possible any discovery could have carried more conviclive evidence with it than that did. This now was the thing to be believed concerning this Jesus. But then, you will say, (2.) What doth the believing of this import? What is it to believe it, so as to give a ground for this affirmation concerning the belief of it, that he is born of God? Why, for this it is plain, in the First place, this believing that Jesus is Christ must carry with it an understanding and a judicious assent of the truth of the affirmation that so he is; that he is indeed the Christ. An understanding and judicious assent: it cannot be less. Faith concerning this so important a thing is not the act of a fool, it must be an act suitable to an intelligent, apprehensive mind; and therefore if this be not assented to with the understanding and judgment, it is as if it were not assented to at all. To assent to this, understandingly and with judgment, is to apprehend some valid and sufficient ground upon which it is to be assented to. I pray consider this well; ungrounded faith is no faith: if there be never so clear and demonstrative ground upon which this truth is in itself founded, that Jesus is the Christ; if it be not at all apprehended by me, if I believe this at random, if men will call that believing when I believe and I cannot tell why, and I care not why, I believe as a matter of common hearsay or of uncertain report, I take it up from the people amongst whom I live. Such an ungrounded faith as this is a nullity, a perfect nullity, it goes for nothing; it is not believing, it is but a hovering, fluttering opination, a vague opinion only I met with by chance, a thing that falls in my way; my religion, as I am a Christian, is to me a casualty. I am a Christian, but upon the same terms upon which they who live in the same country are Mahometans; and of the Jews, where they are of the Jewish faith, or infidelity rather. And this is all that the most have to say for their being Christians: that religion which was the religion of my forefathers, which is the religion of the country where I live, which is the religion established by law, which is the religion that most suits my external conveniences to profess. could not commodiously (it may be not safely) live in the country where I live, save on this profession, and not continuing this profession. That which is the ground of the belief of the most that go under the name of Christians, is but just the same, mutatis mutandis, that is the ground of their faith and religion who inhabit the pagan world, in all the most dark and dismal quarters of it; they take their faith the same way. The Mahomedans, though less gross pagans, take up their faith the same way. And so have the Jews done their faith the same way ever since Judaism came to be opposed to Christianity: therefore there must be some great flaw in this matter. without effect. Both ways faith may be vain. Wher I believe a thing without any ground, or without any proportionate ground, that is, I believe a divine truth, but with no divine faith, or not relying in my belief upon a divine testimony, which is the thing that specifically distinguisheth divine faith from human faith. The faith is as the ground of it is. If my faith rest upon a human testimony, it is a human faith; if it rest upon a divine ground, then it is a divine faith, and the efficacy of it is proportionable to the ground of it. Do but observe that, I Thess. ii. 13. the apostle gives thanks for those Thessalonians, "that they received the Gospel not as the word of man, but as it is indeed the word of God, which effectually works in them that believe." We can never believe aright that Jesus is the Christ, but as taking it upon the authority of a divine testimony. "He that believeth not hath made God a liar, because he believeth not the record he hath given of his Son." Why do I believe Jesus to be the Christ? because the eternal God hath given his testimony concerning him that so he is. This never enters into the minds of the most. They never consider who testifies this; only this is a common opinion, and they have happened upon it. But a testimony from heaven concerning him, hath averred and affirmed him to be the Christ, is that which must take hold of men's souls, and come with power upon them, if ever they do in truth believe that Jesus is the Christ. A man's believing comes all to nothing without this, that there is a divine testimony. But how such a divine testimony is to be evidenced to be divine, or may appear to be so, will be matter of after-consideration, as that also will, what r imported in being born of God. Such a faith as the Gospel requires, and challenges to this truth, that Jesus is the Christ, it carries that mighty and marvellous power along with it as to transform a man's soul, to make him a new man. Any man that pretends to this faith, he is but just as he was before; the same man that he was, as vain, as earthly, as carnal, as strange to God, he lives at the same rate of ungodliness that formerly he did, or that other men actually do; for this man to pretend he believes that Jesus is the Christ, it is a pretence that carries its own confutation and shame in it. He that understandingly believes Jesus to be the Christ, to wit, that understands why he believes it, and what this Christ was appointed for, to reconcile, to reduce us, and bring us back to God, to entitle to the divine favour, and to engage us in the divine communion; such a man as doth in good earnest believe this, is quite another man, as if he were but new born. Here is a creature produced that was not before; it is as if you were newly come into the world, and into being. If you do sincerely and truly believe that Jesus is the Christ, it is a thing that speaks you just new born; that is, you are born quite another creature; Most certain it is, that such grounds as do equally serve as we shall have occasion further to show. "Old things to infer falsehood and truth must be in themselves false. are done away, and all things are become new." This From truth nothing but truth can follow; but from false- faith cannot be unaccompanied with such an impression hood sometimes that which is true, and sometimes that on the soul, that makes a man a godlike creature in comwhich is false (as circumstances may be varied) will fol-parison to what he was before; for every one that is born low. And it is plain, that from this ground a falsehood doth follow many times and often, yea oftener than truth. To wit, when the ground is that my religion is descended from my ancestors, it is the religion of the country where I live, it is established by law, it makes for my convenien-produced, that intimates God, that resembles God, in whom cy to be of this religion, it would be a great prejudice or reproach to me not to be of it, or profess the contrary. These grounds will as well infer a falsehood, as they happen to do truth in the present case, because they are common grounds upon which all the mistaken and false religions in the world are equally founded as well as the true. But then if the matter be so, see what you are to account or reckon concerning such an ungrounded faith, be the matter of it what it will; if the grounds of it be false and wrong it is vain faith, as it is intimated by the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 1, 2. "I declare unto you the Gospel which ve have believed, which you have received, which hath been preached to you, and wherein you stand, and by which also you shall be saved, if you keep in the way that I have preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain." The Greek word there used signifies sometimes temere; sometimes frustra; when it signifies the former, it is believed without ground; when it signifies the latter, it is believing of God is like God by that very birth. It is true, that a the Christ, who doth not appear to be born of God, doth | one, that is, that one and the same person was to be born not appear to be of a heavenly descent or birth, you may as well say such a one is a star, or an angel, as a believer. A believer, and one born of God, are expressions that do signify alternately one another as broad as long; so that every believer is born of God, and that every one that is born of God is a believer. SERMON XXXIX.* 1 John v. 1. a child, and to be the mighty God. Isaiah ix. 6. "To us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and he shall be called Wonderful, The mighty God, The everlasting Father." In reference to us, he fitly hath that title too. Not in reference to the Trinity, but in reference to us. His divine original was plainly there presignified to us, as in other texts of the Old Testament. "The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand." And the land which he had a more peculiar relation to, called "Emmanuel's land, God with us." That his goings forth are said to be "from everlasting," even his, who was to be born at Bethlehem, Mic. v. 2. Many most circumstantial things, as well as those great and substantial ones, were predicted and foretold; the punctual correspondence whereunto of the event did most plainly declare the divinity of the tes Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. timony. That is, that those were most divinely inspired I HAVE spoken to the general ground of this believing Jesus to be the Christ, to wit, upon that testimony which God hath given concerning him, that so he is. But then there are many subservient grounds which have that use to notify us to the divinity of this revelation, or of this record; or whereupon we have reason to judge the testimony divine. And they are such as these: prophets, who could at so vast a distance of time testify such and such things concerning him. Well might the Spirit of prophecy, working in those prophets, be called the testimony of Jesus. As when the parting of his garments by lot, before spoken of, the piercing of his hands and feet, the giving him gall and vinegar to drink, with many more such things; and that he should be born at Bethlehem, when, as that was a casualty, humanly speaking it was no more than so, his mother being surprised upon a journey, and passing through that place. But these things I must not insist upon. [1] The many prophecies that went before of him. The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy, Rev. xix. 10. God speaking by the mouth of all his prophets (as if all had [2] It speaks the divinity of that testimony given conbut one mouth) concerning his Christ; so conscient and cerning him, that he entered in so extraordinary a way agreeing was their testimony, though in several successive into this world. I may in the highest sense say, that he ages. Of him bear all the prophets witness," Acts x. 43. had so illustrious a birth. Illustrious, not by any thing "And which of the prophets have not your fathers perse- of lustre derived and borrowed from this earth; that was cuted? And they have slain them which showed before of too mean a thing to make his birth illustrious; but as he the coming of the Just One;" as dying Stephen speaks, was of heavenly descent, the illustriousness of it was by Acts vii. 52. It would be a long business, and (I hope) a light and glory which did accompany it from heaven. among you not necessary, to recite all the prophecies, more His birth was not signalized by the state and pomp of ancient and more late, which were in the several ages given embassies from the courts of we know not how many concerning Christ before he came. He refers himself to princes; but by the descent of multitudes of glorious all the Scriptures that were then in his time extant, to wit, angels, proclaiming it as "glad tiding of great joy" which those of the Old Testament, and those particularly of should be to all people; and an extraordinary star, which Moses. "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think to signalized this, and which was the guide to those wise have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me," sages who by special divine instinct came to do a hoJohn v. 39. He must refer there principally to the pro- mage to him, not without a secret signification of that phetical writings contained in those writings. And he after-right he was to have in the remotest parts of the world, wards runs back as high as Moses, the peninan of the first and all the world over. They came from far to pay that sacred writings. Moses (saith he) wrote of me, verse 46. homage, and to signify that his dominion should be far But if ye will not believe Moses' writings, how will you and near. And, believe my words? Great prophecies there were concern- [3.] His most divine and heavenly doctrine was might ing him, even in the writings of Moses; and he wrote of ily subsidiary unto this record of God concerning him, times far back, even from the beginning, for he spake of that he was the Christ and his own Son; for how did he 2000 years and upwards, that the seed of the woman should often, when he spake, transport his hearers! How were break the serpent's head; a plain prophecy concerning this they astonished sometimes at his doctrine, (as Matthew same Jesus, and that he was to be the Christ. That the vii. latter end,) for there were such characters did attend sceptre should not depart from Judah till Shiloh should it as manifestly did distinguish it. He taught them as one come; and that to him the gathering of the people should having authority, and not as the scribes, though they were be. And how many express prophecies do you find con-authorized teachers among that people too. The ear that cerning him afterwards in the books of the Psalmists. heard him blessed him, and the eye that saw him bare wit"Why do the heathen rage?" The most express quota-ness to him. You find, Luke iv. 17. that when he had tion that we have out of the Old Testament, that we have any where in the New, as to what afterwards follows in that Psalm, the apostle, Acts xiii. quotes particularly the second Psalm, saying, concerning this his Christ, against whom the heathen did rage, even as they did against the Father; "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.' The things that were said of him after he did come, to wit, that he was Lord of all. This was predicted and foretold concerning him so long before, that the heathen, and all the ends of the earth, should lie within the compass of his vast territory and dominion. Too great indeed to be called a territory for all power was given him in heaven and in earth. He is Lord of all. It would be endless to recite all the passages to you which have this manifest application. It was foretold concerning him by the prophets, that two natures were to meet in his person. An admirable discovery, and a most express and plain Preached March 13th, 1693. pitched upon a text in one of the synagogues, to wit, that of Isaiah lxi. 1. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor;" when he came to dilate upon that subject, all the assembly are amazed, wondering at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. And when the officers are sent to apprehend him, and bring him before the judicature at Jerusalem, they come back confounded men, without their errand's end; they are examined, and inquired why they had not brought him? say they, "Never man spake as this man; a divine person, we dare rot touch him, we dare lay no hand upon so sacred a one as he appears to be." And, [4] The wonderful works, which, through the whole course of his ministration, after he began, he continually did to testify and bear witness to the truth of what he repeatedly affirmed concerning himself, that he was Christ. When John's disciples were sent to him (not for John's sake, but their own) to know, "Art thou he that shall come, or shall we look for another ?" (Matt. xi. 3.) he gives them an answer from what they might see and hear, Go and tell John the things that ye see and hear; (that is ;) The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who shall not be offended in me." Implying all this to be a sufficient testification who he was. And those words, (though they are mild and soft, and palmy and pleasant,)"Blessed is he that is not offended in me," yet they carry a sting in them-they breathe terror too; for this plain intimation is carried in them, "Wo to him that is offended when so clear light shines, when there is so plain and manifest a discovery who I am: fearful is the case of that man who stumbles, takes offence, and cannot see when so bright light shines upon him, revealing me." Unto these words of his he makes his frequent appeal, in his many conflicts with the Jews, when they charge him with the solitariness of his testimony. "Thou bearest witness of thyself, thy witness is not true." That he disclaims; though justly tells them too, that if he did bear witness of himself, yet his witness was true. But he did not bear witness of himself singly and alone; "My Father beareth witness of me, and the works that I do they bear witness of me." And he returns it upon them, "If another comes in his own name, him will ye believe: I come in my Father's name, and ye will not receive me," John v. 43. [5] The express vocal testimony (besides that stated one that we have in the sacred records) given again and again from heaven concerning him, at three noted times, his birth, his baptism, and his transfiguration. At his birth, by the embassy of angels, of which you have heard so much already; at his baptism, when the Holy Ghost descended as a dove lighting upon him, and that voice was heard, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." To be that Son of God and the Christ, (as the case is stated,) you have heard, must signify the same thing. They are put together often, "Christ the Son of the living God," Matt. xvi. 16. "Christ, the Son of God," Mark i. I. That being the great question of that time. He avowing himself to be the Son of God; they charging him, who were his enemies, to be a deceiver and impostor: when that point indeed was gained, that he was the Son of God, no deceiver, no impostor, that must consequently include necessarily that he was the Christ; because that he always testified concerning himself. And if he were the Son of God, he could not be the author of a false testimony, or of an injurious usurpation of a dignity and office that belonged not to him. And at his transfiguration, how solemn and how glorious was the vocal testimony from heaven concerning him, when he took up, not all the disciples, but a competent number, (in common human estimate two or three being sufficient to prove the truth of a matter of fact in such a case,) he takes such a number as might certify the rest, and so publish the whole business to the world, when it should be seasonable and consistent with the design of such a manifestation as that was. When he had Peter, James, and John with him in the mount, where he was transfigured before them; and then, as the apostle Peter (who was one of the number, and an eye-witness) doth himself testify, 2 Pet. i. 17. and tells us what he had seen with his own eyes, and heard with his own ears. Many of you may remember I insisted largely heretofore upon that context. "We have not followed (saith he) cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty; for he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came to him such a voice from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." What place could there be left for reasonable doubt, whether God did not sufficiently own this Jesus to be the Christ, when there came "such a voice from the excellent glory" concerning him, to this same purpose, notified and testified as any matter of fact ought to be. And then, [6.] His most amazing death, with so tremendous circumstances as the Gospel reports it; such as that, though he could not be brought to it but by consent, till he was pleased in order thereunto to retract the glorious beams of his Majesty, that they might not withhold and frighten those, that were to be the executioners of that horrid tragedy, from doing the thing itself which the hand and counsel of God had determined should be done. He is therefore said not to have his life taken from him; to wit, whether he would or no, but "he laid it down." There must be consent in the case; otherwise, had he let out those beams of majesty continually that shone so illustriously in him, even in the very confines of that hour and power of darkness that was coming upon him, they had not dared to do it. You see that the assassinates, that they are even at the first attack beaten aback by those appearances of him, those characters of divinity, that some way or other appeared, and their own dread, that they fall flat to the ground; so that he is constrained to veil himself, and draw some kind of cloud over that glory, that they might not be withheld from going on; though it was a thing that he must spontaneously yield to, or it could not have been done. But when he did yield to it, and it was done, with what amazing circumstances was it attended, that all might know how extraordinary a person he was! Immediately the sun withdraws his head. Such an eclipse ensues, the like whereof was never know in the world besides; and of which some noted pagan writers give an account with wonder. The powers of heaven are shaken, so as that from that great pagan these words were extorted, "That either the God of nature suffered, or the whole frame of things is suffering a dissolution." The earth is shaken and torn; the graves are opened, and the dead arise, many of them, and go into the holy city. The Roman centurion, a pagan, (who was by office to superintend the execution,) upon the sight of all this, gives him the cause against the assassinates and murderers; to wit, that whereas this was the question, Is he a deceiver, or is he the Son of God? This was the question on which he died. He gives him the cause, saying, "Verily this is the Son of God.", He speaks it in reference to the controversy then agitated and on the stage. What is this man, that here is dying, affixed to this cross? Was he what the Jews averred him to be? or was he what he averred himself to be? Why that is decided on his side by this impartial pagan. And, [7.] His glorious resurrection, by which he was declared to be the Son of God with power, and that upon which the stress of the whole cause was all along after laid. And it was the whole business of the apostleship to bear witness to his resurrection. They were twelve of them. A sufficient number to testify that they had often seen him when arisen. The highest testimony that God could from heaven have given concerning him; that when he died under that false and malicious imputation, as a deceiver and blasphemer, that Heaven might own him to be what he said he was. Though it was necessary he should be permitted to die, yet he recovers, and is raised up from the dead, and made a glorious triumph over death; the pangs whereof it was impossible should hold him, and therefore they are loosed; the pangs and bonds of it could hold him no longer. And, [8.] The wonderful fortitude and boldness wherewith his inspired disciples and apostles did testify concerning his resurrection afterwards, and that he was the Christ. That was the business of the apostolical office, to bear witness to his resurrection; Matthias was chosen to fill up the number, and join with the rest to bear witness to the resurrection of our Lord, that all the world that way might know who and what he was. With great boldness did the apostles bear witness to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and a divine presence was with them herein. They testified it from time to time, even to the very faces of those powers under which he suffered; by whose instigation, at least, if not by their authority. The sanhedrim, the Jewish magistracy, could not put a man to death at that time, they being wholly under the Roman power. But they were the instigators; and yet from time to time, to their very faces, do these poor illiterate men testify, that God had raised him from the dead whom ye have crucified, and him of whom ye were the betrayers and murderers. And this was the thing that stung them and cut them to the heart. You think to bring this man's blood upon us. But that they never spared to do. A most divine fortitude. That to the face of these powers, by whom such things were acted against our Lord, these men should, at the utmost peril of their own lives, so oppose themselves and their testimony, who but a little before did creep and sneak to the denial of our Lord, as you know Peter himself did. Before he was crucified, he did not know the man; afterwards he tells the greatest of them to their faces, You have been his betrayers and murderers. And, [9.] The terrible vengeance that hath followed hereupon, upon the nation of the Jews. A mighty subsidiary testimony. "Your house is left unto you desolate." Our Lord foretold them how it would be. "Not one stone should be left upon another, even as to their temple, (the thing wherein they so much gloried,) that should not be thrown down." He weeps over self-desolating Jerusalem. "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,' when he saw the calamity that was coming; but it came, and not a tittle failed of what was foretold, and according to what the prophets of old did foretell. "My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations," Hosea ix. 17. That people, while they are yet in being in that scattered dispersed state, (wherein the world knows they are unto this day,) are a perpetual testimony, throughout all succeeding ages, of the truth of that Gospel and Christianity which they with so horrid malignity opposed themselves unto. And, SERMON XL.* 1 John v. 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. WE have gone on to show, what the believing Jesus to be the Son of God is. And so much having been said concerning the grounds, both principal and subservient, of this belief, I shall superadd hereunto in the Second place, what I reckon is not less necessary concerning the properties of it, that you may the more distinctly understand what sort of relief this must be that is to be given unto so great and important a truth, Jesus is the Christ. And I shall so state the properties of this belief as that they may visibly stand in that opposition wherein is requisite they should be set, to that common false belief which multitudes do satisfy and deceive themselves by at once to their destruction. You may, eadem opera, by the same cast of your eye discern the properties of that common false belief, and of that sincere faith concerning this truth, that the one may be avoided and declined, and the other may be aimed at with a restless endeavour and pursuit; so as that none may satisfy themselves till they can say, I find the belief of this great truth hath now its place in my soul, which will be finally saving to it. [10.] The marvellous success which the Gospel had since. That success it had immediately after the resurrection of our Lord: for he that descended, the same ascended, "that he might fill all things." Upon that ascent of his, what a mighty descent was there of the Spirit and power of God, that bore down all opposition! The Gos- There needs both much caution and much light to avoid pel was preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from the mistaken false faith of the multitude concerning this heaven. And in this and that part of the world, you find thing. I call it false, not doubting any of you apprehend there are solemn appeals. Do you not know what manner of that it is too possible a thing that there may be a very false entrance we had in this place and that place, and how men faith of the greatest truth. One may believe the most im"turned from idols to serve the living and true God, and portant truth that can fall under human faith with a false to wait for his Son Jesus, who saveth from the wrath to faith. The thing is true that is believed in such cases, but come?" 1 Thess. i. latter end. How did the Gospel fly it is not believed truly. And that is the sort of faith which like lightning from one part and quarter of the world to I would have you know and avoid. And when you know another! How soon did it run through Judea and Sama- what you are not to rest in, you will with the same light ria, and after that into remoter parts! A vast circuit in discern wherein you may safely rest. About a matter of that age, and by the ministry of these very apostles. A such importance as this, it very much concerns both speaker Gospel that began to be spoken by the Lord himself, but and hearers at any time to speak and hear in agonies, and was confirmed by them that heard him; "God bearing with hearts full of solicitude, lest we should mistake ourthem witness with signs and wonders, and by divers mira-selves in a matter upon which eternity doth so immediately cles and gifts of the Holy Ghost," Heb. ii. 4. That by and entirely depend. Now, which the apostle doth enforce the solemn caution, to take heed of letting slip the things that they had heard. For, saith he, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which began to be spoken ?" And I may add, 1. The deceiving false faith of the multitude in this matter is but negative; but the sincere belief of this great truth, that Jesus is the Christ, is a most positive act of the soul. The common belief in this case is but a negative belief. Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? Yes, [11] The strange preservation of the Christian cause shall one tell you off hand, without deliberation or doubt, and interest through all successive times and ages. That I do believe it. And what is the meaning of that? He be when all the powers of earth and hell were combined to lieves it only thus, he doth not believe the contrary. He root and raze out Christianity, and all the vestiges and hath no formed opposite belief in his mind, and therefore memorials of it, that could never be effected to this thinks himself a very good believer. Whereas his believday. That as the spreading of the Gospel was by no hu-ing is nothing else but a negation, an utter negation; to man power, so no human power could prevail to extin- wit, he doth not disbelieve it. As if he should say, your guish it. question is to me upon the matter a new one, a new ques tion, I never thought much of the business. I never asked myself whether I believed Jesus to be the Christ, yea or no. And for my part I have no contrary belief, and therefore hand over head he concludes himself a very good sound believer of this matter. But that faith which the Gospel claims, and which the necessities of souls do require and challenge, that they may have life by Christ, it is a most positive act of the soul, wherein the soul hath a real exercise. There is an exerted power of the soul put forth in this act, so that nothing can be more positive than that is. It is a substantial act of the soul, according as substance doth signify positive entity. And so is this faith called, it is the very substance of the thing believed, whatsoever that be, Heb. xi. 1. This other common faith hath no substance in it. Grasp it, feel it, it is but a shadow, hath nothing of substance. Do you believe Jesus to be the Christ? Yes, I do believe it; that is, there is as much substance in it as their saying so; as much as there is in the sound of a word, and no more. It is a mere negative thing, there is nothing positive in it. It was not in the way wherein the Mahomedan empire and religion did propagate themselves together, that this was propagated, to wit, by force and arms, and by the temptation of secular advantages, but by its own native and self-recommending light and lustre, and great design. And as it was propagated by no human means, so by no human means or power could it be extinguished, but hath grown upon the world in spite of the world, except the assigned foretold time of the apostacy, that dark and dismal interval wherein that work hath been so long at a stand, and out of which we are to expect its glorious revival. All these things do concur to evince that that Revelation which hath been made to us concerning this Jesus, that he is the Christ, is from God: and so carries an indubitable truth in it to be relied upon. And it is upon that main and principal ground that our belief concerning him, that this Jesus is the Christ, must be built and rest, otherwise it is none of the faith which the Gospel claims to it. And it is all one to say the Gospel is a fable, and to believe it to be true and upon no ground, we cannot tell why or how. *Preached March 25th, 1694. 2. The former of these is an ignorant, but the other a most intelligent act, proceeding upon knowledge. The de ceived multitude, when they pretend Jesus to be the Christ, 3. That former belief concerning him, it is a dubious, they believe they know not what; they say they believe hovering, and fluctuating thing. The sincere belief of this, Jesus is the Christ, but they never consider what they mean that Jesus is the Christ, is peremptory, and full of a conby Christ. When they say this Jesus is the Christ, what comitant certainty, and thorough persuasion of mind conthe signification of that name is they never trouble them-cerning him that so indeed he is. As to the former, what selves to understand, they were never at leisure to think do you think? "Was that Jesus the Christ, or are we to of such matter. Indeed they have often heard the word, look for another?" Here the mind hangs in a dubious susbut they have not a meaning in their minds correspondent pense, and they rather say, No sure, we are not to look for to that word (Christ) what it imports, what signification it another, because he came so long ago, and there hath no carries with it; and so what is affirmed concerning this other appeared since. But concerning the sincere believer, Jesus when he is affirmed to be the Christ, they neither this is the character under which we may conceive of him, have what we speak nor whereof we affirm about it. Jesus John vi. 68. "We believe and are sure that thou art Christ is considered by them as an ordinary person that lived so the Son of the living God." Many minds in those days hung many years ago; but to say of him, that he is the Christ, in doubt; and less of doubting may appear among us, beyou might as well have said nothing: they believe hand cause we seldom hear the question asked. With many, over head, but they believe they know not what. the mind hangs on a suspense and indifferency. Is this the Christ, or is another to be he? Why, this is as good as another; this may do as well as another; and for many years we have heard no talk of another, nor do we hear that for many an age by-past. But, saith the sincere believer, we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. A sincere belief in this matter determines the mind, so that there it pitcheth. As it is when the balance is cast, and gives over quivering, here we are at a point. "Whom say ye that I am?" saith our Lord to them, Matt. xvi. 16. And Peter answered for the rest, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God." See how our Lord owns and accepts his faith, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." Thus it is when a divine revelation shines into the heart. I am afraid that that belief is too great a rarity in our age, concerning which it may be truly said, it is not by the product of flesh and blood. O! how few are the souls that may avow it before the Lord, I have that belief in me, of Jesus being the Christ, that comes not from flesh and blood. It is not flesh and blood that hath prompted to this, but a divine light and mighty power from above upon my soul. And it is such a faith that makes a blessed man. "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona." "O! blessed man, that such a faith as this hath entered thy soul, that such a beam of heavenly and divine light hath been struck down into it." It is a great thing if, laying our hands upon our hearts, we can apply this pronounced blessedness to ourselves, as much as if it had been said to us by name. O! blessed, thou such a one, thou John, Thomas, flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but the eternal Father, he hath revealed his own Son, he hath taught thee to own him for his Christ, and his own Son. We believe and are sure; such a belief as carries a certainty with it, not that doth altogether exclude, at some certain intervals, a formido oppositi. There may be that which morality and policy is wont to style a plena voluntas, where there is a determination strong enough to carry a man to consequent acts. And so there may be a plenum judicium, not that totally excludes every degree of the contrary, but that prevails over every such degree; and so is determinative, carries the course and current of a man's practical power with it, consequently and agreeably thereunto. So we are to conceive concerning this certainty, that I am not in that dubious suspense, whether this Jesus be the Christ as thereby to surcease and desist from that which ought to be consequent thereupon, to wit, venturing my soul upon him, devoting myself to him, paying obedience to his laws, laying the stress and weight of all my concernments upon his faithfulness, love, and fulness. It is certainty in such a sense, that prevails so far as to govern my consequent resolutions and actions. And, But, now, when any one doth sincerely believe Jesus to be the Christ, he, believing it, understands what this Christ is, and what the name Christ signifies, the anointed one of God unto that great office of mediatorship between God and man; and was therefore every way qualified for the high and great work of that office, invested with that full authority which belongs to such an office. All power is given to him, both in heaven and in earth: one full of grace and truth in whom all the divine excellencies were resplendent and most conspicuous, which were to have their exercise in the discharge of the work of this mighty office. So that the apprehensive mind of a sincere believer in this thing runs a vast compass; when it hears the name of Christ, it traverseth heaven and earth; it runs through all the creation; for as such a one Christ is considered "over all, God blessed for ever." One that descended; the same that afterwards ascended, that he might fill all things. And he could not be Christ else: one that must have a universal power over all minds and over all creatures: and one that can do whatsoever he will, both in heaven and earth, and all deep places; but whose kindness and benignity inclines him to the doing of all the good that any receptive and capable subject shall admit of; and to make many a one capable and receptive that is of itself quite otherwise. When such mighty texts as we find upon record concerning Christ, these many glorious things that are spoken of him come in view, O how is such a one enlightened by the lustre of any such text that speaks concerning Christ! Yes; that represents him to me, concerning whom my faith hath its present exercise, that it is for Jesus to be the Christ, to wit, that Child born for us, that Son given to us, whose name is Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. Jesus is the Christ; that is, he is the wonderful counsellor. When again we are told in Scripture that this is he who was in the beginning with God, and that he was God, and by whom the worlds were made, and that without whom nothing was made that was made; that came and descended, the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father, and was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, and his glory shone as the glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. Yes, this is my Christ! I believe that that Jesus who dwelt at Nazareth, born at Bethlehem, was such a Christ. He by whom all things were made, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, things in heaven and earth; this is my Christ. He that is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the Lord God Almighty. He that was dead and is alive again and lives for evermore, and hath the keys of hell and death. This is my Christ. The name Christ fills such a man's soul with light and glory, even in that very instant when he believes this Jesus to be the Christ; so as that admitting him into the mind under this notion, it insensibly admits a deity in his all-comprehending fulness. He doth not believe a trivial thing concerning this Jesus, when he believes him to be the Christ, but believes him to be all in all. This is my all, and the universal all unto whosoever they are that shall come to partake felicity by him at length. This is nothing like the mock faith of the multitude, that think themselves well if off-hand they answer you the question when you ask, Is Jesus the Christ. Yes-But they neither know nor consider what Christ means, nor what they attribute to this Jesus, in calling him the Christ. Again, 4. The false deceiving faith of the multitude in this matter is cold and dead, unoperative and without efficacy; let their hearts remain as stones or clods of clay under it, unaffected and unmoved. But this belief, when it is sincere, is vivid, lively, affectionate, and most efficacious; productive of whatsoever is suitable and correspondent hereunto. A vast difference there is in this respect also! I am sure the difference cannot be greater than the importance is. But it is a very great difference that appears here between belief and belief. A belief that never moves my soul, and is as if it had never touched it. According as some fantastically speak (your enthusiastical writers |