(2d.) AVe must be willing to sacrifice all our interests : Mat. xvi. 24, ' If any man will come after me, and be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.' If God be trusted as our felicity, worldly felicity must be no impediment to our duty ; therefore, if we cannot incur blame and shame with men, yea, damage and loss, that we may be faithful with God, our faith is worth nothing.
(3c?.) If God call you not to sufferings, yet there are some expense-
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ful and self-den3"ing duties which ever are incumbent npon you, Mat. XXV. '65. Visiting the sick, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry : Luke xii. 33, ' Sell that ye have, and give alms ; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heaven that faileth not.' Can you trust Christ upon such promises, and be at some loss for the gospel ? for a religion that costs nothing is worth nothing. Most men love a cheap gospel, and the flesh engrosseth all ; faith gets little from them to be laid out for God. These men run a fearful hazard of being rejected for ever ; they sow to the flesh : Gal. vi. 8, ' He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.'
(4:iJi.) If your faith maketh you to submit to providence. When we first entered into covenant with God, we entirely and absolutely gave up ourselves to God, to be governed by his commanding will, and to be ordered by his disposing will. You cannot shift yourselves out of his hands, but your voluntary submission to anything, if you may have Christ and heaven at last, is the trial of your faith : Job i. 21, ' The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord ; ' Phil. i. 20, ' So Christ be magnified in my bodj^, whether it be by life or death.' He was come to a point ; nothing should be reserved. So Christ may be glorified, and you may have his saving grace, let him give or take ; the more willingly you do this, the stronger is your faith. Certainly to deny all is an essential property of faith.
3. The third evidence of a growing faith is when our light is turned into love ; for faith is not a bare knowledge, but a sound, a savoury and effective knowledge, a knowing things as we ought to know them
1 Cor. viii. 1, 2. A knowledge with a taste ; for such a difi'erence as there is between the sight of meat and the tasting of it, such a differ- ence there is between speculative knowledge and the apprehension of faith, 1 Peter i. 3. You may dispute him out of his belief that seeth, but you can never dispute him out of his belief that tastes, for you cannot make him go against his own sense. The steadfastness of unlearned christians cometh mainly from their taste and love ; they adhere more closely to Christ than those that have only a dead opinion, because they received the truth not only in the light but love of it,
2 Thes. ii. 10. Now the more taste we have of the things we know and believe, .the stronger is our faith. Now, besides the manner of apprehension, the truths apprehended tend mainly to raise our love to God, that we may love him that loved us first, 1 John iv. 19. We know God that we may love him, and faith is nothing else but a behold- ing the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that our hearts may be warmed, attracted, and drawn to God. Faith is the bellows to enkindle the fire of love in our souls ; and therefore faith, the more sound and sincere it is, the more it worketh by love, Gal. v. 6. Faith is required sub ratione medii ; love, sub ratioue finis. The end of the gospel institution is love, 1 Tim. i. 5. Well, then, when you make it your great business to love God, and count it your great happiness to be beloved by him, then may you best judge of the growth of your faith. The gospel representeth the goodness and amiableness of God, that he may be more lovely to us, and be beloved by us ; for this was the end of reconciling and saving man by Christ ; his incarnation, life, sufiferings,
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death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession is all to reveal the love of- God in Christ, and to work our hearts to love God again. To this end also tend his merciful covenant and promises, and all the benefits given to the church, all the privileges of the saints, his Spirit, pardon, peace, glory, all these to warm our hearts, and fill them with a sense of the love of God. Now if we slightly reflect upon these things, with cold and narrow thoughts, we have not the true faith, certainly not a grown faith.
SERMON IV.
Your faith groweth exceedingly. — 2 Thes. i. 3.