6. It is our part, thus to _preach Christ_, by preaching all things whatsoever he hath revealed. We may indeed without blame, yea, and with a peculiar blessing from God, declare the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. We may speak, in a more especial manner, _of the Lord our righteousness_. We may expatiate upon the grace of _God in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself_. We may, at proper opportunities, dwell upon his praise, as bearing _the iniquities of us all, as wounded for our transgressions_ and _bruised for our iniquities_, that _by his stripes we_ might _be healed_. But still we should not _preach Christ_, according to his word, if we were wholly to confine ourselves to this. We are not ourselves clear before God, unless we proclaim him in all his offices. _To preach Christ_, as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, is to preach him not only as our great _High-priest, taken from among men, and ordained for men, in things pertaining to God_; as such, _reconciling us to God by his blood_, and _ever living to make intercession for us_: but likewise as the prophet of the Lord, _who of God is made unto us wisdom_. Who by his word, and his Spirit, _is with us always, guiding us into all truth_: yea, and as remaining a King for ever; as giving laws to all whom he has bought with his blood: as restoring those to the image of God, whom he had first re-instated in his favour: as reigning in all believing hearts, until he has _subdued all things to himself_; until he hath utterly cast out all sin, and _brought in everlasting righteousness_.
II. 1. _We establish the law_, secondly, when we so preach faith in Christ, as not to supersede, but produce holiness: to produce all manner of holiness, negative and positive, of the heart and of the life.
In order to this, we continually declare (what should be frequently and deeply considered, by all who would not _make void the law thro’ faith_) that faith itself, even Christian faith, the faith of God’s elect, the faith of the operation of God, still is only the hand-maid of love. As glorious and honourable as it is, it is not the end of the commandment. God hath given this honour to love alone: love is the end of all the commandments of God. Love is the end, the sole end of every dispensation of God, from the beginning of the world, to the consummation of all things. And it will endure when heaven and earth flee away; for _love_ alone _never faileth_. Faith will totally fail: it will be swallowed up in sight, in the everlasting vision of God. But even then love
“Its nature and its office still the same, Lasting its lamp and unconsum’d its flame, In deathless triumph shall for ever live, And endless good diffuse, and endless praise receive.”
2. Very excellent things are spoken of faith, and whosoever is a partaker thereof, may well say with the apostle, _Thanks be to God, for his unspeakable gift_. Yet still it loses all its excellence, when brought into a comparison with love. What St. _Paul_ observes concerning the superior glory of the gospel, above that of the law, may with great propriety be spoken of the superior glory of love, above that of faith. _Even that which was made glorious, hath no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away is glorious, much more doth that which remaineth exceed in glory._ Yea, all the glory of faith before it is done away, arises hence, That it ministers to love. It is the great temporary means which God has ordained to promote that eternal end.
3. *Let those who magnify faith beyond all proportion, so as to swallow up all things else, and who so totally misapprehend the nature of it, as to imagine it stands in the place of love, consider farther, That as love will exist after faith, so it did exist long before it. The angels, who from the moment of their creation, beheld the face of their Father that is in heaven, had no occasion for faith, in its general notion, as it is the evidence of things not seen. Neither had they need of faith, in its more particular acceptation, faith in the blood of Jesus: for he took not upon him the nature of angels; but only the seed of _Abraham_. There was therefore no place before the foundation of the world, for faith either in the general or particular sense. But there was for love. Love existed from eternity, in God, the great ocean of love. Love had a place in all the children of God, from the moment of their creation. They received at once from their gracious Creator, to exist, and to love.
4. Nor is it certain (as ingeniously and plausibly as many have descanted upon this.) That faith, even in the general sense of the word, had any place in paradise. It is highly probable, from that short and uncircumstantial account which we have in holy writ, That _Adam_ before he rebelled against God, walked with him by sight and not by faith.