didst scorn and hate ? Surely tliou hast heard some good news from heaven, that hath changed thy tlioughts of God, and turned the stream of thy love, which ran another way, into this happy channel. And who can be the mes- senger besides faith, that brings any good news from heaven to the soul ? It is faith that proclaims the promise, opens Christ's excellences, pours out his name, for which the virgins love him. When faith hath di-awn a character of Christ out of the word, and presented him in his love and loveliness to the soul, now the creature is sweetly inveigled in his affections to him ; now the Christian hath a copious theme to enlarge upon in his thoughts, whereby to endear Christ more and more unto him. ' Unto him that believeth, he is precious,' 1 Pet. ii. 7 ; and the more faith, the more precious. If we should sit in the same room by the dearest friend we had in all the world, and our eyes were held from seeing him, we would take no more notice of him, and give no more respect to him than a mere stranger ; but if one should come and whisper us in the ear, and tell us, ' This is such a dear friend of yours, that once laid down his life to save yours ; that hath made you heirs to all the goodly estate that he hath ; will you not shew your respect to him?' O how our hearts would work in our breasts, and make haste to come forth in some j^assionate expression of our dear affection to him ! Yea, how heartily ashamed would we be for our uncivil and unbecoming behaviour towards him, though occasioned by our ignorance of him ! Truly, thus it is here ; so long as faith's eye hath a mist before it, or is inactive, and as it were asleep in the dull habit, the Christian may sit very nigh Christ in an ordinance, in a providence, and be very little affected with him, and drawn out in loves to him. But when faith is awake to see him as he passeth by in his love and loveliness, and active to make report to the soul of the sweet excellences it sees in Christ, as also of his bleeding love to his soul; the Christian's love now cannot choose but spring and leap in his bosom at the voice of faith, as the babe did in Elizabeth's womb at the salutation of her cousin Mary.
Secondly, As faith sets the other graces on work, by actuating their objects, about which they are conversant ; so faith helps them all to 'work by fetching strength from Christ to act and reinforce them. Faith is not only the instru- ment to receive the righteousness of Christ for our justification, but also it is the great instrumfent to receive grace from Christ for our sanctification. ' Of his fulness we receive, grace for grace,' John i. 16. But how do we receive it? Even by faith. Faith unites the soul to Christ ; and as by a pipe laid close to the mouth of a fountain, water is carried to our houses for the supply of the whole family ; so by ftiith is derived to the soul supply in abundance, for the particular offices of all the several graces. ' He that believes, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters,' John vii. 38. That is, he that hath faith, and is careful to live in the exercise of it, shall have a flow and increase of all other graces, called here ' living waters.' Hence it is, that the saints, when^ they would advance to a high pitch in other graces, pray for the increase of their faith. Our Saviour (Luke xvii. 3, 4,) sets his apostles a very hard lesson, when he would wind up their love to such a high pitch, as to forgive their offending brother seven times in a day. Now mark, ver. 5 : 'The apostles (apprehending the difficvdty of the duty) said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.' But why did they not rather say, increase our love, seeing that was the grace they were to exercise in forgiving their brother? Surely it was because love hath its increase from faith ; if they could get more faith on Christ, they might be sure they should have more love to their brother also. The more strongly they covdd believe on Christ for the pardon of their own sins, not seven, but seventy times in a day committed against God, the more easy it would be to forgive their brother offending themselves seven times in a day; which interpretation our Saviour's rejily to their prayer for faith favours, ver. 6: ' And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say to this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and it should obey you.' Where Christ shews the efficacy of justifying faith, by the power of a faith of miracles; as if he had said, you have hit on the right way to get a forgiving spirit. It is faith, indeed, that would enable you to conquer the unmercifulness of your hearts ; though it were as deeply-rooted in you as this sycamore tree is in the ground, yet by faith you should be able to pluck it up. When we
2 F 2
436 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH.