grace,

Christ, and hereby he draws out their affections after Christ, and enables them with the heart to believe in him unto righteousness. And the Holy Spirit having thus brought them to the happy knowledge of their union with Christ, afterwards glorifies him in their walk and conversation, by teaching them how to live by faith upon his fullness, and to be continually receiving out of it grace for according to their continual needs. The corruption of our nature by the fall, and our recovery through Jesus Christ, are the two leading truths in the christian religion, and I suppose the persons for whose sake this little tract is drawn up, not only to know them, but also to be established in them, stedfastly to believe and deeply to experience them. The necessity of their being well grounded in them is very evident: for a sinner will never seek after nor desire Christ, farther than he feels his guilt and his misery; nor will he receive Christ by faith, till all other methods of saving himself fail; nor will he live upon Christ's fullness farther than he has an abiding sense of his own want of him. Reader, how do these truths appear

to thee? Has the law of God arraigned thee in thy conscience? Hast thou been brought in there guilty, and has the Spirit of God deeply convinced thee by the law of sin, and of unbelief, and of thy helplessness, so as to leave thee no false resting place? Has he swept away every refuge of lies, and thus put thee upon enquiring what thou must do to be saved? If not, may the Lord, the Spirit, convince thee, and in his own good time bring thee to the knowledge of thyself, and to the saving knowledge of and belief in Christ Jesus, without which this book can profit thee nothing. But if thou hast been thus convinced, and the Lord has shone into thy understanding, and enlightened it with the knowledge of the way of salvation, then read on. May the Lord make what thou readest profitable to thine establishment in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

There are two things spoken of faith in Scripture, which highly deserve the attention of every true believer. The one is the state of safety in which he is placed by faith, being delivered from every evil and danger in time and in eternity, to which sin had justly exposed him; and the other is the

happiness of this state, consisting in an abundant supply of all spiritual blessings freely given to him in Christ, and received, as they are wanted, by the hand of faith out of the fullness of Christ: by which means whoever has obtained this precious faith has a quiet conscience at peace with God, and need not fear any manner of evil, how much soever it be deserved, and thereby he may at all times come boldly to the thone of grace to receive whatever is necessary for his comfortable walk heavenwards. Every grace, every blessing promised in Scripture, is his, and he may and does enjoy them so far as he lives by faith upon the Son of God: so far his life and conversation are well ordered, his walk is even, his spiritual enemies are conquered, the old man is mortified with his affections and lusts, and the new man is renewed day by day after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness. And from what he already enjoys by faith, and from the hopes of a speedy and perfect enjoyment, he rejoices in the Lord with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

It is much to be lamented, that few live up to these two privileges of faith. Many

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persons, who are truly concerned about the salvation of their soul, live for years together full of doubts and fears, and are not established in the faith, that is in Christ Jesus; and several who are in a good measure established, yet do not walk happily in an even course, nor experience the continual blessedness of receiving by faith a supply of every want out of the Saviour's fullness. These things I have long observed, and what I have been taught of them from the Scripture, and from the good hand of God upon me I have put up together, and throw it as a mite into the treasury. I am sure it was never more wanted, than at present. May the good Lord accept the poor offering, and bless it to the hearts of his dear people, to the praise of the glory of his own grace.

For the clearer understanding of what shall be spoken upon the Life of Faith, it will be needful to consider first what faith is: for a man must have faith before he can make use of it. He must be in Christ, before he can live upon Christ. Now faith signifies the believing the word of God. It relates to some word spoken or to some promise made by him, and it ex

presses the belief which a person who hears it has of its being true. He assents to it, relies upon it, and acts accordingly. This is faith. And the whole word of God, which is the ground of faith, may be reduced to two points, namely, to what the law reveals concerning the justification of a righteous man, and to what the gospel reveals concerning the salvation of a sinner. A short examination of these points, will discover to us a great number of persons who have no faith at all in the word of God.

First, Every man in his natural state before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, has no faith. The Scripture says, God hath shut up all that are in this state in unbelief; and when the holy Spirit awakens any one of them, he convinces him of sin, and of unbelief in particular. When the comforter is come, says Christ, he shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not in me.

Secondly, A man who lives careless in sin has no faith. He does not believe one word that God says in his law. Let it warn him of his guilt, and shew him his great danger, yet he sets at nought the ter