[3.] Seeking of Christ : Isa. Iv. 6, ' Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found ; ' and Ps. xxvii. 8, ' Seek ye my face.' Seeking implies diligence in the use of means. Vigorous desires cannot be idle ; where there hath been running, there will be also seeking : Cant. iii. 2, ' I
VeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 485
will arise now, and go about the city, in the streets and broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth.' The spouse sought her beloved throughout the city. Jerusalem is a figure of the church ; and in the ordinances of God christians go through the city from one ordinance to another, from meditation to prayer, from prayer to meditation, from both to the word, that still they may hear of their beloved. The earnest desire of the soul will bewray itself by the holy use of means to meet with Christ. Seeking doth not only imply a bare waiting, but a waiting in the use of means to find him whom their souls love. They are tracing his foot-steps by the shepherd's tents^ and pursumg him throughout the whole city.
[4.] Receiving of Christ ; this is when faith is grown, and full ripe : John i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them gave he power' — e^ovalav, the right and honour — ' to become the sons of God.' Receiv- ing is a considerate act of the soul by which we take Christ out of God's hand, and apply him to ourselves. And this suiteth with the formal nature of faith and the ofler of God : in the covenant God ofi'ereth him, and we take him by the hand of faith ; in the promises of the gospel God makes a deed of gift ; and so in the Lord's supper, when we come to be infeoffed in the covenant ' Take, eat, this is my body,' 1 Cor. xi. 24. And here we come to take and receive him. Now this receiving implies an appropriation and more particular application of Christ to our use ; and though it doth not go so high as assurance or an adjudging of Christ to be ours, yet there is a laying hold of Christ held out in the word of promise, and a desire to draw all things to application. Now concerning these acts of faith take these rules —
(1.) When you cannot comfort yourselves in one act of faith, you must make use of another ; as, for instance, it is impossible the soul should be always I'unning, always upon the bent of vigorous and strong desires ; but do you come to him ? That gives you a right to Christ, if there be a settled resolution and purpose of the soul to cleave and rest upon him and no other for acceptance with God. So you cannot take comfort in receiving of Christ ; a secret suspicion draws back the hand of faith ; ay, but do you seek him ? You may take comfort in that. The terms are diversified in scripture lest any of them singly should trouble believers.
(2.) All the acts of justifying faith respect the person of Christ: it is coming to Christ, running to Christ, seeking of Christ, and receiving of Christ. Faith is not merely assent ; in the scripture notion it is affiance. Usually men content themselves with a naked persuasion or inactive assent. The act of faith must be immediately terminated upon the person of Christ. Christ's righteousness is not obtained by an assent to the truth of any promise merely, or any proposition in the word, but by a union with Jesus Christ. We must be united before we can be possessed of his righteousness. We are not united to any promise, but to Christ. Look, as the imputation of Adam's sin is charged upon us by our union to him, so is the imputation of Christ's righteousness when we are united to him, when we take and receive him. It is not merely because you are of this opinion that Christ came to die for sinners, but there must be the hand of faith to take Christ out of the hand of God the Father, and receive him and embrace
486 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XVII.
him. There must not only be an assent in the judgment, but a consent in the heart to cleave to Christ. Christ commended Peter for his confession in saying, ' He was the son of God,' Mat. xvi. 16. And the devil confessed as much — ' Jesus, thou son of God, and thou holy one of God,' Mark i. 24. Saith Austin, Hoc dicehat PetriLs, ut Christum amplecteretur • hoc dicebant dcsmones, ut Christus ah Us recederet — Peter assented to that truth, that Jesus was the son of God, but how ? that he might embrace Christ ; the devils assented to this truth, that Christ might depart from them.
(3.) True faith will never rest in any lower act, it is always renewing its own acts, and perfecting and ripening itself, that from weak begin- nings it may grow up into some confidence before God. It ripens purposes into desires, desires into waiting, waiting into seeking, seeking into receiving, and receiving into the fulness of assurance, always struggling with doubts and fears ; as John wrote his epistle to this end, that those which had believed might grow up to greater steadfast- ness in faith : 1 John v. 13, ' These things have I written unto yon that believe on the name of the son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that we may believe on the name of the son of God.' As he that had faith in the Gospel is complaining of the relics of unbelief : Mark ix. 24, ' Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief.' False graces do not wrestle with that which is contrary, nor aim at growth ; but living graces will be always drawing onward to perfection.