(1.) The Lord Jesus Christ himself is asserted to be the proper object of justifying faith. For so it is required in all those testi- monies of Scripture where that faith is declared to be our believing in him, on his name, our receiving of him, or looking unto him; whereunto the promise of justification and eternal life is annexed: v/hereof afterward. See John i 12, iii. 16, 36, vi. 29, 47, vii. 38, xiv. 12; Acts x. 43, xiii. 38, 39, xvi. 31, xxvi. 18, etc.
(2.) He is not proposed as the object of our faith unto the justi- fication of life absolutely, but as the oixlinance of God, even the Father, unto that end: who therefore also is the immediate object of faith as justifying; in what respects we shall declare immediately. So justification is frequently ascribed unto faith as peculiarly acted on him, John v. 24, " He that believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment ; but is passed from death unto life." And herein is comprised that grace, love, and favour of God, which is the principal moving cause of our justification, Rom. iii. 23, 24. Add hereunto John vi. 29, and the object of faith is complete: " This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." God the Father as sending, and the Son as sent, — that is, Jesus Christ in the work of his mediation, as the ordinance of God for the recovery and salvation of lost sinners, is the object of our faith. See 1 Pet. i. 21.
(3.) That he may be the object of our faith, whose general nature consisteth in assent, and which is the foundation of all its other acts, he is proposed in the promises of the gospel; which I therefore place as concurring unto its complete object. Yet do I not herein con- sider the promises merely as peculiar divine revelations, in which sense they belong unto the formal object of faith ; but as they con- tain, propose, and exhibit Christ as the ordinance of God, and the benefits of his mediation, unto them that do believe. There is an especial assent unto the promises of the gospel, wherein some place the nature and essence of justifying faith, or of faith in its work and duty with respect unto our justification. And so they make the promises of the gospel to be the proper object of it. And it cannot
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be but tliat, in the actings of justifying Mtli, there is a peculiar assent ■unto them. Howbeit, this being only an act of the mind, neither the whole nature nor the whole work of faith can consist therein. Wherefore, so far as the promises concur to the complete object of faith, they are considered materially also, — namely, as they contain, propose, and exhibit Christ unto believers. And in that sense are they frequently affirmed in the Scripture to be the object of our faith unto the justification of life. Acts ii. 39, xxvi. 6; Rom iv. 16, 20, XV. 8; Gal. iii. 16, 18; Heb. iv. 1, vi. 13, viii. 6, x. 36.
(4.) The end for Avhich the Lord Christ, in the work of his media- tion, is the ordinance of God, and as such proposed in the promises of the gospel, — namely, the recovery and salvation of lost sinners, — • belongs unto the object of faith as justifying. Hence, the forgive- ness of sin and eternal life are proposed in the Scripture as things that are to be believed unto justification, or as the object of our faith, Matt. ix. 2; Acts ii. 38, 39, v. 31, xxvi. 18; Rom. iii. 25, iv. 7, 8; Col. ii. 13; Tit. i. 2, etc. And whereas the just is to live by his faith, and every one is to believe for himself, or make an ap- plication of the things believed unto his own behoof, some from hence have affirmed the pardon of our own sins and our own salvation to be the proper object of faith; and indeed it doth belong thereunto, when, in the way and order of God and the gospel, we can attain unto it, 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4; Gal. ii. 20; Eph. i. 6, 7.
Wherefore, asserting the Lord Jesus Christ, in the work of his mediation, to be the object of faith unto justification, I include there- in the grace of God, which is the cause ; the pardon of sin, which is the effect ; and the promises of the gospel, which are the means, of communicating Christ and the benefits of his mediation unto us.
And all these things are so united, so intermixed in their mutual relations and respects, so concatenated in the purpose of God, and the declaration made of his will in the gospel, as that the believing of any one of them doth virtually include the belief of the rest. And by whom any one of them is disbelieved, they frustrate and make void all the rest, and so faith itself
The due consideration of these things solveth all the difficulties that arise about the nature of faith, either from the Scripture or from the experience of them that believe, with respect unto its ob- ject. Many things in the Scripture are we said to believe with it and by it, and that unto justification; but two things are hence evident: — Fust, That no one of them can be asserted to be the complete, adequate object of our faith. Secondly, That none of them are so absolutely, but as they relate unto the Lord Christ, as the ordinance of God for our justification and salvation.