He

works, any good qualities, or any preparatory requisites whatever. Hear his kind invitation Look unto me, and be ye saved;" saved from your disquieting fears, by justification; saved from your domineering corruptions, by sanctification; and saved from every evil, by complete and eternal redemption. To whom is this most affectionate call directed? Not to a few distinguished favourites only, but to all "the ends of the earth." People of every nation under heaven, of every station in life, of every condition and character, not excepting the chief of sinners :-none are excepted, none are excluded. Nay, further-hear our Lord's earnest entreaty, hear his tender and repeated importunity," As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." O! the rich, the infinite love of our exalted King! humbles himself to behold the sinless services performed by ministering angels in heaven: but he does more for rebels of Adam's family. He bows from his celestial throne. He almost kneels to his guilty creatures. He begs, he even begs of obnoxious sinners, not to reject his mercies. To all this let me add-the plain, express, and peremptory command of the Almighty, which must supersede all objections: "This is his command, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ." To believe in the name of the Son of God, is to live under a persuasion, that he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; that, by his obedience unto death, he has obtained everlasting redemption for us; and that his grace shall be sufficient for us in every exigence. Pray, examine the language: it

is not said, he only allows, or barely advises, but he commands us to believe on the name of his Son. We are not only permitted, invited, and entreated, but strictly required to believe. It is not only our privilege, but God's positive injunction. How How gracious! most amazingly gracious is this command! And give me leave to hint, it is the greatest and most important command that ever issued from the throne of glory. If this be neglected, no other can be kept; if this be observed, all others will be easy.*

Upon this ground, every hearer of the gospel is sufficiently authorized to believe and be sure, that the God of all grace actually giveth him eternal life, and that this life is in his Son; and he is warranted, on the same principle, to believe, that "he shall be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." The foundation of this assured confidence is every way as firm and good, as the right of Israel to gather and eat the manna, to look at the brazen serpent, to fly to the cities of refuge, or to go in and possess the land of Canaan.t

SECT. III.-Reasons why the people of God are frequently so weak in the faith.

The Christian life is a struggle between sense and faith. The temptations to sin, are the pleasures

* Mr. Hervey's Theron and Aspasio, Dial. 16.

+ It is with particular pleasure that the author embraces this opportunity of acknowledging his vast obligations to Mr. Ebenezer Erskine's sermons on "the Assurance of Faith," and to Mr. Hervey's Theron and Aspasio, Dial. 16. He wishes the reader would carefully peruse these excellent performances, in order to direct and enlarge his views of the grounds or warrants of the assurance, the full assurance of faith.

of this life; the incitements to godliness, are the pleasures of the next. The last are only seen by faith; the former are the objects of every sense. On the side of godliness, all the motives, all the objects of faith engage; on the side of vice, stand the formidable powers of sense, passion, and affection. Where the heart is established in the full assurance of faith, the heavenly host prevails, and religion triumphs over all the works of darkness; but where sense governs, sin enters, and is served by every evil passion of the heart. I apprehend, that the influence of sense, "looking at things which are seen," will account for all the instances of "weak" or "little faith," of "wavering, doubting," or staggering at the promise of God," that are recorded in the Scriptures, or found in the experience of believers.

When the Lord promised Abraham a very numerous posterity by Sarah, "Abraham, being not weak in faith, considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:"he" staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief;" but was "strong in faith," giving glory to God, being "fully persuaded, that what he had promised, he was able also to perform." In this account of Abraham's faith, it is strongly implied, that if he had been guided by sense, or considered the deadness of his own body, and the deadness of Sarah's womb, he would have become "weak in faith," and must have "staggered at the promise of God," as Sarah did at the first hearing of it, saying, "Shall I of a surety bear a child, who am old ?” XDC

When the Lord was pleased afterwards to try

Abraham, by commanding him to take his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved, and get him into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burntoffering; "by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead." Had the patriarch, on this trying occasion, conferred with sense, he must have become "weak in faith," and reluctant in his obedience; but he trusted in the power and faithfulness of God, and therefore his heart was fixed and serene.

On other occasions, that same patriarch, judging after the flesh, had not courage to trust in the power

of God, as sufficient to guard him from the Egyp tians and men of Gerar; but lest he should be exposed to danger by the beauty of his wife, made use of an ambiguous dark expression, saying, "she is my sister." It is manifest, that this wavering and disingenuity arose from his looking at the things which are seen.

To the same cause we must attribute the indifference of the children of Israel, to that gracious message Moses carried to them in Egypt,-their tempting the Lord at Massah and Meribah,-the carnal reasonings of Moses, the fearfulness of the man after God's own heart, the perplexing apprehensions of the psalmist's mind, and all the disquieting thoughts that unhinge the peace and joy of believers. Conferring with flesh and blood in matters that relate to our duty, will infallibly seduce us from the paths of righteousness; and an attachment to

the pleasures of sense, will certainly overwhelm us with sorrow and disappointment.

Our Saviour more than insinuates, that a sinful anxiety about meat, and drink, and clothes, will be a prevailing sin with his people; and therefore he condescends to expostulate with them to this effect: "If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is" flourishing in the most luxuriant glories, and so soon as "to-morrow is cast into the oven," to be entirely consumed; "shall he not much more clothe" and nourish "you, O ye of little faith!" who are heirs of God and eternal life? Where we may see, that much solicitude about the enjoyments of the present life, is inconsistent with the vigour and stability of a life of faith, because it fixes the mind on objects of sense.

While Jesus was in the ship with his disciples, "there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, and they were filled with water, and they were in jeopardy; but he was asleep. And his disciples came unto him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us; we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? Then he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm." This is another example of little faith, weak and staggering; and, we see, the cause of their wavering was, the apprehensions they had of being unavoidably lost, through the violence of the tempest. Their confidence in the care and ability of their divine Master, was somewhat shaken by attending to the danger of their present alarming condition.