First, All graces. Faith is the first grace in a Christian soul, and the spring of the rest. This is the main business of that excellent chapter, Heb. xi., to shew how faith was the master-wheel in the lives and actions of those holy men, whose renown is there upon record. The apostle tells us, that "faith worketh by love," where by love we may understand either generally the universal habit of all other operative graces: and then the sense is, that faith doth, as it were, actuate and animate all other habits of grace, and apply them to their several works; or rather particularly, "that love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost;" and then the method and meaning of the place is this. i First, Faith shews us the great love of God in Christ. "The life that I live," saith the apostle, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me";" where we see the principal discovery, that faith makes in Christ, and that it fixeth upon, is, his love to us; and this is a most sovereign and superlative love. "Herein," saith the apostle, "God commended," God heaped together "his love towards us,-in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Secondly, Faith, having thus revealed to our hearts the love of God in Christ, doth kindle in them a reciprocal love towards Christ again, working in us the same mind that is in Christ'; and inflaming our spirits to a retribution of love for love. "We have believed the love that God hath to us," saith the apostle: "and therefore," saith he, "we love him, because he loved us first "." Thus faith worketh love. m But now, thirdly, There is a further power in faith: for it doth not only work love, but it worketh by love,' as the text speaks that is, it maketh use of that love which it hath thus kindled, as of a good and incentive to further obedience. For that love which we repay unto Christ again, stirreth us unto an intimate and heavenly communion with him, unto an entire and spiritual conformity unto him. And the reason is, because it is a conjugal love, and therefore a fruitful love; for the end of marriage is fructification. “Ye g Gal. v. 6. i Gal. ii. 20. h Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. 2. k Rom. v. 8. 1 Phil. ii. 5. Η πίστις ἔδρασμα ἀγάπης. m 1 John iv. 16. 19. are become dead to the law," saith the apostle, "by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead:" and the end of this spiritual marriage is added, "that we should bring forth fruit unto God;"-which is presently after expounded, “that we should serve in newness of spirit"." "If a man love me," saith our Saviour, "he will keep my words."-And this obedience is the child of faith, as it is set down in the same place," Ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you;"-and immediately upon this faith it follows, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: And he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him." In which place, there are these things of excellent observation. First, The noble objects, that faith doth contemplate, even the excellency of God's love unto us in Christ. "You shall know that I am in my Father;" in his bosom, in his bowels, in his dearest affection; one with him in mercy, in counsel, in power. That he and I both go one way; have both one decree and resolution of grace and compassion towards sinners: "And that you are in me," your nature in me, your infirmities in me, the punishment of your sins upon me, that I am bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh; that you are in my heart, and in my tenderest affections; that you were crucified together with me; that you live together with me; that you sit together with me in heavenly places '; that I died your death; that you rose my resurrection; that I pray your prayers; that you were my righteousness; "And that I am in you," by my merits to justify you, by my grace and spirit to renew and purify you, by my power to keep you, by my wisdom to lead you, by my communion and compassion to share with you in all your troubles.-These are the mysteries of the love of the Father, and the Son to us. Now this love kindleth a love in us again; and that love sheweth itself in two things:-First, In having the commandments of Christ; that is, in accepting of them,-in giving audience unto them,-in opening our eyes to see, and our hearts to entertain, the wonders of the law. And se "Rom. vii. 4, 6. • John xiv. 20, 21, 22, 23. p Rom. vi. 6, 8. Eph. ii. 6. 66 condly, In keeping of them, in putting to the strength of our love (for love is as strong as death; it will make a man neglectful of his own life, to serve and please the person whom he loves), that so we may perform the duties, which so good a Saviour requires of us. And now as our love was not the first mover, ("We loved him, because he loved us first,") so neither shall it be the last: as the Father and the Son did, by their first love, provoke ours, so will they, by their second love, reward ours. And therefore it follows, "He that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him."-This is not meant of a new love, but of a further declaration of their former love, namely, in a more close and familiar communion, and heavenly cohabitation with them; We will come unto him, and make our abode with him;" we will shew him our face; we will make all our goodness to pass before him; we will converse and commune with his Spirit; we will sup with him; we will provide him a feast of fatted things, and of refined wine: we will open the breasts of consolation, and delight him with the abundance of glory. Excellent to the purpose of the present point is that place of the apostle, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15; "The love of Christ," saith he, "restraineth us;" that is, either Christ's love to us by faith apprehended, or our love to Christ by the apprehension of his love wrought in us, doth, by a kind of sweet and lovely violence, win and overrule our hearts,—not to live henceforth unto ourselves, but unto him that died for us, and rose again. And the root of this strong persuasion is adjoined, namely, "Because we thus judge," because we know and believe, "That if one died for all, then all are dead" to the guilt and to the power of sin, and ought to live a new life conformable to the resurrection of Christ again. Therefore in two parallel places', the apostle useth promiscuously faith, and a new creature: “In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love :-Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." The reason of which promiscuous acceptation, the apostle renders the inseparable union between faith and renovation: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creatures." Secondly, Faith gives us all good things, requisite to our condition. Adam was created lord of his fellow inferior creatures, invested with propriety to them all. In his fall, he made a forfeiture of every good thing which God gave him. In the second covenant, a reconciliation being procured,-faith, entitling a man to the covenant, doth likewise re-invest him with the creatures again. "All things," saith the apostle, "are yours;" and he opens the title and conveyance of them, "You are Christ's, and Christ is God's '." So elsewhere he saith, that "the living God giveth us all things richly to enjoy;" that is, not only the possession, but the use of the things ": where by all things we may understand, First, the liberty and enlargement of Christians, as it stands in opposition to the pedagogy and discipline of Moses' law, which distinguished the creatures into clean and unclean, and so, by consequence, into useful and unuseful: so that now, by any immediate tie of conscience, we are not prohibited the free enjoyment of any creature of God. Secondly, By all things we understand not all simply, but all requisites: all that, in regard of our state and course, are necessary to life and godliness. "O woman," saith our Saviour, "great is thy faith; be it unto thee, even as thou wilt." This is a large grant, to ask what we will, and to have promise of obtaining it: but he who promiseth to believers what they will, doth likewise regulate and confine their wills, to desire nothing but with subordination to his will; nothing but their own portion, that which is food convenient for them. The Heathen man * could say, "That man hath as much as he desires, who desires nothing but what he hath."-So we may say of a Christian,-He hath indeed whatsoever he will, because God gives him a heart to desire nothing, but that which is God's promise and his own necessity. Now all these things faith gives us; first, because it gives us the fountain, and secondly, the promises, of them all. First, Faith carries us to the fountain, that is, to God. "With thee," saith the prophet David, "there is the fountain of life." And, "We are of God in Christ Jesus," w Matt. xv. 28. * Tantum habet y Psal. xxxvi. 9. t1 Cor. iii. 23. u 1 Tim. vi. 17. quantum vult, qui nihil vult, nisi quod habet. Senec. saith the apostle." Now we know there is a kind of allsufficiency in a fountain: whatever water a man wants, he may have his supply at the fountain; whereas cisterns and broken pits will be presently exhausted. We may observe in many fountains, that, to the eye, they seem to have far less water in them for the time, than some great torrent or winter flood, which overruns whole valleys, and carries away woods and stones before it: yet Job tells us, that a torrent will make men ashamed in summer, when they turn aside for water to refresh them, and can find none. But he that comes to a fountain for refreshment, shall never be ashamed, because it is living and growing water, and so makes a perpetual supply. So the faithful oftentimes have less wealth and abundance of earthly things than other men ; yet notwithstanding they have therewithal the fountain, and so, by consequence, they have more certainty and more sweetness. First, more certainty, for fountain-water is livingwater, and so it multiplies; whereas other men have their water in cisterns, that are broken, full of holes and chinks to let it out again. So the prophet tells us of some that drudge and labour, but it is in the fire;' their work perisheth as fast as it grows ;-and of others that earn wages, but put it in a bag with holes,'-it falls out as fast as it is put in. What are these holes, this fire that melts, and lets out the estates of wicked men? they are principally these two. First, The lusts of their own hearts: "Ye ask and receive not, because ye spend it upon your lusts," saith the apostle. And as lust keeps it away, so lust lets it out when we have it. How many great estates have wine and women, hawks and hounds, fashions and compliments, pride and vain-glory, humours and projects, quarrels and dissensions, the back, the belly, the eye, the ear, the tongue, the many inventions of an idle head, the many exorbitances of a wandering heart, melted away, and reduced to nothing! Every member of the body, every appetite of the soul, so many chinks to let out an estate. But now the faithful have their lusts abated, their hearts ordered, the dropsy and in z 1 Cor. i. 30. a Job vi. 19, 20. |