Wherefore the ground of the actual assignation of divine honour unto the person of Christ, in both branches of it, adoration and invo- cation, is faith in him. So he said unto the blind man whose eyes he opened, " Believest thou on the Son of God?" John ix. 85. And he said, " Lord, I believe; and he worshipped him," verse 88. All divine worship or adoration is a consequent effect and fruit of faith. So also is invocation; for " How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" Rom. x. 14. Him in whom we believe, we ought to adore and invocate. For these are the principal ways whereby divine faith doth act itself And so to adore or invocate any in whom we ought not to believe, is idolatry.
This faith, therefore, on the person of Christ is our duty ; yea, such a duty it is, as that our eternal condition doth more peculiarly depend on the performance or nonperformance of it than on any other duty whatever. For constantly under those terms is it pre- scribed unto us. " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life : and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him," John iii. 86. Wherefore the nature and exercise of this faith must be inquired into.
There is a faith which is exercised towards those by whom the
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mind and will of God is revealed. So it is said of the Israelites, " They believed the Lord and Moses/' Exod. xiv. 31 ; that is, that he was sent of God, was no deceiver — that it was the word and will of God which he revealed unto them. So 2 Chron. xx. 20, " Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established ; believe his pro- phets, so shall ye prosper." It was not the persons of the pro- phets, but their message, that was the object of the faith required. It was to believe what they said, as from God — not to believe in them as if they were God. So it is explained by the apostle. Acts xxvi 27, " King Agrippa, belie vest thou the prophets ? I know that thou behevest." He believed that they were sent of God, and that the word they spake was from him ; otherwise there was no believ- ing of them who were dead so many ages before.
And this is all the faith in Christ himself which some will allow. To believe in Christ, they say, is only to beheve the doctrine of the Gospel revealed by him. Hence they deny that any could believe in him before his coming into the world, and the declaration of the mind of God in the Gospel made by him. An assent unto the truth of the Gospel, as revealed by Christ, is with them the whole of that faith in Christ Jesus which is required of us.
Of all that poison which at this day is diffused in the minds of men, corrupting them from the mystery of the Gospel, there is no part that is more pernicious than this one perverse imagination, that to believe in Christ is nothing at all but to believe the doctrine of the Gospel ; which yet, we grant, is included therein. For as it allows the consideration of no office in him but that of a prophet, and that not as vested and exercised in his divine person, so it utterly over- throws the whole foundation of the relation of the church unto him, and salvation by him.
That which suits my present design, is to evince that it is the ' person of Christ which is the first and principal object of that faith wherewith we are required to believe in him ; and that so to do, is not only to assent unto the truth of the doctrine revealed by him, but also to place our trust and confidence in him for mercy, relief, and protection — for righteousness, life, and salvation — for a blessed resurrection and eternal reward. This I shall first manifest from some few of those multiplied testimonies wherein this truth is declared, and whereby it is confirmed, as also with some arguments taken from them ; and then proceed to declare the ground, nature, and exercise of this faith itself
As unto the testimonies confirming this truth, it must be observed of them all in general, that wherever faith is required towards our Lord Jesus Christ, it is still called believing " in him," or " on his name," according as faith in God absolutely is every where expressed.
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If no more be intended but only the belief of the doctrine revealed by him, then whose doctrine soever we are obliged to believe, we may be rightly said to believe in them, or to believe on their name. For instance, we are obliged to behave the doctrine of Paul the apostle, the revelations made by him, and that on the hazard of our eternal welfare by the unbelieving of them; yet that we should be said to believe in Paul, is that which he did utterly detest, 1 Cor. i. 13, 15.