. . "7.ru{J for Salvation. 317 his righteotifnefs.. 'Tis true indeed, this particular trufi and confidence may be aifaulted with many doubts and fears : but thefe are things that faith ha rh to conflict with, as its oppofites; and the fironger that faith is, the lefs they prevail, the weaker it is. they prevail the more,Mat. xiv. 31. ' O..thou oflirtle · faith, wherefore didll: thou doubt?' It is indeecl, of very different degrees in different perfons, and in one and the fame perfon at different times: but ifyou remove. all trufi and confidence in Chriil, for one's own f:1l10 vation, from faith, the very nature and eiTence of it is defiroyed. For at that rate, the finner whofe con,. fide~ce in' the fldh, Jot his falvation, is raz'd, having no confidence for it, in Chnjl neither, is· left quite unfettled and wavering, like a wave ·of the fea, or ' a reed in the w'ater: and where then is faith's building, leaning,fiaying, r~!ying,and refiing the foul on Chri/H J ames i. 6. ' Let him afk in faith, nothing wavering: . for he that wavereth is like a wave of the fea, driv,en with tbe wind, and toifed.' Ver. 7. ' For let not that tnaa think that he fuall receive any thing ofthe Lord.' But the believing finner, finding his confidence in the flefh raz'd, doth, by believing, -cafi the an~hor of his trufl: and confiden{:e on- Chrifi Jefus and his righte~ oufnefs, confiding and trufiing that he will fave him. And however he may indeed waver in that matter ; being tolfed with _doubts and fears about his falvati+ on, -weakning the altings of that his confidence; ·and fometimes 'prevailing iofar, as to caufe an intermitting of the exercife thereof; yet, even in that cafe' under all that toiling, he cloth not waver like a wave cf the fea, that bath nothing to fix it; but only like a fhip at anchor. His confidence is never quite rooted out, as to the habit thereof; but wi!I again .exert itfelf: .and -in that .refpea, every believer, as a real ' ·partak1 er of Chdft, holds the beginning of his confidence, fiedfaft unto the end,' Heb. iii. .14. And thi.s trufi an<i I •
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