252 FAITH IN ITS LOWEST DEGREES. ed in this looking to Jesus ; and ask itself whether it has put forth these acts or no? Besides. this, I would mention also these two properties of saving faith, as it is described by looking: 1. It must be such a look_as immediately affects the heart with love and sorrow ; sorrow for our own sins, and love to Christ our Saviour. If we have ever seen himwith sincerede- light as a Saviour from sin, we shall mourn heartily that ever we were sinners. We cannot but repent for sin, while we be- lieve or hope for the forgivenessof it through such condescend- ing grace. And we cannot but love so compassionate and al- mighty a Friend, that has delivered us from eternal destruction. Having seen Christ we are weaned from sin, and we love the Lord. Mary Magdalene, that remarkable sinner, lying. at the foot of Christ, wept much and loved much; Luke vii. 38, 47. You have never seen Christ, as your Saviour, if your sins are not the objects of your shame and sorrow ; or if Jesus be not the object'of your desire and love. 2. It must be such a look as changes the soul and4emper into another image, even the image of Christ. 2 Cor. iii. 18. Tare, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory. In the glass of the gospel beholding the glorious holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ, our very tempers are changed into his holy likeness, from one degree of grace to another, till it advance to complete glory ; and then we shall be made more perfectly like him by seeing him as he is, or face to face ; 1 John iii. 2. There will be a shine of holiness on our conversation in this world, as reflected from the glory and holinessof Christ, whom wehave seen, even as the face of Moses shone when he had seen God; Ex. xxxiv. 29, 30. That is, when he had seen the Son of God conversing with hiìn in a visible glorÿ. A saving look of faith to our Lord Jesus Christ, will happily influence all the powers of nature, and all the actions of life. This is seldom done indeed at once, but bÿ,slow degrees. The longer we behold him, and the oftener we look to him, the more we shall grow like him. Wemust look to Jesus as our example, as well as the author and finisher of our faith ; that We may lay aside the sin that so easily besets us, and run with patience the-race of holiness that is set before us; Heb. xii. 1, 2. In vain do we pretend to have seen Christ, if we do not find ourselves at all beginning tobecome new creatures. Thus I have finished my answer to the fourth enquiry ; viz. How we are to come by this salvation ; and why the act of faith is expressed by looking to Christ.
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