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to every kind of it, in every degree, and under every circumstance. Now the testimony of the living God hath set forth the Lord Jesus as a propitiation through faith in his blood. There can be no medium between receiving him by faith and rejecting him by unbelief; and in believing we can believe nothing but what God hath testified, because this is the sole ground of our faith. But he hath testified, that whatever Christ did as a Savior he did for them who receive him; and that to them, and every one of them, all the exceeding great and precious promises shall certainly be accomplished. I cannot, therefore, cast my soul upon Christ for salvation without believing the divine testimony; and this assures me, that as a believer I in particular shall be saved; so that my faith, corresponding with God's testimony, necessarily includes a persuasion of my own salvation in particular.

2. In the scripture faith is uniformly opposed to doubting. If ye have faith and doubt not. O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? If a man lack wisdom let him ask of God-but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering; but doubting being the want of assurance, and being the reverse of faith, assurance is necessarily of the essence of faith.

3. The testimony of God's word to this property of faith is clear and decisive. It forms the

chief part of the definition which the Holy Ghost has given. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.* We are exhorted to draw nigh to the holiest of all with true hearts, and in the full assurance of faith. Where the truth contended for is doubly established. (1.) By direct assertion; The assurance of faith, i. e. the assurance which belongs to faith; or else the expression is destitute of meaning. (2.) By allowing degrees in this assurance—the FULL assurance of faith. Which implies the existence of the assurance itself; for a thing which has no being cannot have degrees of being. These passages alone, and especially in connection with others which represent faith as building on Christ the foundation, trusting in him, resting and leaning on him, do fully prove that assurance is of the nature of faith.

4. The fruits of faith do also bespeak assurance. Believers have peace in their consciences-they are freed from the dominion of sin-they overcome the world-they receive from the fullness of Christ Jesus-they mind the things of the Spirit, &c. All these blessings are the subject of promise, and are enjoyed only in the way of believing the promise. But how can he believe the promise who has no confidence in it? and how can a sinner have relief from the

* The original word, rendered “evidence,” signifies demonstration-argument which forbids reply.

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terrors of the law? How can this enlightened conscience be pacified? Much more, how can he walk in newness of life, unless he be persuaded that he in particular is reconciled to God; that he in particular shall be saved; and unless he repose his soul upon the faithfulness of God in Christ, who hath promised to do to him and for him far more abundantly than he can ask or think?

Against this doctrine of faith it cannot be justly objected, "that it requires every one who hears the gospel to believe that Christ died for him in particular, and thus terminates in the error of universal redemption.'

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This consequence is avoided by a very plain and important distinction between faith as a general duty and as a special grace. As a general duty, it is to believe assuredly on the testimony of God, who cannot lie, that Christ Jesus is freely given in the gospel offer to me in particular; and to take him to myself, as the Father's gift, for my own particular salvation; persuaded, in thus receiving him, that I shall be saved. It is this receiving of Christ which converts the indefinite promise of salvation to believers into a promise of salvation to me in particular; and without this appropriation of Christ none have a right to conclude that he died for them and that they shall be saved. As a special grace, faith does actually receive the Lord Jesus, and

thus binds the divine faithfulness to the particular salvation of him who believes; so that he may warrantably say and ought to be persuaded, and in some measure is persuaded, that whatever Christ did for sinners he did for him, and whatever God hath promised to his people shall be accomplished to him.

Nor can it be objected, that "this doctrine of faith, representing true believers as at all times undoubtedly assured of their own gracious state, is inconsistent with Christian experience, and with the encouragements held forth in scripture to those who labor under doubts and fears; and tends to make sad the hearts of those whom God hath not made sad."

The question is not concerning a believer's opinions of his state, which are influenced not only by his faith but by his feelings, by temptations, by corruptions, and especially by unbelief, but concerning the nature of his faith itself. That this is sometimes strong, sometimes weak, yea, so weak that he cannot discern its operations, and even disputes its existence, is most certain; but faith he has, notwithstanding. His being unconscious of it at the time does no more prove the want of it, than unconsciousness of the vital motions of the body proves a state of death. Though his faith be small as a grain of mustardseed, and feeble as the first motion of embryo life, it is essentially the same with the branching tree, and with the active energy of a perfect

man. It is, therefore, as really opposed to every kind of doubting in its faintest as in its most vigorous exercise. The difference lies only in degree. Doubting believers there are, but doubting faith there cannot be. In so far as a believer doubts, he is under the power of unbelief; for be his darkness and his fears what they may, they prevail exactly in the same proportion as his faith fails. A doubting faith, then, is equivalent to an unbelieving faith; or, which is the same thing, a believing unbelief. But this is a contradiction. It is therefore undeniable, that in the midst of conflict and dejection, the believer does and cannot but trust, and that for himself, in the mercy and faithfulness of his covenant-God. This is evinced to others, and may be evinced to the satisfaction of his own soul by his clinging to the Lord Christ as his only hope, and by his horror at the thought of relinquishing his claim to the promises, and to the living God as his portion. Poor as he may call his hope, he would not barter it for millions of worlds. This bespeaks a trust, and that not a slender one, in the Lord's promise, in Christ, for personal salvation; and this trust is precisely the assurance asserted as essential to saving faith.

It would greatly conduce to clear views of this subject were the distinction between the assurance of faith and the assurance of sense

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