i 138 The Nature of u a ing Faith. xnèrcy to be the,peculiar Obje& ; and that efpecial mercy to be filch as to include in it the pardon of our own fins. This by their Adverfaries is fiercely oppofed, and that on fuck. Grounds as manifeft that they do not believe that there is any fuck {fate attainable in this Life ; and that if there were, it would not be of any ufe unto us, but rather be a means of fecurity and negligence in our Duty ; wherein they betray howgreat is the Ignorance of there things in their own Minds. But Mercy may be find to be E fjiecial" two ways. (I) In it felf, and in oppofition unto common mercy. (2) With refpeer unto him that believes. In the firft fenfe E ffecial mercy is the Objeer of Faith as Juftifying. For no more is intended by it, but the Grace of God letting forth Chrift to be a pro pitiát.ion" through Faith in his Blood, Rom 3.23, 24. And Faith in this Efpecial mercy, is that which the Apoftle calls our Receiving cf the Atonement, Rom. 5. i i. That is our Approbation of it, and Adherence unto it, as; the great Effe of Divine Wifdom, Goodnefs, Faithfulnefs, Love and Grace, which' will therefore never fail, them who put their Truft in it. In the latter fenfe it is looked on as the pardon of our oion lins in particular, the efpecial mercy of 'God unto our Souls. That this is the Objet of Juftifying Faith, That a man is bound to believe this in order of Nature antecedent unto his - Jutification I do deny ; neither yet do I know of any Teftimony or fafe Experience - whereby it may be confirmed. But yet for any to deny that an undeceiving belief hereof is to be attained in. this life ; or that it is our duty to believe the pardon of our own fins, and the cfpecial Love of God in Chrift, in the order and method of 'our duty and privi- ledges limited and determined in. the Gofpei, fb as to come to the full affurance of them, (though I will not deny bat that Peace with Cod which is infeparable from Jufiifieati_on may be without them) feern not "to be much "acquaivoted with the Defign of God in the Got el, the Efficacy Olfi the Sacrifice-
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