7° The Cofpel-Illyfiery Direa. Iv. t` By him (as Mediator) we believe on God, that ca raifed him from the dead, and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God," 1 Pet. i. 21. And it is the fame thing with trufting on God, or on the Lord, which is fo highly commend, ed in the wholeScripture, efpecially in the old Tef- tament; as may eafily appear, by confidering, that it hath the fame caufes, efefts, objecîs, adjunas, oppofites, and all the fame circumftances, excepting only that it had a refpea to Chrift, as promifed be- fore his coming, and now it refpeaeth him as al- ready come in the flefh. '6 Believing in the Lord, and "' trufting on his falvation," are equivalent terms, that explain one another, Pfalm lxxvüi, 12. I con- fefs, that trufting on things feen or known by the mere Iight of reafon, as on our own wifdom, pow- er, riches, on princes, or any arm of flefh, may not fo properly be called believing on them ; but truft- ing on a Saviour, as difcovered by a teftimony, is properly believing on hirn. It is alío the fame thing that is expreffed by the terms of rafting, relying, leaning, Raying ourfelves on the Lord, called hop- ing in the Lord ; becaufe it is the ground of that ex- pecîation which is the proper acct of hope, though our believing and trufting be for the prefent as well as future benefit of this falva*ion. The reafon why it is fo commonly expreffed, in the Scriptures of the new Teftament, by the terms of believing on Chrift, might be probably, becaufe, when that part of Scrip- ture was written, there was caufe in a fpecial man- ner to urge believing the teftimony that was then newly revealed by the gofpel. Having thus explained the nature of faith, I come now to,afi'ert its proper ufe and office in our falva- tion. That it is the means and inftrument where- by we receive Chrift, and all his fulnefs, aftually in- to cur hearts. This excellent ufe and office of faith is encountered by a multitude of errors. Men na-
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