Christ himself teacheth us to distinguish between faith in God, (as God,) and faith in himself (as Mediator): John xiv. 1, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God;" (or, believe ye in God?) "believe also in me." These set together are the sufficient cure of a troubled heart.[84] It is not faith in God as God, but faith in Christ as Mediator, that I am now to speak of; and that not as it is inherent in the understanding, but as it is operative on the heart and in the life: and this is not the smallest part of the life of faith, by which the just are said to live. Every true christian must in his measure be able to say, with Paul, Gal. ii. 20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." The pure Godhead is the beginning and the end of all; but Christ is "the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature; and by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things do consist. And he is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence," Col. i. 16-19. "In him it is that we who were sometime far off, are made nigh, even by his blood: for he is our peace, who hath reconciled both Jew and gentile unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came and preached peace to them that were far off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father: so that now we are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God," Eph. ii. 13, 14, 16-19. "In him" it is that "we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him," Eph. iii. 12. "He is the way, the truth, and the life: and no man cometh to the Father, but by him," John xiv. 6. It is "by the blood of Jesus that we have boldness" (and liberty) "to enter into the holiest: by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, his flesh." Because "we have so great a Priest over the house of God, we may draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith," &c. Heb. x. 19-22. "By him it is that we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and boast in hope of the glory of God," Rom. v. 1, 2. So that we must have "all our communion with God through him."
Supposing what I have said of this subject in my "Directions for a Sound Conversion," Direct. 5, (which I hope the reader will peruse,) I shall here briefly name the uses which we must make of Christ by faith, in order to our holy converse with God:[85] but I must tell you that it is a doctrine which requireth a prepared heart, that hath life within to enable it to relish holy truth, and to dispose it to diligence, delight, and constancy in practice. A senseless reader will feel but little savour in it, and a sluggish reader that suffereth it to die as soon as it hath touched his ears or fantasy, will fall short of the practice and the pleasure of this life. He must have faith that will live by faith: and he must have the heart and nature of a child, that will take pleasure in loving, reverent, and obedient converse with a father.
1. The darkness of ignorance and unbelief is the great impediment of the soul that desireth to draw near to God. When it knoweth not God, or knoweth not man's capacity of enjoying him, and how much he regardeth the heart of man; or knoweth not by what way he must be sought and found; or when he doubteth of the certainty of the word which declareth the duty of the hopes of man: all this, or any of this, will suppress the ascending desires of the soul, and clip its wings, and break the heart of its holy aspirings after God, by killing or weakening the hopes of its success.