veracity, is a light matter ; for surely it must greatly provoke the eyes of his glory.
Besides, unbelief, while it thus incenses God against us, rejects the only possible means of reconciliation with him; and
consequently rivets all our guilt upon us Judge then
whether they, who yield themselves up to its influence, be not "blinded by Satan," and victims to their own delusions1?]
By way of improvement, let me commend to your attention the grand object of a Christian's faith —
[It is to little purpose to have general notions of the prevalence and folly of unbelief, if we do not apply them par- ticularly to that fundamental doctrine of Scripture, That we are to be justified solely by faith in the Lord Jesus. This is that, which is emphatically called, The Gospel; concerning the necessity of believing which, nothing more need be urged, than that assertion of our Lord, " He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned8." The point for us now to determine, is, Do we indeed believe in Christ for the justification of our souls? We are continually apt to mistake the nature of saving faith ; and, for want of right views of that, we put away from ourselves all that is spoken respecting unbelief, as though we had no experience of it, no concern about it. But it has been already abundantly shewn, that if we believe only in the manner that the generality of Christians do, we have no true faith at all. Examine then, Have you clear and lively views of Christ as the Saviour of sinners? Are you deeply convinced of your own sinfulness, and your consequent need of mercy ? Have you renounced every other hope ? and do you rely simply and solely on Christ's atone- ment? Finally, are you deriving virtue from him for the healing of your corruptions, and for the bringing forth of all the fruits of righteousness to his praise and glory ? This, and this alone, is saving faith ; and he, who thus believes, shall be saved; and he, who does not thus believe, shall be damned. Let not any object, and say, " What is there in this faith that should save us, or in the want of it that should condemn us?" Our. only inquiry must be, Has God suspended our salvation on the exercise of a living faith, or not ? If he has, we have no more to say, than, " Let God be true : but every man a liar." To dispute against him is to dispute against the wind. The wind will not stop its course for us : yet sooner should that be done, yea, " sooner should heaven and earth pass away, than one jot or tittle of his word should fail." If then no objections of our's can ever disprove the truth of God's word, or prevent the execution of it on our own souls, let us guard
f 2 Cor. iv. 4. Isai. Ixvi. 4. s Mark xvi. 1G.