souls in Jesus Christ, as the most excellent, suitable, and complete remedy for all our wants, sins, and dangers, that ever could be prepared by the wisdom and love of God for us : We must receive him with such a frame of heart, as rests upon, and trusts in him, if ever we receive him aright ; " To them that believe he is precious,1' 1 Pet. ii. 7. This is the only sovereign plaister in all the world that is large enough, and efficacious enough, to cure our wounds : And therefore as Christ is most highly esteemed, and heartily ap- proved, as the only remedy for our souls ; so the sovereign grace and wisdom of God are admired, and the way and method he hath taken to save poor souls, by Jesus Christ, most heartily approved as the most apt and excellent method, both for his glory and our good, that ever could be taken : for it is a plain case, that none will espouse themselves with conjugal affections, to that person whom they esteem not as the best for them that can be chosen : None will forsake and quit all for his sake, except they account him as the spouse did, " The chiefest of ten thousand."
There are two things in Christ, which must gain the greatest approbation in the soul of a poor convinced sinner, and bring it to rest upon Jesus Christ.
First, That it can find nothing in Christ that is distasteful, or un- suitable to it, as it doth experimentally find in the best creatures. In him is no weakness, but a fulness of all saving abilities ; " Able " to save to the uttermost :" No pride, causing him to scorn and contemn the most wretched soul that comes to him: No incon- stancy or levity, to cause him to cast off the soul whom he hath once received : No passion but a Lamb for meekness and patience : There is no spot to be found in him, but " He is altogether lovely," Cant v. 16.
Secondly, As the believer can find nothing in Christ that is dis- tasteful, so it finds nothing wanting in Christ that is necessary, or desirable : Such is the fulness of wisdom, righteousness, sanctifica- tion, and redemption that is in Christ, that nothing is left to desire but the full enjoyment of him. O, saith the soul, how completely happy shall I be, if I can but win Christ! I would not envy the nobles of the earth, were I but in Christ. I am hungry and athirst, and Christ is meat indeed, and drink indeed ; this is the best thing in all the world for me, because so necessary and so suitable to the needs of a soul ready to perish. I am a law-condemned and a self-condemned sinner, trembling for fear of the execution of the curse upon me every moment ; in Christ is complete righteousness to justify my soul ; O there is nothing better for me than Christ. I see myself plunged, both in nature and practice, into the odious pollutions of sin, and in Christ is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness : His blood is a fountain of merit, his spirit is a fountain
SERM. Vr. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 109
of holiness and purity : None but Christ, none but Christ. O the manifold wisdom and unsearchable love of God, to prepare and furnish such a Christ so fully answering all the needs, all the dis- tresses, all the fears and burdens of a poor sinner ! Thus the be- lieving soul approves of Christ as best for it. And thus in believing, it gives glory to God, Rom. iv. 21.
Fourthly, Receiving Christ consists in the consent and choice of the 10 ill; and this is the opening of the heart and stretching forth of the soul to receive him : Thy people shall be willing in the day of " thy power,11 Psal. ex. 3.
It is the great design and main scope of the gospel, to work over the wills of poor sinners to this : And this was the great complaint of Christ against the incredulous Jews, John v. 40. " Ye will not " come unto me that ye might have life."
It is disputed by some, whether faith can be seated in two dis- tinct faculties, as we seem to place it, when we say it involves both the approbation of the judgment and the consent of the will. I will not here entangle my discourse with that fruitless dispute. I am of the same judgment with those divines, that think faith cannot be expressed fully by any one single habit, or act of the mind or will distinctly, for that (as * one well notes) there are such descriptions given of it in scripture, such things are proposed as the object of it, and such is the experience of all that sincerely believe, as no one single act, either of the mind or will, can answer unto : Nor do I see any thing repugnant to scripture or philosophy if we place it in both faculties. Consent (saith •(• Vasquez) seems to denote the concourse of the will with the understanding ; but to leave that, it is most certain the saving, justifying act of faith lies principally in the consent of the will, which consent is the effect of the Almighty Power of God, Eph. i. 19. He allures and draws the will to Christ, and he draws with the cords of a man, i. e. he prevails with it by rational arguments : For the soul being prepared by convic- tions of its lost and miserable estate by sin, and that there is but one door of hope open to it for an escape from the wrath to come, and that is Christ ; being also satisfied of the fulness and complete- ness of his saving ability, and of his willingness to make it over for our salvation, upon such just and equal terms ; this cannot but prevail with the will of a poor distressed sinner, to consent and chuse him.
Fifthly, and lastly, The last and principal thing included in our
* Dr. Owen in his doctrine of Justification, p. 135.
| Consent seems to denote the concurrence of the will with the understanding, by relishing the same thing which the understanding doth perceive, 12. Q. 15. a. 1. Faith is not a simple act, but consists of divers parts, knowledge, assent, and trust, which do not all belong to the same faculty. WendeU Theol. p. 450.
110 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SEEM. VI.