f ireet. IV. O, f Sanaification. 67 fearchable riches of Chrift, and Chrift hi us, the hope of glory, Eph. iii, 8. Col. i. 27 and doth aifo invite us and command us to believe on Chrift for his fai- vation, and doth encourage us by a free promife of that falvation to all that believe on him, Aas xvi. 31. Rom, x.. 9, II. This is God's own inftrument of conveyance, wherein he fendeth Chrift to us, to biefs us with his falvation, Aas iii. 26. It is the mi- i iftration of the Spirit and of righteoufnefs, 2 Cor... iii. 6, 8, 9. Faith cometh by the hearing of it; and therefore it is a great inftrument, whereby we are be- gotten in Chrift, and Chrift is formed in us, Rom. s:. 16, 17. x Cor. iv. 15. Gal. iv. 19. There is no need for us to fay in our hearts, "Who (hall afcend " into heaven, tobring Chrift down from above? or, " who (hall defcend into the deep, tobring up Chrift " from thedead," that we may be united, and have feilowfhip withhim in his death and refurreEtion ? for the word is nigh to us, the gofpel, the word of faith, in whichChrift himfelf gracioufly condefeend- .eth to be nigh to us; fo that we may come at him there, without going any further, if we delire to be joined to him, Rom. x 6, 7, 8. The other of thefe means is faith, that is wrought in us by the gofpel. This is our inftrument of re- ception, whereby the union between Chrift and us is accomplifhed on our part, by our aEtual receiving Chrift himfelf, with all his fulnefs, into our heart ; which is the principal fubjeEt of the prefent expla- nation. The faith which philofophers commonly treat of, is only an habit of the underftanding, whereby we affent to a teftimony upon the authority of the tef- tifier. Accordingly, fome would have faith in Chrift to be no more than a believing the truth of things in religion, upon the authority of Chrift teftifying them. But the apoftle fheweth, that the faith whereby we are juftified, is faith in Chrift's bloods Rom. iii. 24 , 25. not only in his authority
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