no more to faith, if ye be children of Belial, such whose necks do not freely stoop to this yoke of obedience. The devil himself may as soon pass for a believer as a disobedient soul. Other things he can shew, as much as you. Dost thou pretend to knowledge ? thou wilt not deny the devil to be a greater scholar than thyself, I hope, and that in Scripture knowledge. Dost thou believe the Scripture to be true '! and doth not he more strongly ? Dost thou tremble ? he nuich more. It is obedience he wants, and this makes him a devil, and it will make thee like him also.
Quest. But you may ask, What stamp is there to be found on faith's obedience, which will distinguish it from all coimterfoits ? for there are many fair sem- blances of obedience which the devil will never grudge us the having, ^7is. Take tliese two characters of the obedience of faith.
First, Faith's obedience begins at the heart, and from thence it difFuseth and dilates itself to the outward man, till it overspreads the whole man in a sincere endeavour. As in natural life, the first part that lives is the heart, so the first that faith subdues into obedience is the heart. It is called a ' faith which purifieth the heart,' Acts xv. 9. And the believing Romans 'obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine which was delivered to them,' Rom. vi. 17. Whereas a false faith, whicli apes this true faith, as art imitates nature, begins without, and there ends. All the seeming good works of a counterfeit believer, they are like the beautiful colour in a picture's face, which comes not from a principle of life within, but the painter's pencil without. Such were those, John ii. 23, who are said ' to believe on Christ.' But ' Christ did not commit himself to them,' ver. 24; and why? see ver. 25, 'for he knew what was in man ;' he cared not for the painted porch and goodly outside ; he knew what was in man, and by that knowledge he knew them to be rotten at core, naught at heart, before they were specked on the skin of their exterior conversation.
Quest. But how may I know my obedience is the obedience of the heart '! — j^ns. If it comes from love, then it is the obedience of the heart. He com- mands the heart that is master of its love. The castle must needs yield when he that keeps it, and hath the keys of it, submits. Love is the affection that governs this royal fort of man's heart: we give our hearts to them we give our love. And indeed thus it is that faith brings the heart over into subjection and obedience to God, by putting it imder a law of love^ Gal. v. 6 : ' faith which worketh by love.' First, faith worketh love, and then it worketh by it. As first the woi'kman sets an edge on his tools, and then he carves and cuts with them, so faith sharpens the soul's love to God, and then acts by it ; or as a statuary, to make some difficidt piece, before he goes about it, finding his hands numbed with cold, that he cannot handle his tools so nimbly as he should, goes first to the fire, and with the help of its heat chafes them, till they, which were stiff and numbed, become agile and active, then to work he falls; so faith brings the soul, awake and listless enough, God knows, to any duty, imto the meditation of the peerless, matchless love of God in Christ to it, and at this fire faith stays the Christian's thoughts, till his affections begin to kindle, and come to some sense of his love of God, and now the Christian bestirs himself for God with might and main.
Quest. 2. But how may I know my obedience is from love ? — Aiis. I refer you to St. John to be resolved of this question, 1st epist. v. 3 : 'This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.' Speak, soul, what account you of the commandments.' Do you look upon them as an iron chain about your legs, and think yourselves prisoners because you are tied to them? Or do you value them as a chain of gold about your neck, and esteem yourselves favourites of the King of heaven, that he will honour you, to honour him by serving of him ? So did as great a prince as tlie world had : ' Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be al)le to offer so willingly ?' 1 Chron. xxix. Not, Who am I, that I should be a king over my people ? but, that I should have a heart so gracious to off'er willingly with my people ? not. Who am I, that they should serve me? but, that thou wilt honour me with a heart to serve thee with them ? The same holy man, in another place, speaks of sin as his prison, and his obedience as his liberty : ' I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts,' Psa. cxix. 45. When God gives him a lai-ge heart for duty, he is as thankful as a man that was bound in
448 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH.