119 deduceth his exhortation from, is a most awful instance; the instance of the people of Israel in the wilderness. Take notice of the passage, and of the Spirit of God's using it. God had said to Moses, that, at the appointed time, he would bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. He appeared with them, and for them, in ten great wonders and miracles, that they might know his calling to be of God, and his message from God. The people believe at last; they believe that God had a good mind towards them, and would bring them into the land of Canaan, according to his promise; but when they are a little way got through the Red-sea, difficulties meet them, unbelief arises, and they hardened their hearts, and tempted God; from whence we may observe, How long, says the Lord, refuse ye to keep my commandments, and my laws? That which they were bound to believe, was this, That God meant well and honestly with them in the promise of bringing them to the land of Canaan; and because they did not believe it, God sware, that not one of them from twenty years old should enter into it. Upon this instance the apostle makes his exhortation: Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should come short of it. Alas! the rest we are called to, is a far greater rest than the rest of Canaan, the promise is a promise more sure. Ay, but says the apostle, Let us fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it, lest we should fall after the same example of unbelief, as he has it in ver. 11. The case then, as to us, is this, The Lord hath proclaimed to us in the gospel, his good-will in high and great promises, to save us by Jesus Christ. He proclaims it thus, that whosoever will trust him, and take his promise, shall certainly come to heaven. There are some of the children of men, whom God hath a mind to bring to heaven, and a great many others have the promise in their hand, as well as they, but have not faith in their hearts; they let the promise slip, and the promise lets them slip; and, if I may so speak, to hell they fall; but there is no fault in the promise, it is because they do not build upon it.

Some may say, "I am not qualified for the promise, I am "not so good as I should be." Answer, Are you qualified

have a

for hell or no? No man shall be in heaven but he that sees himself fully qualified for hell, as a faggot that is bound up for eternal burnings, unless mercy pluck the brand out of the fire. Instead of these objections, I will tell you better, 1. What think you? Is Christ a fit Saviour for you? Christ is exactly shapen, as fit for a sinner as possibly he can be. God, in making and framing his Son for a Saviour, consulted to make him as fit to be a Saviour for sinners, as divine wisdom could make him. 2. Ask this question, whether there be no promise in the new covenant that looks towards you? Are there no streams in this great well of salvation? Yes, surely, the covenant streams out towards thee. Pray now can you find nothing in the promise of the new covenant that suits you exactly? I will pour clean water upon you: who needs this more than the filthy? From all their iniquities will I cleanse them. I will take away the heart of stone, &c. If you heart of stone, your cure is in the covenant. My meaning is, that you, feeling the heart of stone, may plead this promise. I know no body that hath a hard heart can plead this promise; they that have a truly hard heart, think nothing ails them. 3. The third question you should ask yourselves is this, Whether there is any trust in your heart working towards God? Shall all the promises of the gospel be proclaimed to men every day, and no thoughts of trusting in him arise? That he is a faithful speaker, is plain; therefore his message should be received. The mystery of saving particular persons by the application of divine grace, is greater than any can fathom, with respect to themselves, but more or less they can search it with respect to others. All the faith that ever was wrought in the hearts of believers, to make unbelievers believers, and make believers better believers, was evermore wrought by the appearance of divine faithfulness in the promise. The better you know the promise, the better believers you will be; therefore make conscience of this. Think that your eternal state depends upon this, how the gospel hath been received by faith. Secure sinners find no difficulty in believing, but poor awakened sinners find it the greatest difficulty in the world. A natural man finds no difficulty in believing, because he is pot concerned about salvation; a poor awakened sinner finds

mise.

it a hard matter to believe, because he is deeply concerned about salvation. Nothing can save us but only the bare proThis promise can save no man till it hath laid hold on him, and till it hath put forth its power upon him. It usually appears but a weak and slender thing for a man to trust his all upon. How slightly do unbelievers think of the promise of God? There is not an ungodly man in the world, but he reckons a rich man's promise to provide for him in this world, is a great deal better than all the promises in the Bible. But this is a sign the poor creature hath no true faith in a faithful God, whatever false trust he may have in man, who is not only a liar, Rom. iii. 4, but a lie, Psalm lxii. 9.

SERMON X.

HEBREWS X. 23.

For he is faithful that promised.

LITTLE do many people know, that daily hear the gospel,

what the gospel is, and what hearing of it should be. The gospel is a divine proclamation of God's good-will towards perishing sinners, delivered to us in many words in the scriptures. The sum of it is in this offer, That whosoever they be, and whatever they have been, that are content to take Christ for their guide, and his fulness and grace for their stock, and God's faithful promise for their security, as sure as God lives they shall be saved for ever. This is the gospel which is preached in many forms of words, but the substance is the same. How many are they that do not know what they are doing when they hear? It is a proclamation that is either received to God's highest praise by faith, or is rejected to his greatest dishonour, and to mens most certain ruin. It is the Lord's great wisdom that the gospel should be preached, and that it should be preached by men, by sinful men that are believers themselves; and they should recommend the same way of salvation to the faith of others, that they have taken to themselves.

Upon these words you know that I have spoken several times concerning the promising God, his faithfulness in his promises, and the duty of his people to answer his faithfulness by their faith. The last day I proposed the application of this whole matter in three exhortations, and spake unto the first last day; I shall now add a little more, and proceed.

1. The first exhortation was to this duty, That you should all answer the faithfulness of God in the great promise of salvation by Jesus Christ in the gospel; for in a manner this is the promise that faith first meets with, and first fixes on; faith is begotten by it, and faith receives the new life in it, and by it.

2. The second exhortation is, That believers must answer the faithfulness of this promising God, in the expecting of all good by the way.

3. That believers should answer the faithfulness of God, in a firm expectation of the inheritance at last.

1

Of the first of these I spoke some time last day, and shewed you, (1.) What the nature of this promise of salvation is, that our faith first should take hold of. (2.) Wherein the answering of faith to the faithfulness of God does consist. 1st, In believing the truth of the gospel-record and report, that there is life in Christ for men. 2dly, It is a believing of the truth and sincerity of God in the offer of it. 3dly, A believing that there is now no impediment on God's part, or on ours,. that shall hinder the partaking of the blessing promised, if we will be willing to trust. The last is, by venturing our eternal salvation upon it; that is believing, taking up, taking in the truth of the gospel-promise of salvation by Christ, that the heart is resolved here to settle, and here to adventure its all. Lord, to whom shall we go? says Peter; thou hast the words of eternal life: we will lodge our eternal life on thee, and upon thy word; no where else can we find them, and they are sufficiently with thee for our trust; for we believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God, John vi. 69. The only thing I would do, before I leave this first exhortation, shall be a little more fully to bring this matter near to your conscience, searching and trying of you, whether you have given this faithfulness of God a meeting; the question

is a question of the greatest importance. All things else, that you may be concerned about, and there are a great many other things that people may lawfully be concerned about under the gospel; all things else, I say, are either trifles in themselves in regard to this, or very unreasonably started, till this grand question be determined, Have I entertained God's offer and promise of eternal life by Christ Jesus with true faith or no? The importance is obvious, for our eternal salvation stands upon it. The question is not only important, but it seems easily resolved, it seems to be a great deal harder one way to conceive how a believer should be ignorant of his believing, than how it should be that he should know it: though I do acknowledge that many believers are ignorant that they are believers. The apostle's word puts it out of question, 1 John v. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God; that is, that ye may believe better, that ye may know ye believed, and that ye may know what ye have in and by believing. The apostle seems to speak of it as a matter of wonder that people should not know it. Examine yourselves, whether ye in the faith; prove your ownselves; know ye not your ownselves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Only now a few things concerning this matter, that will make it on a little inquiry appear at least to be easily resolved.

be

1. The greatness of the matter intrusted in this believing. The more considerable the matter of trust is, the better people usually know where they trust it, and when they trust it. If a man trust his wife and children, his estate, his house, and all his business, he knows very well when he trusts that which is so dear to him; but, alas! a great, many never knew they had souls, the preciousness of their immortal souls was never felt by them; these folks can never trust, or know whom they

trust.

2. The party trusted is one, one only. When our trust is scattered, as it were, people may forget where one part of it is lodged, and where another part; but where it is all unitedly centered in one hand, why should people not know where it is? I know, says the apostle, whom I have believed, 2 Tim.