thou called to engage with work thou art not able to manage? Well, here is the arm of Omnipotence ftretched out, to "ftrengthen, help, and uphold," If. xli. 10. And accordingly faith leans on the power of God, according to that command, If. xxvi. 4. "Truft ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlafting ftrength." Paul leaned on the power of God, when he cried, "I can do all things through Chrift ftrengthening me." So did the three children "Our God whom we trust, is able to deliver us." So did Abraham; he was "perfuaded, that he who had promised, was able also to perform," &c.

2dly, Art thou at any time brought to thy wits end, that thou knoweft not what to do? Well, in that cafe faith leans on the infinite wifdom or omnifcience of a God in Chrift: 2 Chron. XX. 12. "Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. The Lord knows how to deliver the righteous." When the poor foul has been trying and fearching itself, and, alas! is afraid it be deceived by a treacherous heart; in this case, faith will have recourse unto the omniscience of a God in Chrift, and fay, "Search me, Q God, and try me, and fee if there be any wicked way in me," &c. When the poor foul is afraid of the fecret plots of Satan, or of his confederates; in this cafe faith leans upon an omnifcient God in Chrift; who " difcovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death."

3dly, Is the believer in the wilderness deferted by friends, or feparated from them by banishment, imprisonment, or the like, faying with the church, Pfal. cii. 6. 7. "I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the defert: I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house-top?" In this cafe faith leans upon the immenfity of a God in Chrift, and is ready to fay, Though I be alone and forfaken by all creatures, yet I cannot be parted or feparated from my God; for a whole God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, is every where present: "Do not I the Lord fill heaven and earth?" and my way is not hid from the Lord, and my judgement is not paffed over from my God:" and my fellowship and converse fhall be with him, when I cannot have fellowship with my friends and familiars, who are removed far from me.

4thly, Oh but, may the believer fay, I am a vile polluted creature, defiled in heart, lip, and life; and therefore the ho linefs of God is a terror to me, that I dare not so much as look towards the place where his honour dwells: "He is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity." Anfw. The very holinefs of a God in Chrift, which thou makeft ufe of to

difcourage

difcourage thy faith, is glorious matter of fupport and encouragement; for faith's way of arguing from God's holiness is this; God is infinitely pure and holy, and therefore he will fanctify and purify me from iniquity; he hates fin, and punishes it, therefore he will deftroy my luft ; for it is not my perfon, but my fins and lufts, that are the objects of his hatred. If the rod come, why not? for thereby he will make me a partaker of his holiness," and purge away my iniquity. It is mine iniquity, and not me, that he will" vifit with the rod, and my tranfgreffion with ftripes ;" it is not me, but my fins, that he defigns to deftroy. But,

5thly, Say you, Can faith lean upon the juftice of God? Anfw. Yes, it can: for though this attribute be a rock of offence, to griud the wicked into powder; yet it is a rock of fweet repofe and reft to the believer. Oh, will faith fay, Lord I have indeed finned, and deferved thy wrath; and if thou mark iniquity, I cannot ftand: but here is my relief, my Surety has done and fuffered all that the law required; "he was wounded for our tranfgreffions, bruifed for our iniquities," &c.; and it is inconfiftent with juftice to punifh the fame tranfgreffion twice: hence faith concludes, with Paul, "There is therefore now no condemnation: Who can lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" &c.

6thly, Faith fweetly leans upon the goodnefs, mercy, and love of God in Chrift. Oh, will faith fay, has God been fo good, and gracious, and merciful, as to fend his only begotten Son, &c.; he has given him unto the death to be a curse, and to be made fin for me; and will he not do every other thing?" He that spared not his own Son, but gave him unto the death for us all, how will he not with him alfo freely give us all things? Oh how excellent is this his loving kindness ! therefore the fons of men fhall put their truft under the fhadow of thy wings."

7thly, Faith leans on the truth and faithfulness of God in Chrift. Oh fays faith, "faithfulness is the girdle of his loins ;" he is fo true to his word, that "heaven and earth fhall pass away before one jot of his word fall to the ground;" and therefore I will lean and reft myself here with affured confidence; and though he may defer the accomplishment of his word, yet I will believe and wait, and, will not make hafte; "The vision is for an appointed time, but at the end it fhall speak, and not lie; though it tarry I will wait for it, because it will furely come, it will not tarry." Thus, I fay, faith goes up from the wilderness leaning on the divine attributes, as they are manifefted in Chrift. And thus I have minted to fhew

what is the object of the life of faith, or what it is in Chrift that faith leans upon, as it comes up from the wilderness.

Queft. 3. What is the difference between the life of faith, and the life of fight or sense? The words of the apostle, 2 Cor. v. give ground for this inquiry, when he informs us, that while in the body, "we walk by faith, and not by fight;". and because "the life he lived in the flesh, was a life of faith upon the Son of God:" by which he plainly intimates, that a life of faith is calculate for an embodied state, and that a life of fight and fenfe is not fuited unto our prefent condition here in the wilderness. There are these few things I offer to clear the difference.

1. Senfe regards only what a man hath in hand, or prefently enjoys; but faith looks to what a man hath in Chrift, and in the well-ordered covenant. Sense is like a child that is better pleased with a penny, or any little trifle the parent gives it, than if he were giving it a charter to the whole estate; but faith, although it will not defpife any thing that comes from the hand of the Father, yet it is particularly taken up with the charter of the promise or covenant, and the eftate lying in the hand of the great covenant-head, Chrift Jefus; it views the promise as it is "yea and amen in Chrift," it views the covenant as confirmed by his death and blood, and says, with David, "This is all my falvation that he hath made with me," in my new covenant-head," an everlasting covenant, well-ordered in all things, and fure."

2. Sense is ready to judge of the love of God by the afpect of providence, or his prefent carriage; and whenever he seems to frown or hide, it razes all to the foundation, crying," The Lord hath forgotten to be gracious;" but faith reads the love of God in the face of Chrift Jefus, in the acceptance that the Surety has met with, and in the declarations, offers, promises, of the word: "In his word will I hope, (fays faith); Remember the word upon which thou haft caufed thy fervant to hope." Hence it follows,

3. Senfe and fight is a variable and fluctuating thing; but faith is fteady and fixed, like Abraham, "who against hope believed in hope, and ftaggered not at the promise through unbelief." While the believer lives by fenfe, and enjoys the Lord in a fenfible manner, he is ready then to fay, "My mountain ftands firm, I fhall never be removed;" but anon the Lord hides his face, and the man is troubled: but faith keeps up a perfuafion of his love, even when he is withdrawn, faying, Though I "walk in darkness, I will trust in the name of the Lord, and stay myself upon my God."

4. Sight and fenfe look only to things prefent; but faith,

like a prophet, looks at things to come, things that are at a diftance. Abraham, the father of the faithful, faw the day of Christ afar off: "Faith is the evidence of things not feen, and the substance of things hoped for." When under darkness of affliction, defertion, temptation, it will fay, " Though I fit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I fhall behold his righteousness."

5. Senfe and fight are fuperficial and overly in their views of things, and eafily deceived with appearances: but faith is a poring and diving grace, it goes deep into things. Faith will perceive poifon in a cup of gold, it will fee lions dens and leopards in Lebanon, among trees and woods of aromatic fcent; and therefore will turn away from them as dangerous, while fenfe is eafily encouraged thereby and on the other hand it will fee a paradife of communion with the Lord in a wilderness, where fenfe can perceive nothing but prickling briers and thorns, 2 Cor. iv. 17. "Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

6. They differ in their confort and order. Faith is the leader, and sense the follower; faith is the duty, and fenfe the privilege connected with it: Eph. i. 12. 13. "After that ye believed, ye were fealed with the holy Spirit of promife." John xi. 40. "Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe thou fhouldft fee, the glory of God?" Faith is the work, and fenfe is the encouragement. This is God's order, which the legal heart would ay invert: we would be at the encouragement of faith, before we fet about the duty of believing; like Thomas, John xx. 25. "Except I thruft my hand into his fide, I will not believe." But let us remember what Chrift fays to him, " Bleffed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

Sense is hafty and precipitant in its judgement; but faith is patient, and waits till it fee the end. Senfe draws rafh and hafty conclufions when difficulties caft up: "I faid in my hafte, All men are liars: I said, I am caft out of thy fight." But faith waits till the other fide of the cloud caft up: "The Lord is a God of judgement (fays faith); and bleffed are all they that wait for him. The vifion is for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it, because it will furely come, it will not tarry;" hence, "He that believeth, fhall not make hafte." The Old Teftament faints waited about four thousand years for the coming of the promifed feed of the woman; and when they died, they died with the promise in their arms, waiting for the accomplishment, believing that he would come, and would

not

not tarry beyond the fulness of time: Heb. xi. 13. "Thefe all died in faith, not having received the promifes, but having feen them afar off, and were perfuaded of them, and embraced them."

8. A life of fenfe is dangerous, but a life of faith is fure and fafe. The danger of fenfe appears from the advantage that Satan took to ruin Adam and all his pofterity. Had our first parents lived in the steady faith of God's promise and threatening in the covenant of works, they had never eaten of the forbidden tree; but they walked by fight and fenfe: the fruit was beautiful to the eye, and pleasant to the taste; this made them the more eafily to liften to the hiffes of the old ferpent, faying, If ye eat, "ye fhall be as fhall be as gods, knowing good and evil;" and thus he prevailed. We fee, that when Paul was filled with fenfible manifeftations, being wrapt up to the third heaven, he was in danger of being lifted up with pride. But now, I fay, the life of faith is fafe and fure; and the rea fon is, because it will neither believe angels nor men, if their fay does not agree with what God fays in his word. It views things as they are laid in the revelation, and forms a judgement and estimate of things according to God's verdict of them: "To the law and to the teftimony (fays faith :) if they fpeak not according to God's oracles, it is because there is no truth in them." Hence faith has the moon under its feet: "This is the victory whereby we overcome the world, even our faith." Faith, by going this way to work, makes the foul like mount Zion, which cannot be removed for ever. "Believe in the Lord your God, fo fhall ye be established," fays the prophet unto trembling Ifrael.

9. Senfe has its only foundation and confidence within; it trades in the fhallow waters of created grace, experimental attainments, marks of grace, and the like: but faith has its foundation without the man, in Chrift, in God's covenant, in the great and precious promifes. While the mariner ftays in the fhallow waters, he is in continual fear of rocks and fandbanks; but when he has launched out into the deep waters, he is fafe. Faith trades in the deep waters of the fulness of the Godhead that dwells bodily in Chrift, " made of God unto us wifdom, righteousness, fanctification, and redemption;" and fo it gets above doubts and racking fears of fhipwreck: but it is (I fay) otherwise with sense; it deals with created grace, manifeftations, experiences, and attainments. And thus I have cleared in fome measure the difference between faith and sense. I go now to,

II. The fecond thing I propofed upon this exhortation, which was to prefs a life of faith upon believers by fome VOL. II.

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