game have these hawks of hell among such numerous flocks of people ! O, bless God while you live for your deliverance from popery ; and see that you prize the gospel, and means of grace you enjoy at an higher rate, lest God bring you once more under that yoke, which neither you nor your fathers could bear.
Second use for examination.
Doth saving faith consist in a due and right receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ ? Then let me persuade you to examine your- selves in this great point of faith. Reflect solemnly upon the transactions that have been betwixt Christ and your souls ; think close on this subject of meditation.
If all you were worth in the world lay in one precious stone, and that stone were to be tried by the skilful Lapidary ', whether it were true or false, whether it would fly or endure under the smart stroke of his hammer, sure your thoughts could not be unconcerned about the issue. Why all that you are worth in both worlds depends upon the truth of your faith which is now to be tried.
O therefore read not these lines with a running, careless eye, but seriously ponder the matter before you. You would be loth to put to sea, though it were but to cross the channel, in a rotten leaky bottom : And will you dare to venture into the ocean of eternity in a false rotten faith ! God forbid. You know the Lord is coming to try every man's faith as by fire, and that we must stand or fall for ever with the sincerity or hypocrisy of our faith. Surely, you can never be too exact and careful about that, on which your whole estate depends, and that for ever.
Now there are three things upon which we should have a very tender and watchful eye, for the discovery of the sincerity of our faith, and they are,
f Antecedents ~\ The < Concomitants >- of Faith. ( Consequents J
As these are, so we must judge and reckon our faith to be. And, accordingly, they furnish us with three general marks or trials of faith.
First, If you would discern the sincerity of your faith, examine whether those antecedents, and preparative works of the spirit, were ever found in your souls, which use to introduce and usher it into the souls of God's elect : Such are illumination, conviction, self- despair, and earnest cries to God.
First, Illumination is a necessary antecedent to faith : You can- not believe till God hath opened your eves to see your sin, your misery by sin, and your remedy in Jesus Christ alone : You find this act of the Spirit to be the first, in order both of nature and
130 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SEEM. VII,
time, and introductive to all the rest, Acts xxvi. 18. " To turn " them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to " God." As faith without works (which must be a consequent to it) is dead, so faith without light, which must be an antecedent to it, is blind : Faith is the hand by which Christ is received, but know- ledge is the eye by which that hand is directed.
Well then, hath God opened your eyes to see sin and misery in another manner than ever you saw them before ? For certainly, if God hath opened your eyes by saving illumination, you will find as great a difference betwixt your former and present apprehensions of sin and danger, as betwixt the painted lion upon the wall or a sign-post, and the real living lion that meets you roaring in the way.
Secondly, Conviction is an antecedent to believing : Where this goes not before, no faith can follow after : The Spirit first con- vinces of sin, then of righteousness, John xvi. 8. So Mark i. 15. " Repent ye, and believe the gospel :" Believe it, O man ! that breast of thine must be wounded, that vain and frothy heart of thine must be pierced and stung with conviction, sense, and sorrow for sin : Thou must have some sick days, and restless nights for sin, if ever thou rightly close with Christ by faith. It is true, there is much difference found in the strength, depth, and continuance of conviction, and spiritual troubles in converts ; but sure it is, the child of faith is not ordinarily born without some pangs. Convic- tion is the application of that light which God makes to shine in our minds, to our particular case and condition by the conscience ; and sure, when men come to see their miserable and sad estate by a true light, it cannot but wound them, and that to the very heart.
Thirdly, Self-despair, or a total and absolute loss in ourselves about deliverance, and the way of escape, either by ourselves, or any other mere creature, doth, and must go before faith.
So it was with those believers, Acts ii. 37. " Men and brethren, <( what shall we do p" They are the words of men at a total loss : It is the voice of poor distressed souls, that saw themselves in misery, but knew not, saw not, nor could devise any way of escape from it, by any tiling they could do for themselves, or any other creature for them : And hence the apostle uses that emphatical word, Gal. iii. 23. gvyy.sxksiff,u,mi9 i. e. shut up to the faith, i. e. as men besieged and distressed in a garrison in a time of storm, when the enemy pours in upon them through the breaches, and over- powers them : There is but one sally-port or gate, at which they can escape, and to that they all throng, as despairing of life, if they take any other course. Just so do men's convictions besiege them, distress them, beat them off from all their holds and intrench-
SERM. vtT. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 131
ments, and bring them to a pinching distress in themselves, shut- ting them up to Christ as the only way to escape. Duties cannot save me, reformation cannot save me ; nor angels, nor men can save me ; there is no way but one, Christ, or condemnation for ever.
I thought once, that a little repentance, reformation, restitution, and a stricter life, might be a way to escape the wrath to come ; but I find the bed is too short, and the covering too narrow : All is but loss, dung, dross, in comparison with Jesus Christ ; if I trust to those Egyptian reeds, they will not only fail me, but pierce and wound me too : I see no hope within the whole Horizon of sense.
Fourthly, Hence come vehement and earnest cries to God for faith, for Christ, for help from heaven, to transport the soul out of this dangerous condition, to that strong rock of salvation ; to bring it out of this furious, stormy sea of trouble, where it is ready to wreck every moment, into that safe and quiet harbour, Christ.