Pok THE LIFE OF FAITH. HEBREWS xi 1. NOW FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOIL, THE EVI- DENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN. THOUGH the wicked are distinguished into hypocrites and un- believers, yet hypocrites themselves are unbelievers too. They have no faith which'they can justify, by its prevailing efficacy and works ; and therefore have no faith by which they can be justified. Because their discovery is needful to their recovery, and all our salvation depends on the sincerity of our faith. I have chosen this text, which is a description of Faith; that the openingof it mayhelp us for the opening of our hearts, and resolving the great question, on which our endless life depends. To be a Christian, and to be abeliever in Christ, are words in Scripture of the same signification. If you have not faith, you are not Christians. This faith hath various offices and objects. By it we are justified, sanctified and saved. We are justified, not by believing that we are justified, but by believing that we may be justified; not by receiving justification immediately, but by receiving Christ for our justification; nor by mere accepting the pardon in itself, but by first receiving him that procureth and be- stoweth it, on his terms ; not by mere accepting health, but by receiving the Physician and his remedies, for health. Faith is the practical believing in God as promising, and Christ as procuring justification and salvation; or the practical belief and acceptance of life, as procured by Christ, and promised by God in the gospel. The everlasting fruition ofGod in heaven is the ultimate object. No man believeth in Christ as Christ, that believeth not in him' for eternal life. As Faith looks at Christ as the necessary means, and at the divine benignity as the fountain, and at his veracity as the foundation or formal object, ana at the promise as the true signification of his will, so cloth it ultimately look at our salvation (begun on earth, and perfected in heaven) as the end, for which it looketh at the.rest. No wonder therefore if the Holy Ghost, here speaking of the
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