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consolation, graces, gifts, and spiritual blessings. Let me look for the perfection of all those desires which thou hast wrought in my new nature, by being in due season taken up to enjoy uninter rupted fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in an eternal Heaven, and to give honour, and glory, and blessing, and praise to the THREE in JEHOVAH, for ever and ever. Amen,

CHAP. XI.

On the Life of Faith: with a brief Account of the Believer's walking by faith, till he finishes his course by dying in faith, receiving the end of his faith, even the salvation of his soul.

EHOVAH is the fountain of life. It

JEH

is efsential to his nature, being, selfexistence, and Godhead, to have life in himself, and which cannot be communicated to any mere creature. The one

nefs of the human nature with the Son of God subsisting in the person of Jesus is altogether singular and supernatural. So must the life of God-man also be. It has no parallel in the whole creation of God. He lives in the Father and by the Father in a way incomprehensible and peculiar to his union with him; and in such a measure and degree of communion with the Father and the Spirit, as are incommunicable to any beside. This he afserts himself in saying, "As the Fa"ther hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in him"self". And as Christ, God-man, lives in and by the Father; so the foundation of our spiritual life and living unto God is laid in him. And he so lives in the

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a John v. 26.

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real believer, that it is not so properly the believer who lives, as Christ that liveth in him. Our Lord explains this great and sublime subject in its original and connection thus. "As the living "Father hath sent me, and I live by the "Father; so he that eateth me, even he "shall live by me. Which words imply, that like as Christ, the Head and Mediator of his Church, lives by the Father in Him and on Him; so Christ united to his people communicates his life unto them so far, as freely, and fully, as is communicable in their life of grace, and in their life of glory. Believers thus live by Christ in him and on him, as He does by the Father. This union, life, and communion of believers with Christ, and with the Father in him through the Spirit, are incomprehensibly high and divine. They have such an union with God the fountain of life in the person and through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ, by his standing between God and them, that they are most closely and indissolubly united to God, and he to them in the person of the Godman Mediator; so that the life of God is conveyed to and maintained in them. "He that hath the Son hath life." Thus the believer is most nearly united to Christ, so as to have one life with b John vi. 57. 1 John v. 12.

him and to live by Christ living in him: moreover, Jesus is the immediate object of his faith, on whom he lives as his Saviour and God. The apostle Paul exprefses the whole life of faith thus, "I "live by the faith of the Son of God." The Son of God, Christ Jesus, as Mediator, lived by faith. His walk was the walk of faith. He died in the exercise of faith. And he is the grand pattern and exemplar to all his believing people, who are called upon to be looking unto him, the author and finisher of faith. The same apostle elsewhere exprefses himself thus, "To me to live "is Christ." To live Christ contains the very essence of the life of faith. It is the fruit of knowing Christ and of receiving him by faith in the word, as life everlasting. Our Lord saith, "I am "the resurrection and the life." Paul calls Christ "Our life";" and saith, "Christ liveth in me, and the life which "I live in the flesh, I live by the faith "of the Son of God, who loved me and

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gave himself for me." Life consists in living, or in the exercise of life. By faith the believer lives, and he only lives so far as faith is kept in constant exercise. Spiritual life, supported and maintained in all its strength and vigor by the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, is mad Coll. iii. 4.

Gal. ii. 20.

nifested in believing, which in all the actings and exercises of it is this spi ritual life, the very consequence of Christ living in us.

And thus, "He "that hath the Son hath life.".

Faith in Christ is inseparably connected with faith in God the Father, and in the Holy Spirit. Our Lord afsures us, that "He that believeth on him be"lieveth not on him, but on the Father "who sent him." And the apostle Peter tells us, that it is "Through him "we believe in God." The faith of Christ leads us necefsarily to faith in the Holy Spirit, who dwells in him without measure, and which he communicates unto every believer; and thus faith terminates equally on the whole adorable Trinity, and raises up the heart into divine admiration of their unutterable love. Faith is a spiritual and supernatural knowledge of Christ received from the word and by the Spirit. The word of God is the ground of the believer's faith. The revelation which God hath made of Christ therein is the subject on which faith is exercised. The record, which God hath given of his Son, is the one great ground and warrant of believing. "This is the record, "that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He

f 1 Pet. i. 21.

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