simply promising forgiveness, or other benefits which God would bestow; but it was a promise of Christ's person as overcoming Satan, and purchasing those benefits,The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head.' So when the promise was renewed to Abraham, it was not a bare promise of blessedness and forgiveness, but of that seed, that is, Christ (as Gal. iii. 16), in whom that blessedness was conveyed. 'In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.' So that Abraham's faith first closed with Christ in the promise, and therefore he is said to see Christ's day, and to rejoice in embracing him. And so all the succeeding fathers (that were believers) did, more or less, in their types and sacraments, as appears by 1 Cor x. 1, 2. And if they, then much more are we thus to look at Christ, unto whom he is now made extant, not in promises only, but is really incarnate, though now in heaven. Hence our sacraments (which are the seals added to the word of faith) do primarily exhibit Christ unto a believer, and so, in him, all other promises, as of forgiveness, &c., are ratified and confirmed by them. Now there is the same reason of them, that there is of the promises of the gospel, for they preach the gospel to the eye, as the promise doth to the ear, and therefore as in them the soul is first to look at Christ, and embrace him as tendered in them, and then at the promises tendered with him in them, and not to take the sacraments as bare seals of pardon and forgiveness; so, in like manner, in receiving of, or having recourse to a promise, which is the word of faith, we are first to seek out for Christ in it, as being the foundation of it, and so to take hold of the promise in him. Hence faith is still expressed by this its object, Christ, it being called 'faith on Christ.' Thus Philip directs the eunuch, Acts viii. 35. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus.'

6

The promise is but the casket, and Christ the jewel in it; the promise but the field, and Christ the pearl hid in it, and to be chiefly looked at. The promises are the means by which you believe, not the things on which you are to rest. And so, although you are to look at forgiveness as held forth in the promise, yet you are to believe on Christ in that promise to obtain this forgiveness. So Acts xxvi. 18, it is said of believers by Christ himself, that they may obtain forgiveness of sins, by faith which is on me.' And to clear it farther, we must conceive, that the promises of forgiveness are not as the pardons of a prince, which merely contain an expression of his royal word for pardoning, so as we in seeking of it do rest upon, and have to do only with his word and seal, which we have to shew for it; but God's promises of pardon are made in his Son, and are as if a prince should offer to pardon a traitor upon marriage with his child, whom in and with that pardon he offers in such a relation; so as all that would have pardon, must seek out for his child; and thus it is in the matter of believing. The reason of which is, because Christ is the grand promise, in whom, 'all the promises are yea and amen,' 2 Cor. i. 20, and therefore he is called the Covenant, Isa. xlix. 8. So that, as it were folly for any man to think that he hath an interest in an heiress's lands, because he hath got the writings of her estate into his hands, whereas the interest in the lands goes with her person, and with the relation of marriage to her, otherwise, without a title to herself, all the writings will be fetched out of his hands again; so is it with all the promises: they hang all upon Christ, and without him there is no interest to be had in them. He that hath the Son hath life,' 1 John v. 12, because life is by God's appointment only in him, as ver. 11. All

the promises are as copyhold land, which when you would interest yourselves in, you inquire upon what lord it holds, and you take it up of him, as well as get the evidences and deeds for it into your hands; the lord of it will be acknowledged for such in passing his right into your hands. Now this is the tenure of all the promises; they all hold on Christ, in whom they are yea and amen; and you must take them up of him. Thus the apostles preached forgiveness to men, Acts xiii. 38, Be it known that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins.' And as they preached, so we are to believe, as the apostle speaks, 1 Cor. xv. 11. And without this, to rest on the bare promise, or to look to the benefit promised, without eying Christ, is not an evangelical, but a Jewish faith, even such as the formalists among the Jews had, who without the Messiah closed with promises, and rested in types to cleanse them, without looking unto Christ the end of them, and as propounded to their faith in them. This is to go to God without a mediator, and to make the promises of the gospel to be as the promises of the law, Nehushtan (as Hezekiah said of the brazen serpent), a piece of brass, vain and ineffectual; like the waters of Bethesda, they heal not, they cleanse not, till this angel of the covenant' come down to your faith in them. Therefore at a sacrament, or when you meet with any promise, get Christ first down by faith, and then let your faith propound what it would have, and you may have what you will of him.

There are three sorts of promises, and in the applying of all these, it is Christ that your faith is to meet with.

1. There are absolute promises, made to no conditions; as when Christ is said to come to save sinners,' &c. Now in these it is plain, that Christ is the naked object of them; so that if you apply not him, you apply nothing, for the only thing held forth in them is Christ.

2. There are inviting promises; as that before mentioned, 'Come to me, you that are weary.' The promise is not to weariness, but to coming to Christ; they are bidden Come to him,' if they will have rest.

3. There are assuring promises; as those made to such and such qualifications of sanctification, &c. But still what is it that is promised in them, which the heart should only eye? It is Christ, in whom the soul rests and hath comfort in, and not in its grace; so that the sight of a man's grace is but a back-door to let faith in at, to converse with Christ, whom the soul loves. Even as at the sacrament, the elements of bread and wine are but outward signs to bring Christ and the heart together, and then faith lets the outward elements go, and closeth, and treats immediately with Christ, unto whom these let the soul in; so grace is a sign inward, and whilst men make use of it only as of a bare sign to let them in unto Christ, and their rejoicing is not in it, but in Christ, their confidence being pitched upon him, and not upon their grace; whilst men take this course, there is and will be no danger at all in making such use of signs. And I see not, but that God might as well appoint his own work of the new creation within, to be as a sign and help to communion with Christ by faith, as he did those outward elements, the works of his first creation; especially, seeing in nature the effect is a sign of the cause. Neither is it more derogatory to free grace, or to Christ's honour, for God to make such effects signs of our union with him, than it was to make outward signs of his presence.

SECTION II.

CHRIST, THE OBJECT AND SUPPORT OF FAITH FOR JUSTIFICATION, IN HIS DEATH.

Who shall condemn? Christ hath died.-ROM. VIII. 34.

CHAPTER I.

How not Christ's person simply, but Christ as dying, is the object of faith as

justifying.

To come now to all these four particulars of or about Christ, as the object of faith here mentioned; and to shew both how Christ in each is the object of faith as justifying; and what support or encouragement the faith of a believer may fetch from each of them in point of justification, which is the argument of the main body of this discourse.

First, Christ as dying is the object of justifying faith, Who shall condemn? Christ hath died.'

For the explanation of which, I will

1. Give a direction or two.

2. Shew how an encouragement, or matter of triumph, may from hence be fetched.

1. (1.) The first direction is this, that in seeking forgiveness or justification in the promises, as Christ is to be principally in the eye of your faith, so it must be Christ as crucified, Christ as dying, as here he is made. It was the serpent as lift up, and so looked at, that healed them. Now this direction I give to prevent a mistake, which souls that are about to believe do often run into. For when they hear that the person of Christ is the main object of faith, they thus conceive of it, that when one comes first to believe, he should look only upon the personal excellencies of grace and glory which are in Jesus Christ, which follow upon the hypostatical union; and so have his heart allured in unto Christ by them only, and close with him under those apprehensions alone. But although it be true, that there is that radical disposition in the faith of every believer, which if it were drawn forth to view Christ in his mere personal excellencies, abstractively considered, would close with Christ for them alone, as seeing such a beauty and suitableness in them; yet the first view which an humble soul always doth, and is to take of him, is of his being a Saviour, made sin, and a curse, and obeying to the death for sinners. He takes up Christ in his first sight of him, under the likeness of sinful flesh,' Rom. viii. 3, for so the gospel first represents him, though it holds forth his personal excel

lencies also; and in that representation it is that he is made a fit object for a sinner's faith to trust and rest upon for salvation; which in part distinguisheth a sinner's faith whilst here on earth, towards Christ, from that vision or sight which angels and the souls of men have in heaven of him. Faith here views him not only as glorious at God's right hand (though so also), but as crucified, as made sin, and a curse, and so rests upon him for pardon; but in heaven we shall see him as he is,' and be made like unto him. Take Christ in his personal excellencies simply considered, and so with them propounded as an head to us, and he might have been a fit object for angels and men even without sin to have closed withal; and what an addition to their happiness would they have thought it, to have him for their husband! But yet, so considered, he should have been, and rather is, the object of love, than of faith or affiance. It is therefore Christ that is thus excellent in his person, yet farther considered as clothed with his garments of blood, and the qualifications of a mediator and reconciler; it is this that makes him so desirable by sinners, and a fit object for their faith, which looks out for justification, to prey and seize upon, though they take in the consideration of all his other excellencies to allure their hearts to him, and confirm their choice of him.

Yea I say farther, that consider faith as justifying, that is, in that act of it which justifies a sinner; and so Christ, taken only or mainly in his personal excellencies, cannot properly be called the object of it. But the formalis ratio, the proper respect or consideration that maketh Christ the object of faith as justifying, must necessarily be that in Christ, which doth indeed justify a sinner; which is, his obedience unto death. For the act and object of every habit or faculty are always suited, and similar each to other; and therefore Christ's justifying must needs be the object of faith justifying. It is true, that there is nothing in Christ with which some answerable act of faith in us doth not close; and from the differing considerations under which faith looks at Christ, have those several acts of faith various denominations: as faith that is carried forth to Christ and his personal excellencies may be called uniting faith; and faith that goes forth to Christ for strength of grace to subdue sin may, answerably to its object, be called sanctifying faith; and faith as it goes forth to Christ, as dying, &c., for justification, may be called justifying faith. For faith in that act looks at what in Christ doth justify a sinner; and therefore Christ considered as dying, rising, &c., doth in this respect become the most pleasing and grateful object to a soul that is humbled; for this makes Christ suitable to him as he is a sinner, under which consideration he reflects upon himself, when he is first humbled. And therefore thus to represent Christ to believers under the law, was the main scope of all the sacrifices and types therein. All things being purged with blood, and without blood there being no remission,' Heb. ix. 22. Thus did the apostles also in their sermons. So Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, seemed by the matter of his sermon to have known nothing but Christ, and him as crucified, 1 Cor. ii. 2, as Christ above all, so Christ as crucified above all in Christ, as suiting their condition best, whom he endeavoured to draw on to faith on him. Thus, in his Epistle to the Galatians, he calls his preaching among them the preaching of faith,' iii. 2. And what was the main scope of it, but the picturing out (as the word is) of Christ crucified before their eyes'? ver. 1. So he preached him, and so they received him, and so they 'began in the spirit,' ver. 3. And thus also do the seals of the promises (the sacraments) present Christ to a believer's eye; as they hold forth

VOL. IV.

B