righteousness, and fanctification, and redemption." This is a fign of that heart which is a true heart, a heart truly divorced and alienated from fin, though the poor foul cannot be wholly freed from it; an heart true to the great end of the mystery of Christ, his death, and his sufferings, which was "to redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us unto himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works," Tit. ii. 14.;-true to the great end of all gofpel-inftitutions, Acts, xxvi. 18. "To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of fins, and inheritance among them who are fanctified by faith in Chrift Jefus ;"-true to the great end of faith, which is "to purify the heart," Acts, xv. 9. ;-true to its own best intereft, and the honour of God, which commences in time, and terminates in heaven in likeness to God: 1 John, iii. 2. " But we know, that when he fhall appear, we shall be like him, for we fhall fee him as he is." When this is obtained, the mystery of Chrift is finished. Whofoever come in any other way, come with a falfe heart. They who have only use for the blood, and not for the water, which came out of Christ's fide; who do not heartily defire univerfal holinefs, but wish to conceal fome fecret morfel under their tongue; who come to God to bind themselves to holiness, if he will but fave their fouls, and pardon their fins, as if they could make themselves holy, if he would but make them happy; the faith of fuch perfons is but a dream.

Thus the truth of faith is made out, the foul draws near with a true heart; for thus it comes away from felf, the world, and fin, and draws near to God in Christ, and thus obeys the gospelcall. As another direction, I would mention,

2. Draw

2. Draw near to God in full affurance of faith. Are you put upon the right road, having a true heart? then advance forward, without doubting or wavering. Is your heart true? let it next be wrought up to full affurance, for in this lies all the importance of this fecond advice. It is a metaphor taken from a fhip, carried with full fail before the wind. And thus, finner, if, after you and I have been toffed up and down in the fea of this world, (a world lying in wickedness), by violent lufts, unfatisfied defires, and wearied out with disappointed expectations, yet after all could never find in it where to reft our foot, nay, not fo much as fure anchor-ground for our hearts, but ftill an unfathomable depth of emptiness presenting itself to us, and now have at length discovered the port and harbour fuited to give reft to a weary foul, even God in Chrift, have our eye on it, and are steering our courfe ftraight towards it, let us fpread out our fails, let us draw near with the full fail of faith, as our text might be read. This I would confider as more particularly directing us to these three important points.

1. To a taking God for our God in Chrift freely.

2. To a claiming him for our own God boldly. 3. To an improving our claim of interest in him confidently, and without hesitation.

Thefe I fhall in their order a little enlarge upon. I fay, then, that to draw near to God in full affurance of faith, is,

1: To take God for your God in Chrift, without doubting of your welcome. Stretch forth the hand of faith, that ye may join hands with an incarnate God; the more vigorous that your aim be, you will take the better hold. Do not ftand at the door, difputing and doubting whether to go forward or VOL. II. Z

not?

not? if you cannot loose doubts, cut them with the fword of faith, and leap over them, Matth. xv. 24.-28. It is none other than Satan, and an unbelieving heart, which entertains the finner before the vail, with difputes and doubts whether to go through or not. And if these can hold them

up with that difcourfe till the door be fhut, as it will foon be, they have their defign. There are, without queftion, good grounds for this full affurance of faith ;--fuch as,

(1.) God, in his infinite love and mercy, has fuited himself for an approach by such as you. Had he intended to keep you off, he had only to have kept himself in his unvailed glory, and the rays of it from afar would have ftruck the guilty foul through with a thousand arrows, and kept him off for ever. But he has vailed himself with our nature, and that for us: Heb. x. 19. 20. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jefus, by a new and living way, which he hath confecrated for us, through the vail, that is to fay, his flesh." Has he put on the vail, then, that guilty wretches may draw near him? Has he rent the vail of the flesh of his own Son in his crucifixion, that a door might be opened through his wounds to come to God? Has he done all this in vain? If not, why will you doubt your welcome through this new and living way?

(2.) God's juftice is fatisfied, his honour is provided for, fo that juftice has nothing to object against your putting your hand to this claim. It is abfolutely confiftent with the honour of God to be thy God in Christ, for the man that is the Father's fellow has done all this by his blood; and therefore the angel's fong begins with glory to God in the higheft; after that follows peace on

earth,

Hear

earth, and good-will to men, Luke, ii. 14. the facramental words, 1 Cor. xi. 25. "This is the New Teftament in my blood." Is not the blood of the everlasting covenant fufficient to affure you? Is not the covenant in which God offers himself to you as your God, drawn with the blood of God? Behold, then, the blood of the covenant, and no more doubt your welcome. (3.) You have his word for it. Kind invitations are breathed out to you from the throne of grace in Chrift. Hear the tenor of the covenant, Heb. viii. 10. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Ifrael after thofe days, faith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they fhall be to me a people." See how it is offered unto all to whor the gofpel comes, Ifa. lxv. 1. 2. John, vi. 37. Rev. xxii. 17. Nay, you are commanded to accept it: Luke, xiv. 23. "Compel them to come in, that my houfe may be filled." 1 John, iii. 23. "This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jefus Chrift." Many are in other cafes difputing, and doubting themfelves out of their duty, but here falvation lies at stake. Will you, then, doubt your welcome to obey the command of God?

(4.) You must take God in Chrift for your God, or you are eternally ruined. Debate the matter as long as you will, this is the course you must take, or the wrath of God will lie on you for ever. Mifs this hold, and you fink affuredly into the bottomlefs pit: John, iii. 36. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son fhall not fee life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Now, if you must do it, it is weakness and folly not to do it Z 2 with

with full affurance of faith. If a drowning man must seize a rope to draw himself to land, does not common fense say, the firmer he feizes it, he is the more fafe? If the hand tremble, and be like to let go the hold, will he not wrestle against death? So, in like manner fhould we, with full affurance of faith, keep our hold of Chrift, and thus draw near to God.-But here fome may propofe a

Question, How may we be helped to this full affurance of faith in taking God for our God in Chrift? As to this I answer, Stedfaftly believe the doctrine of the gofpel, which is the mean which the Spirit makes ufe of to beget and increase faith: Rom. x. 17. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." And therefore ftill hold by the word. I apprehend, if we would search to the root of the doubts, fears, and uncertainty in the matter of believing in Christ, we would find the root of moft, if not all of them, is an error in the first concoction, an uncertainty as to the doctrine of the gofpel. Therefore labour to be fully and feelingly affured of the doctrine of your loft ftate by nature, on the testimony of the word. Begin there, and ply your faith as to this doctrine. It is eafieft, because an unenlightened confcience even goes along with it; but if I believe my loft ftate upon the teftimony of that word, I am helped the rather to believe the way of my recovery on the teftimony of the fame word.

Believe ye, then, with full affurance, that you are in yourselves guilty creatures, bound over to the wrath of God for time and eternity, and that by no means ye are able to remove that guilt, by all that ye are capable to do or fuffer? Believest thou this? It is gofpel-doctrine, Eph. ii. 3.

"And