> It is the excellency of faitb, that it can turn the blood of Christ both into food and into physic.
Rom. VIII. 82-34.] heaven on earth. 457
good of the soul, for the purifying of the soul, and for the bettering of the soul; and no potion, no means will profit the soul, if this heavenly ingredient be not mixed with it. Now, faith puts a m&n upon praying, upon hearing, upon the fellowship of the saints, upon public duties, upon family duties, and upon closet duties ; and faith in these comes and joins with the soul, and mixes herself with these soul-purifying ordinances, and so makes them effectual for the purifying of the soul more and more from all filthiness and uncleanness.^ Faith puts out all her virtue and efficacy in ordinances, to the purging of souls from their dross and tin ; not that faith in this life shall wholly purify the soul from the being of sin, or from the motions or operations of sin, no f for then we should have our heaven in this world, and then we might bid ordinances adieu; but that faith that accompanies salvation doth naturally purify and cleanse the heart from the remainders of sin by degrees. Sound faith is still a-making the heart more and more neat and clean, that the king of glory may delight in his habitation, that he may not remove his court, but may abide with the soul for ever. And thus you see that that faith that accompanies salvation is a heart- purifying faith.
(5.) The fifth propeHy of that faith that accompanies salvation is this : it is soul-softening, it is soul-mollifying. Oh nothing breaks the heart of a sinner like faith. Peter believes soundly, and weeps bitterly, Mat. xxvi 75 ; Mary Magdalene believes much, and weeps much, Luke vii. 44. Faith sets a wounded Christ, a bruised Christ, a despised Christ, a pierced Christ, a bleeding Christ before the soul, and this makes the soul sit down and weep bitterly : ' I will pour upon the house of David, the Spirit of grace and of supplications ; and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him ' (all gospel-mourning flows from believing), ' as one moumeth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born,' Zech. xii. 10, &c. Oh ! the sight of those wounds that their sins have made, will wound their hearts through and through ; it will make them lament over Christ with a bitter lamentation. They say nothing will dissolve the adamant but the blood of a goat. Ah ! nothing will kindly, sweetly, and effectually break the hardened heart of a sinner, but faith's beholding the blood of Christ trickling down his sides. Pliny reports of a serpent, that when it stings, it fetches all the blood out of the body ;' but it was never heard that ever any sweat blood but Christ, and the very thoughts of this makes the believing soul to sit down sweating and weeping. That Christ should love man when he was most unlovely, that man's extreme misery should but inflame Christ's bowels of love and mercy, this melts the believing soul. That Christ should leave the eternal bosom of his Father ; that he that was equal with God should come in the form of a servant ; that he that ■was clothed with glory, and bom a king, should be wrapped in rags ; that he that the heaven of heavens could not contain should be cradled in a manger ; that from his cradle to his cross, his whole life should be
I Ab Christ came and joined himself to his disciples.
' Sin is like the wild fig tree, or ivy in the wall, cut off stump, body, bough, and branches, yet some sprigs or other will sprout out again, till the wall be plucked down, &c. * Nat. Hist., sub serpenie, &c. — G.
458 HEAVEN ON EAETH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
a life of sorrows and sufferings ; that the judge of all flesh should be condemned ; that the Lord of life should be put to death ; that he that was his Father's joy should in anguish of spirit cry out, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me V that that head that was crowned with honour should be crowned with thorns ; that those eyes that were as a flame of fire, that were clearer than the sun, should be closed up by the darkness of death ; that those ears which were wont to hear nothing but hallelujahs should hear nothing but blasphemies ; that that face that was white and ruddy should be spit upon by the beastly Jews ; that that tongue that spake as never man spake, yea, as never angel spake, should be accused of blasphemy; that those hands which swayed both a golden sceptre and an iron rod, and those feet that were as fine brass, should be nailed to the cross ; and all this for man's transgression, for man's rebellion : Oh ! the sight of these things, the believing of these things, the acting of faith on these things, makes a gracious soul to break and bleed, to sigh and groan, to mourn and lament. That faith that accompanies salvation is more or less a heart-breaking, a heart-melting faith.
(6.) The sixth property of that faith that accompanies salvation is this : it is a world-conquering faith, it is a world-overcoming faith. 1 John V. 4, ' For whatsoever is bom of God overcometh the world ; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.' Faith overcomes the frowning world, the fawning world, the tempting world, and the persecuting world, and that it doth thus :
(1.) Faith, by uniting the soul to Christ, doth interest the soul in all the victories and conquests of Christ, and so makes the soul a con- queror with Christ : John xvi. 33, * These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace ; in the world ye shall have tribu- lation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.' We have to deal but with a conquered enemy ; our Jesus hath given the world a mortal wound ; we have nothing to do but to set our feet upon a subdued enemy, and to sing it out with the apostle, ' Over all these we are more than conquerors,' Rom. viii. 37.
(2.) Faith overcomes the world by out-bidding sights ; faith out-bids the world, and so makes the soul victorious. The world set honours, pleasures, &c., before Moses, but his faith out-bid the world. It pre- sents the recompence of reward, it brings down all the glory, pleasures, and treasures of heaven, of that other world, and sets them before the soul ; and so it overtops and overc(ynes the world by out-bidding it. So Christ, 'for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame,' Heb. xii. 2.