Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT770 .B39 1670

The Life of Faith. .obOs. By it we are juftified, fanttified and faved. We are ijialtifie4 not by believing that rue arejujtified, but by believing jc that ire may be ju.l' f cd, Not by receiving jni iftcation itnme- diately, but by receivingCbrit for our : not by meer accepting the pardon in it fl./f, but by firti receiving him that procureth andbefforoeth it, on his terms Not by meet accept- ing health, but by receiving the Phyfician and his remedies, for i health. . Faith it the praÉlicai Believing in God as promifng, and Chrift as procuring jnftificauoss and falvation. Or, the pralical belief i and acceptance of life, as procured by Chrift, and promifed by \God in the Gfffel. The everlafling fruition of God in Heaven, is the ultimate objcd. No man believeth in Chriti as Chriti, that believeth not in him for eternal life. As faith looks at Chriti as the ne- ceffarymeans, and at the divine benignity as the fountain, and at his vet4.eity as the foundation or formal object, and at the promife, as the true fgnification of his rwia; fodoth it ultimate- ly look at our frlvarion, (begun on earth, and perfetied in Heaven) as the end, for which it looketh at the Teti. Nowonder therefore if the holy Ghotl here fpeaking ofthe Dignity and Power offaitb, do principally infitl on that part of its defcription, which is taken from this final objet`k. As Chriti himfelf in his Humiliation was rejetïed by the gentiles, and a Rumbling flone to the ?ewe, defpifed and not deemed, Ifa. 53.. 2, 3. having made bimfelf of no raputation, Phil. 2.7. So faith in Christ ai incarnateand crucified, is de- fpifed and countedfoolijhne fs by the world. But as Chriti in his glory, and the glory of believers, thall force them to an aweful admiration; fo faith. it felf as exercifed on that glory, is. more glorious in the eyes of all. Believers are never to re- verenced by the world, as when they converf in Heaven, and the Spirit of Glory reffeth on them, a Pet. 4. 04. How faith by beholding this glorious end, doth move all the faculties of the foul, and fubdue the inclinations and in- terefls ofthe fleth, and make the greate(i fufferings tollerable, is the work of the holy Gho(i in this Chapter 0 demonfrate, which beginning with the defcription, proceeds to the prod by a cloud ofwitneffes. There ase two forts ofperlons (and imploymenes)

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