Inf. 2. If such a receiving of Christ, as hath been described, be saving and justifying faith, then faith is a work of greater difficulty than most men understand it to be, and there are but few sound be- lievers in the world.
Before Christ can be received, the heart must be emptied and opened : but most men's hearts are full of self-righteousness and vain confidence : this was the case of the Jews, Rom. x.' 3. " Being " ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish " their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the " righteousness of God."
Man's righteousness was once in himself, and what liquor is first put into the vessel, it ever afterwards savours of it. It is with Adam's posterity as with bees, which have been accustomed to go to their own hive, and carry all thither ; if the hive be removed to another place, they will still fly to the old place, hover up and down about it, and rather die there than go to a new place. So it is with most men. God hath removed their righteousness from doing to believ- ing; from themselves to Christ; but who shall prevail with them to forsake self? Nature will venture to be damned rather than do it : there is much submission in believing, and great self-denial : a proud self-conceited heart will never stoop to live upon the stock of another's righteousness.
Besides, it is no easy thing to persuade men to receive Christ as their Lord in all things, and submit their necks to his strict and holy precepts, though it be a great truth that " * Christ's yoke " doth not gall, but grace and adorn the neck that bears it ;* that the truest and sweetest liberty is in our freedom from our lusts, not in our fulfilling them ; yet who can persuade the carnal heart to believe this ? And much less will men ever be prevailed withal,
* Jugum Christi non deterit, sed honestat colla. Bern.
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to forsake father, mother, wife, children, inheritance, and life it- self, to follow Christ : and all this upon the account of spiritual and invisible things : and yet this must be done by all that receive the Lord Jesus Christ upon gospel terms ; yea, and before the soul hath any encouraging experience of its own, to balance the mani- fold discouragements of sense, and carnal reason, improved by the utmost craft of Satan to dismay it: for experience is the fruit and consequent of believing. So that it may well be placed among the great mysteries of godliness, that Christ is believed on in the world, 1 Tim. iii. 16.
Inf. S. Hence it will follow, That there may be more true and sound believers in the world, than know, or dare conclude themselves to be such.
For, as many ruin their own souls by placing the essence of saving faith in naked assent, so some rob themselves of their own comfort, by placing it in full assurance. Faith, and sense of faith, are two distinct and separable mercies : you may have truly re- ceived Christ, and not receive the knowledge or assurance of it, Isa. 1. 10. Some there be that say, Thou art our God, of whom God never said, You are my i people : these have no authority to be called the sons of God : others there are, of whom God saith, These are my people, yet dare not call God their God : these have authority to be called the sons of God, but know it not. They have received Christ, that is their safety, but they have not yet received the know- ledge and assurance of it ; that is their trouble : the Father owns his child in the cradle, who yet knows him not to be his Father.
Now there are two reasons why many believers, who might argue themselves into peace, do yet live without the comforts of their faith : and this may come to pass, either from,
First , The inevidence of the premises.
Secondly, Or the weighty importance of the conclusion.
First, It may come to pass from the inevidence of the premises. Assurance is a practical syllogism, and it proceeds thus :
All that truly have received Christ Jesus, they are the children of God.
I have truly received Jesus Christ. Therefore I am the child of God.
The major proposition is found in the scripture, and there can be no doubt of that. The assumption depends upon experience, or internal sense ; / have truly received Jesus Christ ; here usually is the stumble : many great objections lie against it, which they can- not clearly answer : As,
Ob). 1. Light and knowledge are necessarily required to the right receiving of Christ, but I am dark and ignorant ; many car,.
124 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. VII,
nal, unregenerate persons know more than I do, and are more able to discourse of the mysteries of religion than I am.
Sol. But you ought to distinguish of the kinds and degrees of knowledge, and then you would see that your bewailed ignorance is no bar to your interest in Christ. There are two kinds of knowledge :
1. Natural. | 2. Spiritual.
There is a natural knowledge, even of spiritual objects, a spark of nature blown up by an advantageous education ; and though the objects of this knowledge be spiritual things, yet the light in which they are discerned is but a mere natural light.