out for help in the midst of an act of faith, lest they should fail in it: "I believe; Lord, help my unbelief." (Mark ix. 24.) As if he had said, "I am now under some light and power of faith; but I see I cannot hold it, if thou dost not help me. I feel flesh and blood rising up against my faith; I begin to stagger already. Lord, help me! that I may not be run down by my carnal heart." Temptations shake our faith many times. There is a perpetual conflict between faith and diffidence; yet faith fails not utterly; there it is still. (Psalm xxxi. 22, 23; xlii. 6, 9.) Faith upholds the heart still. (Psalm cxvi. 7.) Unbelievers, they tremble and turn away from God; but true believers, in their greatest frights and fears, do run to God, make toward him still. (Psalm lvi. 3.) Were it an easy matter to believe, such sudden fits of unbelief would not come so strongly upon believers themselves.

II. The reason why many professors count it an easy thing to believe.

The main reason is this, and I will insist upon no other; namely, Because they mistake a formal profession of faith for real believing. -This undoes thousands, who, because they are qualified, as national Protestants, for all worldly preferments,-here they rest, and make no other use of their religion; as if the Articles of their faith obliged them to nothing. A formal profession is general; takes-up religion in gross, but is not concerned in any one point of it. But real believing is particular; brings down every gospel-truth to ourselves, shows us our concernment in it. "Save thyself," saith faith, "and 'work out thy own salvation;' see you neglect it no longer." No man can save another man's soul by his faith; his own he may. Faith busies itself about our own salvation, shows us what we must do to be saved. Were there more of this faith among professors, we should every one have work enough upon our hands, and not find it so easy a matter to secure our souls into eternity. General professors carry it as if they had nothing to do, were sure of heaven already. At this rate we may count it an easy matter to believe; but when we come to die, we shall not find it so. Any faith may serve some men's turns to live by; but every faith will not serve our turns to die by. When we are dying in good earnest, a feigned faith signifies little to our comfort; we see through it, and sink under it.

that is intent do in carrying

If your faith do not often call upon you to look to your own souls, it cannot be saving faith. He that seeks not to save himself, let him talk what he will of his faith, it is not saving faith upon the salvation of a believer, and finds enough to on that work, "with fear and trembling" lest it should not go through with it. You who have been at this work in good earnest, do not find it so easy as some would make it. New doubts, new difficulties, new temptations do arise every day, that put the faith of the best Christians to it. If faith does not bestir itself, the devil may be too hard for you and your faith too; if "the righteous are scarcely saved," surely, it is no easy matter to get to heaven. You must run, wrestle, strive, fight, contend earnestly, else you may miss

of heaven, and come short of all your expectation of eternal glory. I speak not this to discourage you; but to awaken you to that diligence and care that so weighty a business calls for.

Saving faith is to cast myself and my own soul upon Christ for salvation. Whatever your faith may be, it is not come to saving faith till you do this. You may carry all your knowledge and all your faith to hell with you. Any faith that is not saving, but remains separate from it, will prove a damning faith to you. It will greatly aggravate your condemnation, that you who knew such things, believed such things, assented to such truths and gospeldoctrines, should never put forth an act of saving faith for your own souls in particular, according to the import of those doctrines. It is strange to see how many professors do leave themselves quite out of their own faith: they will not be at the pains to act it for themselves; but, in general, they believe as the church believes. But, let me tell you, it is not the church, nor all the churches in the world, it is not all the angels in heaven, nor all the saints upon earth, [that] can believe for you; you must every one believe for yourselves, and act your own business, cast your own souls upon Christ for salvation, else they will be eternally lost. How many knowing historical believers are there in hell, who have prophesied in his name, prayed in his name, have written, disputed, argued strongly for the faith, have done every thing that belongs to a common faith, but could never be brought to put forth one act of saving faith upon Christ for the salvation of their own souls!

"Come unto me, all ye that are weary," &c. (Matt. xi. 28.) Is this done, till you personally come to Christ for the pardon of your sins, and for the justification of your persons by name? John, Thomas, Mary, whatever your names are, he or she, I am sent this day to give you a particular call to come to Christ; and I do warn every one of you, and exhort every one, to go to Christ by a personal act of your own faith for eternal life. He has purchased it for all who come unto him: if you neglect it and will not go, your blood be upon your own heads; I have delivered my own soul.

Brethren, be persuaded to hearken to the invitation that is given you in the gospel, before it be too late. O, what ado is there to bring a sinner to Christ! O that you would bethink yourselves this day, and set about saving faith! Act that faith that will save you; and say, "Lord, after all my knowledge and long profession, after all my praying, hearing, reading, I now see these are but means in order to something else; the end of all is real believing in Christ; and I am now at last come to do that, to commit myself wholly to Christ, to cast my sinful soul upon him for righteousness and life. Lord, help me to do this; bring me to a thorough reliance upon Christ, and keep me in the frequent exercise and lively actings of this faith every day; that I may see myself safe in him, who is faithful, and will keep that which I so commit unto him." "The just shall live by his own "faith" which he acts for himself and for his own soul : if you do not thus commit yourselves to Christ every day, by a

,,

renewed act of faith, you may lose the joy of your salvation ere you

are aware.

If you say this is done, I will not ask you when you did it first; that may seem too nice a question to some: but I will ask you when you did it last. I hope you do it every day. If you are at any stand in your thoughts about this, your wisest course is, to act over this saving faith more distinctly, more particularly, more frequently, for the salvation of your own soul; then your faces will shine, and your hearts will rejoice; we shall know you have been with Jesus.

It is impossible to experience the power and efficacy of saving faith till we act it in our own case, for our own souls; then it comes home indeed to ourselves; then we feel the comfort of it. We may own the general doctrine of faith, and be little affected with it, or concerned about it; but when the grace of faith comes and makes a particular application of that doctrine to thy soul and my soul, then we believe for ourselves, and are "filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory," that we should be received unto mercy, have all our sins pardoned, our persons accepted, and our souls eternally saved. All this, faith makes out to us by name, from such undeniable grounds and reasons, that we cannot gainsay.

They count it easy to believe who shut all acts of self-denial quite out of their faith. They live as they did before; it may be, walk on more securely in their evil courses, from a presumptuous persuasion of mercy at last. Pray God deliver us from such a faith that gives encouragement to sin! If your faith do not strongly incline you to a holy life, you may be sure it is not right saving faith. It is a sad thing to consider how little influence the faith of some confident professors has upon their lives; they are not, they will not be, governed by the faith which they profess. The devil allows of such a profession; and it is all the religion he will admit of in his followers provided they do not touch upon the power of godliness, all forms are alike to him; and in some cases the purest and most scriptural serve his turn best, when separated from the power of godliness. Then he has some scripture on his side, to persuade them that all is well; then he cries, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are ye!' (Jer. vii. 4;) settled in a church-way, according to all the rules of discipline laid down in the word. And is not this religion enough to save you?" Thus the devil will sometimes give the best form its due commendation from scripture, when it may serve as an argument to persuade a formal Christian to sit down short of the power of godliness. He knows, God's own form will not save us then, though he would make them believe otherwise. He put the Jews upon pleading this, and possessed them that all was well, while they held to the outward form of worship that God had appointed; which made the Lord himself so often to declare against them, and the outward forms of worship that he had appointed, because he saw they rested in them, and played the hypocrites under them. Let us have a care in these gospel-times, that we do not rest in gospel-forms only, placing the whole of our religion in that which

God has made but a part of it; and such a part, that should never be divided by us from the power and spirit of the gospel. We talk of " damnable heresies," and there are such: the Lord keep us from them! But, let me tell you, you may pass (though more silently) into hell through a formal profession of the truth, and have your portion with hypocrites, who professed what you do, had the same form of godliness that you have, but denied the power of it. I do not say, as some of you do, "I hope otherwise of you all." But let every one examine himself, what powerful influence those gospeltruths have upon him, which he has lived so long under the profession of. You know this best; and others may more than guess at it, by your lives and conversations. But I spare you; having laid my finger upon the sore place, I take it off again, and leave every one to his own feeling.

OBJECTION. "You seem as if you would put us off from our profession."

ANSWER. It may be "better off than on," in some respects. But my design is to bring you up to your profession, that you may be real in it, and not mock the Lord, nor deceive yourselves. I have often thought that he who makes a solemn profession of his faith, and says, "I believe in God, and in Christ," had need consider well what he says, lest he "lie unto the Holy Ghost." Though what you profess be truth, yet your profession may be a lie, if you say you believe what you do not believe. "With the mouth confession is made, but with the heart man believes." Believing is heart-work, which the Searcher of hearts only can judge of; therefore you should consult your hearts, whether you do indeed believe, before you tell God and man that you do. It is a sad thing, that the frequent repetition of our Creed, and the renewed profession we make of our faith, should be charged upon us as so many gross lies; as, Psalm lxxviii. 36, 37. III. They who count it an easy matter to believe, are destitute of saving faith.

I prove it thus,

1. They who have never found any conflict in themselves about believing, are destitute of saving faith:

But they who count it an easy matter to believe, have never found any conflict in themselves about believing :

Ergo.

If faith did not act in opposition to carnal reason, and carry it against all the strong reasonings of the flesh to the contrary, supernatural truths would never enter, never be admitted, never find acceptance in the soul; we should never be brought over to assent to them, so as to make them the sure ground of our trust and confidence in God. But faith captivates all rebellious thoughts that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, (2 Cor. x. 5,) as if they could disprove all that the gospel says; but the demonstrations of the Spirit are with that power, that we cannot resist them. teaches " as one having authority:" beside the instructive evidence of truth in clear reasonings, and full demonstrations of it by the Spirit,

Christ

there is authority and power to back all this; so that, having nothing to object that is not fully answered, we dare not but obey, because of his authority and power over us. Were it not for this authority and power, the proud flesh would pertinaciously stand out against all the reasonings of the Spirit; but when the rationale of the gospel is made out by the Spirit beyond all contradiction from flesh and blood, the carnal heart "is nonplussed and silenced, cannot speak sense against the gospel; yet however, it will be muttering and kicking against the truth. Here comes-in the authoritative act and power of the Spirit, suppressing the insolence of the flesh, and commanding the soul in the name of God to obey, and not stand it out any longer against such clear evidence, resisting the wisdom of the Holy Ghost. You must know, that flesh and blood, that is, that carnal corrupt, part that is in every man, is never convinced, it is not capable of any such thing; but the power of the Spirit of God brings-on a conviction upon the soul from a higher light, notwithstanding all that the wisdom of the flesh can say to the contrary. Flesh is flesh still in all those who are born of the Spirit; but it is overpowered and kept under by the stronger reasonings of the Spirit, which is the cause of that continual conflict that is between the flesh and spirit. To talk of easy believing, without any resistance from our own corrupt minds, is to talk of that that never was, nor can be, in any man whatever. Saints are inclined two contrary ways; though one principle be predominant, yet the other is not extinct, has not yet lost all its power; it will stir, and fight, and resist, though it cannot overcome; and faith itself feels the strugglings of unbelief, and bears up with more courage against them.

2. They who were never convinced of the sinfulness of sin, and of the dreadfulness of God's wrath against sinners, are destitute of saving faith:

But they who count it an easy matter, &c. :

Ergo.

I do not mean that all must pass under the like terrors of conscience some have a more easy passage from a state of nature to grace, from death to life, from terror to comfort; they may sooner get over their tears, and attain to peace, than others may. But this I say, that all who have fled for refuge unto Christ, are sensible of this, that they have escaped eternal death, are delivered from the wrath of God; they remain under this conviction; and it adds much to their comfort, that they have escaped so great danger; and glad they are to see themselves safe under the wing of Christ. They live in a constant admiration of the goodness of God to them, in bringing about so great salvation for them, who had no might nor power to do any thing for themselves. It was not their own arm that saved them. They who know not the nature of sin, may think it an easy matter to be saved: slight wounds are easily cured; but old, putrefied sores require more sovereign remedies, and good skill to apply them. Sin is an old sore; they who know the plague of their own hearts do count it so. It is more than a cut finger; it has infected the very