but judgment, that refuses the present good for a distant advantage: it is but an instance of the same reason and judgment to restrain the sensual appetites, and to make room for the hopes of immortality to enter and possess the heart: and this is truly the work of religion.

DISCOURSE XIV.

HEBREWS, CHAP. III.-VERSE 12.

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.

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PART I.

THE words of the text contain an earnest exhortation, as is evident on the first view: and the subject of the exhortation is faith towards God; for faith is the principle destroyed by an Ievil heart of unbelief.' But faith, as some think, is no proper subject for exhortation: for if faith is a mere act of the mind judging on motives of credibility, it is as reasonable to exhort a man to see with his eyes, as to judge with his understanding ; and the warmest admonition will not enlarge the sight, which will still depend on the goodness of the eye, and the distance and position of the object. In faith the case is much the same: if the affections are thoroughly raised, and made eager to embrace the faith, they may chance indeed to step in between the premises and conclusion, and make men profess to believe, without knowing or considering the reasons of belief; which is to destroy the foundation of faith: or, if they keep their due distance, and leave the cause to be decided by reason and understanding, their influence will be nothing, and they might as well have been left out of the case; since faith will follow the judgment the mind makes on the motives of credibility.

But then, if this be the true notion of faith, that it is merely an act of the mind assenting to a truth on motives of credibility, how comes it that in every page we find the praises of it in the gospel? What is there in this to deserve the blessings promised to the faithful? Or, whence is it that the whole of our salvation

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is put on this foot? Abraham, we are told, was justified by faith, and by faith inherited the promises: by faith we become the sons of Abraham, and heirs together with him of the hope which is through Christ Jesus: by faith we have admittance to God, and are intitled through the Spirit of adoption to cry Abba, Father: by faith we are delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God: by faith we wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.' But how come all these prerogatives to belong to faith, if faith be nothing else but believing things in themselves credible? Why are we not said to be justified by sight, as well as by faith? For is there not the same virtue in seeing things visible, as in believing things credible? Is not the understanding as faulty when it rejects things credible, as the eye when it does not perceive things visible? Tell me then what is faith, that it should raise men above the level of mortality, and make them become like the angels of heaven?

But farther; if faith be only an act of the understanding formed on due reasons and motives, how comes it to be described in Scripture as having its seat in the heart? The Apostle in the text cautions against an evil heart of unbelief:' and the same notion prevails throughout the books of Scripture, and is as early as our Saviour's first preaching. In explaining the parable of the sower to his disciples, Luke viii. he tells them, Those by the way-side are they that hear: then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved:' v. 12. So again, That on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart hear the word, and bring forth fruit with patience :' v. 15. The first sort are those who had an evil heart of unbelief:' the second are those who, as the same Apostle to the Hebrews expresses it, chap. x. had a true heart in full assurance of faith.' In the Acts of the Apostles, Philip tells the Eunuch, that if he believed with all his heart,' he might be baptized: viii. 37. And, Barnabas exhorts the Antiochians, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord;' which is only a periphrasis for faith: xi. 23. The Apostle to the Romans has ex professo determined this matter: If thou shalt confess,' says he,' with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that

God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved:' x. 9. In the following verse he gives this general reason for his assertion: For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'

Since then the Scripture, read to you for the text, contains an exhortation to faith, which supposes a man's faith to be influenced by his affections and inclinations; which is not always true, if we consider faith merely as the assent of the mind to a credible proposition: since there are also such things ascribed to faith in Scripture, such promises made to it, as cannot belong to it in this acceptation: since faith, thus considered, is a bare act of the mind; but the faith of the gospel is described as having its seat and operations in the heart of man: it is necessary, for the right understanding of the text, to inquire,

First, What is the' true notion of faith.

From whence, in the second place, it will appear that it is a proper exhortation, Take heed, lest there be in us an evil heart of unbelief.'

The first thing to be inquired after is the true notion of faith.

Every step by which we advance to the last degree of perfection in faith, is an act of faith, though of a different kind, and not intitled either to the praises or rewards of the gospel. And hence has arisen great part of the confusion which has obscured and darkened this question concerning faith: for when men, not distinguishing between the intermediate acts of faith, and that faith which is the ultimate end and perfection of the gospel, ascribe that to one, which only and properly belongs to the other, no wonder if they are found inconsistent with themselves, and destroyers of reason and religion, whilst they seem to themselves to labor for the promotion of the doctrine of righteousness.

To render what I mean plain and intelligible, I desire you to consider the degrees and steps of faith by which men arrive at gospel righteousness. It is one degree of faith to believe the gospels to be true and faithful accounts; and it is a degree that leads to great perfection; he that wants this faith is at a stand, and can never proceed farther. But this is not the faith we seek after. It is a farther degree of faith to believe the mi

racles of Christ and his apostles to be true and real miracles, and wrought by the power and Spirit of God. But neither is this faith complete: for the miracles were wrought, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of something else: and therefore to believe the miracles, without believing what the miracles were intended to prove, is not Christian faith. Farther still; it is another and a more advanced degree of faith to believe that the Spirit of God was given to the apostles in a large measure, and to Christ, the author of the salvation, without measure. But neither is this the faith which Christ came to propagate: for should I ask you, why are we taught, and why are we to believe, that God gave the Spirit to his Son without measure, and to the disciples in a very wonderful manner and degree? would you not easily answer, that these heavenly endowments were both given and declared to make them fit teachers, and us ready disciples, of the doctrines of God? It is evident then that these gifts were subservient to a farther end, and that Christian faith does not terminate here. But if, notwithstanding this, you will apply all that you read of faith in holy Scripture to these or any of these kinds of faith, and then imagine that faith is a very strange principle of religion, and of foreign growth, repugnant to the sense and reason of mankind, and disclaimed by the light of nature; which are the usual compliments bestowed on it in the world; you may thank yourself for the delusion: the doctrine of the gospel of Christ is clear of the reproach.

Faith, which is the principle of the gospel, respects the promises and declarations of God, and includes a sure trust and reliance on him for the performance. Beyond this there is no farther act of faith. We are not taught to believe this in order to our believing something else: but here faith has its full completion, and leads immediately to the practice of virtue and holiness, the conditions in which all the promises of God are founded. For this end was the Son of God revealed, to make known the will of his Father, to declare his mercy and pardon, and to confirm the promises of eternal life to mankind: he that believes and accepts this deliverance from the bondage of sin, and through patience and perseverance in well-doing waits for the blessed hope of immortality; who passes through this