doubting, yet true, Mark ix. 24. I believe; help thou mine unbelief. If the foul have as much faith of both, as to venture itself on Chrift, though the bride fign the contract with a trembling heart, though the doubting will never be commended, the fubfcription will be fuftained.

2. The perfonal object of faith is,

(1.) General, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, as we profefs in the creed, John xiv. 1. T believe in God, believe alfo in me.

(2.) Special; Jefus Chrift, as in the text. He is the object of faith as it faves and juftifies the finner, typified by the brazen ferpent in the wilderness, to which the wounded Ifraelites were to look, and the look was healing, John iii. 14. 15. And Christ's perfon is the primary object of justifying faith, Is. xlv. 22. Look unto me, and be ye faved, all the ends of the earth. And his benefits, merits, righteouf nefs, &c. are the fecondary object thereof, Phil, iii. 8. 9. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but lofs, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jefus my Lord: for whom I have fuffered the lofs of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Chrift, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Chrift, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

V. I proceed to confider the faving and juftifying acts of faith. These are,

1. Receiving him as he is offered in the gofpel, as in the text; cordially clofing with him, and heartily confenting to take him as he is offered. Hereby the fpiritual marriage-tie betwixt Chrift and the foul is made. Chrift gives his confent in the gofpel-offer, and the finner gives his by faith clofing with the offer. Now he is offered in the gofpel in all his offices. So faith is a receiving of Chrift.

(1.) As a Prophet to be our Teacher, Guide,

and Leader, renouncing our own wifdom, Matth.. xvii. 5.

(2.) As a Prieft, renouncing all merit and conf dence in one's felf, duties, and fufferings, and betaking one's felf to Chrift, his obedience and death, for all, If. xlv. 24. Surely fhall one fay, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.

(3) As a King, renouncing all ftrange lords, and receiving him for abfolute Governor in the foul and over the whole man, yielding to bear the yoke of his commands, and the yoke of his crofs. I xxvi. 13. O Lord our God, fays the church, other lords befides thee have had dominion over us: but l thee only will we make mention of thy name.

2. Refting on him as he is offered in all his offices too, If. xxvi. 3. 4. Thou wilt keep him in perfecs peace, whofe mind is ftayed on thee: because he tru eth in thee. Truft ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. 2 Chron. xvi. 3. Thou didst rely on the Lord. The foul has a bufden of weakness and ignorance, and therefore ref on him as a Prophet; a burden of guilt, but re on him as a Priest, laying the weight on his blood; a burden of ftrong lufts and temptations, but reit. on him as a King.

This receiving and refting has a moft fpecial ey to the prieftly office of Chrift, faith in his bioo It is a looking to him as lifted up on the crofs, xlv. 22. eating of his fleth and drinking of h blood, John vi. 53. and fubmitting to his rigi teoufnefs, Rom, x. 3. * This receiving and refil upon Chrift for falvation is in may places call believing in or trufting on Chrift as our Saviour

See the nature and acts of faith more largely opened and luftrated in the author's View of the covenant of grace, head The way of inflating finners perjonally and favingly in the covena of grace.!

Now, in order to illuftrate the nature of faith, confidered believing in or trusting on God, and the way of a finner's ja

VI. I am to fhew what is the end of thefe acts of faith. It is for falvation, Chrift's whole falvation.

cation in his fight, it may not be improper to infert here the two following notes on Gen. xv. 6. And he believed in the Lord; and be counted it to him for righteousness, taken from the author's manufcript work on the first twenty-three chapters of Genefis, above referred to, p. 232.

1

"Now he trusted, in Jehovah: i. e. Now Abram trusted in Jehovah (who was the Lord promifing, as well as the Lord promifed), not only believing his word ipoken to him at this and other times; but also refting in him, and relying upon him, for all contained in the promife, and efpecially the falvation of the Meffias, which was the chief thing in it. The whole verfe is a parenthefis, in which Mofes occafionally fhews how Abram entertained the promise, from the first time it was made to him. Now, faith he, Abram trufted, in Jehovah, viz. all along, and fo at this time. Rom. iv. 3. Gr. For, what faith the fcripture? Now Abraham believed God. Jam. ii. 2. And the fcripture was fulfilled, which faith, Now Abraham believed God. Comp. the preceding and following verfe of this chapter. This is the first place, wherein faith is exprefsly fpoken of. V'he'nin, And he trufted. The formal fignification of H'min is to truft: for fo it may be rendered every where; and fo our tranflators do render it, Judg. xi. zo. Job iv. 18. xv. 15. 31. & xxiv. 22. marg. Mic. vii. 5. All believing is trufting; but all trufting is not believing, as will appear anon. Accordingly H'min is more extenfive than believing: for the object of it is a thing; as well as a rational agent, the only proper object of believing. Thus wonderful works, Pial. lxxviii. 32. one's life, Deut. xxviii. 66. & Job xxiv. 32. and a beast, Job xxxix. 12. are, by this word, faid to be trusted in, which cannot well be faid to be believed in. The conftruction of the word natively leads to this notion of it. 'Tis ordinarily conftructed with to, as Gen. xlv. 26. He trusted not, to them; or, in, as here, He trufied, in Jehovah : fometimes with a noun fimply, and an infinitive, as Judg. xi. 20. Sibon trufted not even Ifrael, to pass in his bounds. And finally as H'min, Emeth, Omnah, Emun, &c. are akin, as branches of one root; fol are the words, he tripled, truth, a truth, trueness, &c. aufwering unto them, in our language. The Greek is tuw, in the New-Tettamentale of it, is of the fame import, fignifying to truft; for fo it may be rendered every where; and to it must be rendered in feveral texts, as John ii. 24. Jefus did not trust himself to them. Rom. iii. 2. They were trifted the oracles of God, i. e. trufted with them. So 1 Cor. ix. 17. 11 heff. ii. 4. 1 Tim. i. 11. How H'min, being in Hiphil, comes to fignify to trufi, is beft accounted for by allowing the phrafeology to be elliptical, the conjugate noun being understood. So it is .d. H'min'emunah, He trufted a truft, or trufting and the fenfe of that is, He exercifed truft or faith, as to plant forth plant, and

(1.) Salvation from fin, Matth. i. 21. He fall Jave his people from their fins. (2.) From wrath,

to feed feed, Gen. i. 11. is to bring forth plant, and feed, or to, yield them. The ellipfis of the conjugate noun is ufual, as in Hizriang, Hikil, &c. chap. iii. 6.: and of it there is a double indication in this text. One is the pointing of this word with a diftinctive. Comp. 1 Kings xxi. 14. They fent forth (fup. a mefien ger) unto Jezebel. If. i. 17. Plead, (fup. the plea) of the widow. The other is the pronoun it, in the latter hemiftich, which relates to truft or faith. Now, to truft to is to believe and accordingly the object of it is always a perfon, as chap. xlv. 26. forecited; or elfe a word, as Kings x. 7. I trufted not to the speeches. If. liii. 1. Who bath trufted, to our hearing, i. e. word heard: the which comes all to one; the word or Speech being always pronounced by a perfon, and the perfon believed in refpect of his word. To truft in, is not only to believe a competent object; but to rest in and rely upon, the perfon, word, or thing trufted, as firm and fure, for the effect for which he or it is trufted. Thus Achifh trufted in David, 1 Sam. xxvii. 12. (not only believing his word, ver. 10, but refting and relying on him, as one trufteth in a friend, Mic. vii. 5.), faying, He hath made his people Ifrael utterly to abbor him, therefore he shall be my fervant for ever. So the people brought through the Red fea, trufted in Mofes, Exod. xiv. ult. relying on, and committing themselves to, his conduct: And on the fame occafion, they trufted in God's Speeches, Pfal. cvi. 12. relying on them with confidence. And thus the unicorn cannot be trufted in (i. e. relied upon) for bringing home one's feed, Job xxxix. 12. That the apoftles, Paul and James, in the paffages above cited, retain the Seventy's reading of this text, Now Abraham trufted to God, will not evince a perfect identity of the phrafes trufting to, and trusting in God; fince it is undeniable, that the infpired penmen, in many paffages of the Old Teftament, adduced by them in the New, do not act the part of rigid tranflators: but it will evince them to be one in effect. From what is faid, it appears, that, according to the fcripture-phrafeology, or language of the Holy Ghoft, (1.) The nature of faith in general lies, in trufting, trufting a perfon, word, or thing. (2.) The nature of faving faith, lies in trafting, that is, refting in, and relying upon, the perfon, verd, and thing (propofed to it in the promise) as firm and fure, for the effect for which it is trufted. (3.) Trusting in the Lord is by the appointment of God, and the nature of the thing, neceffarily connected with trusting to him; comp. If. liii. 1. John iii, ult. (4.) It is not by the habit, but by an act of faith, a finner is juftified.

And be reckoned it to him, righteoufnefs. i. e. And God, even Jehovah the Son (fee the note above, p. 234. fig. (1.), in whom Abram trusted (hem. 1.), did treat that act of faith or truft in him, which Abrain exerted, as if it had been fulfilling of the law, in

1 Theff. i. ult. which delivereth us from the wrath to
come; from the guilt, defilement, dominion, and

which one could ftand righteous before him, reputing and counting
it to him for that effect, and juftifying him, thereupon, in his
fight. Vajjabb 'Sch'bheba, And he reckoned it. Of Hbafchab, to
reckon. Accordingly Hkifchfcheb (Pih.) is fully to reckon, as Lev.
xxv. 50. Pfal. cxliv. 3. fon. i. 4. and Hithhhafchfcheb (Hithp.) only
once occurring, doth manifeftly fignify to reckon one's felf, Num.
xxiii. 9. Behold a people.... in (i. e. among) the nations, shall not
reckon itself; i. e. a people which, &c. This word is used, (1.)
For counting and reckoning, as in matters of money, 2 Kings
xxii. 7. It would not have been reckoned with them; the filver.
Lev. xxv. 50. And he shall fully reckon, with his acquirer. (2.)
For reputing or counting, as the Latin habeo, duco, as Neh. xiii. 13.
They were reckoned faithful. (3.) For regarding, prizing, making
a valuable account of a perfon or thing. So 'tis used If. ii. 22.
xiii. 17. xxxiii. 8. & liii. 3. Thus reckoners of his name, Mal. iii.
16. are thofe who valued and made a becoming account of it.
(4.) For judging, thinking, or accounting fo and fo of a thing, as
If. x. 7. His heart will not fo reckon, viz. that he is the rod, staff,
and fent, of God, ver. 5. 6.; concluding concerning it, as Jon.
i. 4. It fully reckoned; for to be broken, i. e, fully laid its account
therewith. All these agree in the common notion of reckoning,
which speaks a view of a thing in feveral particulars, and a practi
cal judgement formed thereupon. And hence, I think, it is that
the word is ufed, (5.) For contriving or devifing, as artists do a
piece of work, as Amos vi. 5. They have reckoned (i. e. devised) to
them, inftruments of fong. Tz'dakab, righteousness. Tzedek and
Tz'dakah are both immediately derived from Tzadak (Kal), of
which fee the note, above, p. 232. and accordingly fignify righ
teousness: but with this difference, that Tz'dakah founds an acting,
as, if one might fay, righteoufing; Tzedek, a quality, the princi
ple or refult of the former. Hence expound Deut. xxiv. 13. To
thee it shall be righteousness (Tz'dakah), i. e. a doing or acting
righteously, a righteous action, a good work, a conforming to the
law. An evidence of this difference is, that Tz'dakah is often used
in the plural number; but Tzedek is never. For the former points
at a thing, under the notion of a righteous action, or good work,
of which kind there are many; but the latter, at a thing, under
the notion of a quality, viz. righteousness, which is but one, what-
ever be the number of the actions which it refults from, or is pro-
ductive of. Thus Judg. v. 11. The righteoufneffes of Jehovah, are
his righteous acts or works. If. lxiv. 5. All our righteousnesses are
filthy rags, i. e. our good works have been as filthy rags, So If.
xlv. 24. Only in Jehovah, to me be Jaid, [are] righteoufneffes and
firength; i.e. Only in Jefus Chrift are good works, that will answer
the demands of the law. Howbeit, the word is thus taken objec

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