CHAP. III. .

THE SOUL'S DIFFICULTY IN EMBRACING

MERCY.

"T HESE are glad tidings indeed (the soul may say) to one weary and heavy laden with sin as I am, could they be apprehended rightly, and maintained constantly, in the strivings of sin, and the doubtings of nature. I am therefore earnest to know these two things;-1. How shall I embrace this mercy of Christ proposed in the gospel? And, 2. How shall I keep up the spirit and intentions of it in my heart and life, so as to endure to the end, and be saved?

I know not how it is with others, but I find myself very unable, nay, most unable when I have the greatest occasion to lay hold upon this mighty mercy of God, and to rest upon it, and to make it my own, and to use it for my consolation and support. I long for this with the full purpose of my heart; and my groans and tears in secret are well known unto God. But I have also an evil heart of unbelief, which suggests a thousand doubts and fears, sometimes of God's wil lingness to save me particularly, who am so very vile and faithless; and sometimes of my own reality of desire towards him, which is often dreadfully mixed with the care for other things, and overwhelmed with anxic

ties and sorrows, difficulties and temptations. O what great troubles and adversities hath God shewn me! How shall I be delivered from the body of this death! How shall I lay hold on eternal life! How shall I know that I have fast hold, or be assured, that none shall be able to pluck me from it! O Lord, to be assured, of this thy favour, is, both in life and death, of more worth to me than thousand times ten thousand worlds.- For I might have these, and be wretched; but, with thee, I have safety, yea, life and peace for evermore."

CHAP. IV.

THE NATURE AND EXERCISE OF FAITH.

FAITH is the gift and the operation of God. It comes by the Holy Spirit's power, moving and strengthening the sublimest fa culties of the soul, and is really a regeneration, a re-begetting, a revival of life from the dead. Thus the believer is said to be born of the Spirit; because it is the Spirit's office in the covenant of grace to regenerate, and because it is the promise concerning the Spirit to all, even as many as God shall call. And thus also the christian is said to be born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

When this principle of divine life and light is given to the soul, it enables the soul to feel its own loss and misery, and to see its own sin and darkness. A man can have no true sight of the nature of sin but by this grace. He is therefore, in some sense, a believer before he knows himself to be one. Faith acts in him before he can be sensible of the reflex act of faith. He first lives; and then he feels his misery; and then he cries for mercy. He cries for mercy, and then is enlightened to see the way of mercy in the word of mercy. He is next enlightened to behold the free welcome and rich bounty of this mercy to all returning sinners. He is enabled to contemplate upon himself, and to view the fitness of God's mercy for him, and his own fitness, as a needy, convinced sinner, for it. He is then strengthened to embrace it, like a poor creature who must perish without it, but who shall never perish with it. And, at length, God's grace seals itself upon the soul, by giving a true light to the mind, and a sweet taste of joy and peace in believing; insomuch that the broken drooping heart revives, and is able to say: I do humbly venture to believe, that Christ died for me, and will save me for evermore.

Now, through all the course of this gracious work, which, according to the will of God, is slower in some than in others, there is often much doubting or disputing in the

man's own conscience. It is a sore struggle, at times, to quell the clamours of unbelief, and the suggestions of Satan; and at last, perhaps, the soul embraces the reality of God's love in Christ, with a trembling kind of hopeless hope, and doubting believing. These things often puzzle the understanding, and perplex the whole will and affections. A true believer is like Rebecca labouring with twins, a faithless Esau, and a trusting Jacob; and so, like her, he cries out, "If it be so, why am I thus ?" Whereas, if it were not so, if he were not of God, it could not be thus. Nature alone would not struggle; nor can what is dead strive against the stream. The whole bent of nature is against grace. So again, if he were all grace and no sin, he would feel no trouble; for the opposition of grace is made to nature and to the sin which is in it. And, it is a good sign, though not a pleasant feeling, that there is this conflict; It demonstrates the life of God to be within. In this way, the christian embraces the gospel. He is enabled in hope against hope to believe it, as the grand charter of his salvation. And this very act of believing is the evidence within, concurring with the evi dence of the written word without, that his name is enrolled in the charter, and that he is consequently entitled to all its blessings. Take heart, therefore, thou child of God, and fear not. Thou hast the promise, the power, the mercy, and the truth of Jehovah

on thy side; and who can prevail against him? If thou dost not wholly believe, or art not perfectly cleared from all doubts, be not however dismayed. The faithfulness of thy Lord is not grounded upon the perfect exercise of thy faith, but upon his own sovereign grace and love. Thou desirest to trust him with thy whole heart; but thou never couldest have desired this, if he had not wrought that disposition within thee. He was the Author, and he will be the Finisher, of all in thee, as well as of all for thee. If God did not spare his own Son for thy sake, what will he spare beside? Who shall, or who can, lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? -It is God himself, with whom there is neither evil nor folly, that justifieth thee from both. Who can condemn thee?-It is Christ who blotteth out thy sins, by his precicus blood, or rather is risen again to present thee faultless in his righteousness before the throne, and to plead for thee as that Advo cate who never lost a cause. Who shall separate thee from the love of Christ? Shall the erils of life, all the distresses of time, all the rage of the devil? Nay, in all these things thine Almighty Saviour will render thee a conqueror, and more than a conqueror, because he hath loved thee. O divine words that follow! From thine inmost affections from the very ardour and spirit of faith, mayest thou breathe them forth! I am persuadod that neither death, nor life, nor angels, ner