Notwithstanding the unbelieving world mocks the name of purity, yet, study you, above all, that purity and holiness which may make your souls a fit abode for faith, and for that peace which it worketh, and for that Holy Spirit who works both in you.

Faith is either the doctrine which we believe, or that grace by which we believe that doctrine. Here, I conceive, it is both, met and united in the soul. As they say of the understanding in the schools, Intelligendo fit illud quod intelligit, so, faith, apprehending its proper object, is made one with it. Faith is kept in a pure conscience; that is, both that pure doctrine of the Gospel which faith receives, and that faith which receives it, are together fitly placed and preserved, when they are laid up in a pure conscience. The doctrine of faith cannot be received into, nor laid up in the soul, but by that faith which believes it; and that faith hath no being, without believing that doctrine. And both are fitly called the mystery of faith. The doctrine is mysterious, and it is a mysterious work, to beget faith in the heart to receive it. For the things we must believe, are very high and heavenly, and our hearts are earthly and base till the Spirit renew them. In our Confession of faith we have both expressed. The first word is, a profession of faith, which receives the doctrine as true, I believe; and the articles themselves contain the sum of the doctrine believed. And if we who profess this faith, have within us pure consciences, wherein the mystery of faith-the doctrine of faith believed, and the grace of faith believing it, both together as one,―may reside, dwell, and be preserved, then is the text completely answered in the present subject.

Remember, then, since we profess this faith, which is the proper seat of faith. Not our books, our tongues only, or memories, or judgment, but our conscience; and not our natural conscience defiled and stuffed with sin, but renewed and sanc tified by grace. Holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience.

I believe in God the Father.]

Not to insist here on the nature of faith, taking it as comprehensively as we can, it is no other than a supernatural belief of God, and confidence in Him. Whether we call God, or the word of God, the object of faith, there is no material difference; for it is God in the word, as revealed by the word, that is that object. God is that veritas incomplexa (as they speak) which faith embraces; and the word, the veritas complexa which contains what we are to conceive of God, and to believe concerning Him. As, in the Gospel, the peculiar object of that faith which saves fallen man, it is all one whether we say it is Christ or the promises; for it is Christ revealed and held forth in the promises, that faith lays hold on. In Him are all the promises of God, Yea, and in him, Amen. 2 Cor. i. 20. So that it is all one act of faith that lays hold on Christ, and on the promises, for they are all one: he is in them, and therefore faith rests on them, because they include Christ who is our rest and our peace; as a man at once receives a ring and the precious stone that is set in it. This once rightly understood, any further dispute about placing faith in the understanding or in the will, is, possibly, in itself not at all needful: sure I am, it is no way useful for you. Take heed of carnal, profane presumption, for that will undo you; and labour to be sure of such a faith as dwells in a pure conscience, and it will be sure not to deceive you.

That confidence which this expression bears, believing in God, supposes certainly, (as all agree,) a right belief concerning God, both that He is, and what He is, according as the word reveals Him; especially what He is relating to us. These three we have together, Heb. xi. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. 1. That He is. 2. To trust His word, believing that He is true to His promises, a rewarder of them that seek Him. 3. Upon these follows coming to Him, which is this believing in that God which the Apostle speaks

of, that reliance and resting of the soul upon Him, which results from that right belief concerning Him, and trusting the testimony of His word, as it reveals Him.

We have discoursed of the attributes of God elsewhere, as also of the Trinity, which is here expressed in these words: I believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That sublime mystery is to be cautiously treated of, and rather humbly to be admired, than curiously dived into. The day will come, (truly, a day, for here we are beset with the gloomy nightly shades of ignorance,) wherein we shall see Him as He is. 1 John iii. 2. In the mean time, let us devoutly worship Him, as He has revealed Himself to us; for this is the true way to that heavenly country where we shall see Him face to face. And it is our interest here, to believe the Trinity of persons in the Unity of the Godhead, and to trust in Them as such; for this is the spring of all our hope, that the Middle of the THREE became our Mediator, and the Holy Spirit our guide and teacher, and the Father reconciles us to Himself by the Son, and renews us by the Spirit.

The Father.] First, the Father of His only begotten Son, Christ, and, through him, our Father by the grace of adoption. And so Christ does clearly insinuate the order of our filiation: I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. He says not, to our Father, but, to my Father and your Father; first, mine, and then, yours through me.

Almighty.] This also belongs to the attributes of God; so we shall be but short on it here. Almighty, able in Himself to do all things, and the source of all power in others, all the power in the creature being derived from Him; so that it cannot altogether equal His, nor resist Him, no, nor at all be without Him. Whosoever they be who boast in their own strength in any kind, and swell highest in conceit of it, they are yet but as a brittle glass in the hand of God: He can not only break it to pieces by the strength of His hand, but if He do but withdraw His hand from supporting it, it will fall and break of itself.

Maker of heaven and earth.] The Son and the Spirit were, with the Father, authors of the Creation: but it is ascribed to the Father, particularly, in regard of the order and manner of Their working. Whether natural reason may evince the creation of the world, we will not dispute; we know that he who had very much of that, and who is the great master of it in the schools, could not see it by that light. Yet there is enough in reason to answer all the false cavils of profane men, and very much to justify the truth of this we believe. However, we must endeavour to believe it by Divine faith, according to that of the Apostle, Heb. xi. 3. By faith we believe that the worlds were framed by the word of God. And this is the first article we meet withal in the Scriptures, and our faith is put to it in a very high point in the very entrance, Gen. i. 1. In the beginning, God made the heaven and the earth-speaking like Himself; it is not proved by demonstrations, or any kind of arguments, but is asserted by the authority of God. And with that which begins the Books of the Law, John begins his gospel; that upon His word who, by His word, made the world, we may believe that He did so.

This is fitly added to the title of Almighty, as a work of almighty power, and therefore, a clear testimony of it; and both together well suit with our profession of believing in Him. For this is a main support of our faith, to be persuaded of His power on whom we trust. Our God is able to deliver us, said they, Dan. iii. 17. And Abraham, the Apostle says, offered up his son, accounting (or reasoning with himself, or laying his reckoning) that God was able to raise him from the dead, Heb, xi. 19.

We make more bold to speak out our own questioning of the love and good-will of God, because we think we have some reason in that from our own unworthiness; but if we would sound our own hearts, we should often find in our distrusts some secret doubtings of God's power, Psal. Ixxviii. 19. Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? said they; though accustomed to miracles, yet still unbelieving. We think we are strongly

enough persuaded of this, but our hearts deceive us. Que scimus cùm necesse non est, ea in necessitate nescimus, says Bernard: The things which we seem to know when it is not necessary for us to know them, we find, when necessary, that we know not. The heart is deceitful. Jer. xvii. 9.—where he is speaking of trusting. It is not for nothing, that God by His prophets so often inculcates this doctrine of His power, and this great instance of it, the Creation, when He promises great deliverances to His Church, and the destruction of their enemies. See Isa. xlv. 12, and li. 12. What can be too hard for Him, who found it not too hard to make a world of nothing? If thou look on the public, the enemies of the Church are strong: if on thyself, thou hast indeed strong corruptions within, and strong temptations without; yet, none of these are almighty, as thy God is. What is it thou wouldst have done, that He cannot do if He think fit? And if He think it not fit, if thou art one of His children, thou wilt think with Him; thou wilt reverence His wisdom, and rest satisfied with His will. This is believing indeed; the rolling all our desires and burdens over upon an almighty God. And where this is, it cannot choose but establish the heart in the midst of troubles, and give it a calm within in the midst of the greatest storms.

And try what other confidences you will, they shall prove vain and lying in the day of trouble. He that thinks to quiet his mind and find rest by worldly comfort, is, as Solomon compares his drunkard, like one that lies down in the midst of the sea, or, that sleepeth on the top of a mast: Prov. xxiii. 34, he can have but unsettled rest and repose, that lies there. But he that trusteth in the Lord, is as Mount Sion that cannot be removed. Psal. cxxv. 1. When we lean upon other props besides God, they prove broken reeds that not only fail, but pierce the hand that leans on them. Jer. xvii. 7.

There is yet another thing in this Article, which serves further to uphold our faith, That of necessity, He who made the world by His power, doth likewise rule it by His providence. It is so great a fabric as cannot be upheld and governed by any