Hearken unto me, YE STOUT HEARTED, that are FAR from righteousness; I bring near my righteous

ness.

The Savior thus given God hath made it the duty of every one who hears the gospel to açcept, that he may be saved; and he cannot reject the gift but at the peril of his soul. This is the commandment of God, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.

Now, the divine command requiring all the hearers of the gospel to receive the Lord Jesus for salvation, it is manifest that he is freely given in the gospel offer to every one of them in particular. Moreover, all the hearers of the gospel are either believers or unbelievers. That Christ was offered to believers is evident from the fact that they have received him, and are saved by him; and that he is offered to unbelievers is no less evident, because they will be condemned for their unbelief. He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. But the righteous Lord, who loveth righteousness, will not condemn sinners for rejecting an offer which was never made.

From all this it results, that God hath laid in his word a firm foundation for the faith of sinners-that they have his own warrant, and therefore a perfect right, to take the Lord Jesus

in all his grace and fullness for their own salvation in particular.

Now, as saving faith must correspond both with the warrant of the divine testimony, and with the right to an offered Savior which that warrant creates, it is properly asserted to be a receiving and resting upon Christ alone for salvation as he is offered to us in the gospel.

It is to be carefully noted, that the true and only object of faith is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, set forth and given to sinners as such, in the free promise of the gospel; and that, in believing, we receive and rest upon HIM, and upon him alone, in all those relations, for all those ends, and in that manner which the divine testimony exhibits, and thus set to our seal that God is true.

This receiving of Christ and resting upon him are usually termed the appropriation and assurance of faith. By the former we take the Lord Jesus, who is ours in the general grant, to be ours in personal possession. By the latter we trust in him that we shall be saved; believing, that whatever he did for any of the human race he did for us, and that whatever God hath promised to his people shall be performed unto us. These are not to be considered as different acts, but as essential properties of the grace of faith. of faith. And that they are essential to it is most demonstrable.

First, then; Appropriation of the Lord Jesus to ourselves, for our own salvation in particular, is essential to saving faith-For,

1. Without such an appropriation faith could not answer to its warrant in the divine testimony, which, as hath been proved, tenders Christ to every one in particular; nor to the authority of the divine command, which requires every one in particular to take him thus tendered.

2. Without such an appropriation there would be no material difference between the faith of God's people, and that of hypocrites or devils. Both may believe in general that Christ died for sinners; that God is in him, reconciling the world unto himself; that he is able to save sinners, and that many shall be saved by him. Mere assent to the abstract truth of the gospel does not and cannot imply any complacency or interest in the salvation which it reveals. But that faith which may be found in the devils and the damned can in no sense be saving faith.

3. The condemnation of the law is particular. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. When the Holy Ghost convinces of sin, the sinner sees himself in particular shut up under the curse. THOU art the man, says the violated law; I am the man, replies his awakened conscience. Nor is it possible that he should have peace or safety till the blood of Christ.

purge his conscience, and he, for himself, be delivered from the curse. Therefore, if there were not in believing a particular application of Christ to the soul, the curse of the law would be more efficacious to destroy than the blood of Christ to

save.

A sentence of

4. Salvation is particular. justification must pass upon, and a work of sanctification be wrought in, every one who shall see the kingdom of God. But justification, and sanctification, and whatever else belongs to the salvation of the gospel, flow unto us only in and through Christ Jesus. And as we receive his benefits in believing; as they cannot be separated from himself; and as they are all communicated by particular application to our souls, it is evident that the faith which embraces him, and with him his benefits, is a faith of particular appropriation. He is made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

5. The experience of God's people, as it is described in his word, proves that their faith is an appropriating faith. Whether they rejoice in the light, or mourn under the hidings, of his countenance, they equally claim him as their God, even their own God. I will love thee, O Lord, MY strength. The Lord is my rock, and MY fortress, and MY deliverer; MY God, MY strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and

the horn of MY salvation, and мy high tower. Thou art the God of my strength: Why dost thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? O send out thy light and thy truth-Then will I go-unto God MY exceeding joy: Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, My God.

6. The scripture continually ascribes this appropriation to faith. It is illustrated by figures, than which nothing can more strongly mark its appropriating quality. It receives the Lord Jesus as a gift-puts him on as a garment-flees to him as a refuge-lays hold of him as a hopeclaims him as a portion-feeds upon him as the living bread which came down from heaven. This indeed is the very life of a believer's soul, the fountain of his hope, his peace, his consolation, that Christ is his Savior, and God, in Christ, his covenant-God.

Secondly. In believing we not only appropriate the Lord Jesus to ourselves, but are persuaded that whatever he did for the salvation of sinners he did for us, and that whatever God has promised to his people shall be performed to us. This persuasion is the assurance of faith, and is inseparable from it.

1. Faith being an assent to and a reliance on testimony, respects nothing but the veracity of the testifier. It is this which distinguishes it from all other principles, and which is essential