ous cabinet fit for it; the mystery of faith laid up, and kept in a pure conscience. And these two are not only suitable, but inseparable, as we see in the first chapter of this epistle, ver. 10 ; they are preserved and lost together; they suffer the same shipwreck the casting away of the one is the shipwreck of the other; if the one perish, the other cannot escape. Every believer is the temple of God; and as the tables of the law were kept in the ark, this pure conscience is the ark that holds the mystery of faith. You think you are believers, you do not question that, and would take it ill that others should; it is very hard to convince men of unbelief, directly and in itself: but if you do believe this truth, that the only receptacle of saving faith is a purified conscience, then I beseech you, question yourselves concerning that; being truly answered in it, it will resolve you touching your faith, which you are so loath to question in itself. Are your consciences pure? Have you a living hatred and antipathy against all impurity? Then sure faith is there; for it is the peculiar virtue of faith to purify the heart, Acts xv. 9, and the heart so purified is the proper residence of faith, were it dwells and rests as in its natural place. But have you consciences that can lodge pride, and lust, and malice, and covetousness, and such like pollutions? Then be no more so impudent as to say you believe, nor deceive yourselves so far as to think you do. The blood of Christ never speaks peace to any conscience, but the same that it purifies from dead works to serve the living God, Heb. ix. 13, 14. As that blood is a sacrifice to appease God's wrath, so it is a laver to wash our souls, and to serve both ends; it is as was the blood of legal sacrifices, both offered up to God and sprinkled upon us, as both are expressed in the apostle's words there. Do not think that God will throw this jewel of faith into a sty or kennel, a conscience full of defilement and uncleanness. Therefore if you have any mind to those comforts and peace that faith brings along with it, be careful to lodge it where it delights

to dwell, in a pure conscience. Notwithsanding the unbelieving world mocks the name of purity; yet study you above all, that purity and holiness that may make your souls a fit abode for faith, and that peace which it worketh, and that holy Spirit that works both in you.

Faith is either the doctrine which we believe, or that grace by which we believe that doctrine here I conceive it is both met and united in the soul, as they say of the understanding in the schools, Intelli. gendo fit illud quod intelligit; so faith apprehending its proper object, is made one with it. Faith is kept in a pure conscience; that is, both that pure doctrine of the gospel which faith receives, and that faith which receives it, are together fitly placed and preserved, when they are laid up in a pure conscience. The doctrine of faith cannot be received into nor laid up in the soul, but by that faith that believes it, and that faith hath no being without believing that doctrine; and both are fitly called, the mystery of faith. The doctrine is mysterious, and it is a mysterious work to beget faith in the heart to receive it: for the things we must believe are very high and heavenly, and our hearts are earthly and base till the Spirit renew them. In our confession of faith we have both expressed; the first word is a profession of faith, which receives the doctrine as true-I believe, and the articles themselves contain the sum of the doctrine believed: and if we that profess this faith have within us pure consciences, wherein the mystery of faith, the doctrine of faith believed, and the grace of faith believing it, both together as one, may reside, dwell, and be preserved ; then is the text completely answered in the present subject.

Remember, then, since we profess this faith, which is the proper seat of faith. Not our books, our tongues only, or memories, or judgment, but our conscience; and not our natural conscience defiled and stuffed with sin, but renewed and sanctified by grace, holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience.

I believe in God the Father.

Not to insist here on the nature of faith, taking it as comprehensively as we can, it is no other but a supernatural belief of God, and confidence in him. Whether we call God, or the word of God, the object of faith, there is no material difference, for it is God in the word, as revealed by the word, that is that object. God is that veritas incomplexa (as they speak) that faith embraces; and the word, the veritas complexa, that contains what we are to conceive of God, and believe concerning him. As, in the gospel, the peculiar object of that faith that saves fallen man, it is all one, whether we say it is Christ, or the promises: for it is Christ revealed and held forth in the promises that faith lays hold on; "In him are all the promises of God yea, and in him amen." So that it is all one act of faith that lays hold on Christ, and on the promises, for they are all one, he is in them; and therefore faith rests on them, because they include Christ who is our rest and our peace, as a man at once receives a ring and the precious stone that is set in it. This once rightly understood, any further dispute about placing faith in the understanding or the will, is possibly in itself not at all needful; sure I am it is no way useful for you. Take heed of carnal, profane presumption, for that will undo you; and labour to be sure of such a faith as dwells in a pure conscience, and it will be sure not to deceive you.

That confidence which this expression bears, believing in God, supposes certainly (as all agree) a right belief concerning God, both that he is, and what he is, according as the word reveals him, especially what he is relating to us; these three we have together, Heb. xi. 6: He that cometh to God, must believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 1. That he is. 2. To trust his word, believing that he is true to his promises, a rewarder of them that seek him. 3. Upon these follows coming to him, which is this, believing in that God that the Psalm speaks of, that reliance and resting of the soul upon

him that results from that right belief concerning him, and trusting the testimony of his word, as it reveals him.

We have discoursed of the attributes of God elsewhere, as also of the Trinity, which is here expressed in these words: I believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That sublime mystery is to be cautiously treated of, and rather humbly to be admired than curiously dived into. The day will come (truly a day, for here we are beset with the gloomy nightly shades of ignorance) wherein we shall see him as he is. In the mean time let us devoutly worship him, as he has revealed himself to us; for this is the true way to that heavenly country, where we shall see him face to face. And it is our interest here to believe the trinity of persons in the unity of the Godhead, and to trust in them as such, for this is the spring of all our hope, that the middle of the three became our Mediator, and the Holy Spirit our guide and teacher, and the Father reconciles us to himself by the Son, and renews us by the Spirit.

Father. First, the Father of his only-begotten Son Christ, and through him our Father by the grace of adoption. And so Christ does clearly insinuate the order of our filiation-I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. He says, not to our Father, but to my Father and your Father, first mine, and then yours through me.

Almighty. This also belongs to the attributes of God, so we shall be but short on it here.

Almighty, able in himself to do all things, and the source of all power in others, all the power in the creature being derived from him; so that it cannot altogether equal his, nor resist him, no, nor at all be without him. Whosoever they be that boast most in their own strength in any kind, and swell highest in conceit of it, are yet but as a brittle glass in the hand of God; he can not only break it to pieces by the strength of his hand, but if he do but withdraw his hand from supporting it, it will fall and break of itself.

Maker of heaven and earth. The Son and the Spirit were, with the Father, authors of the creation; but it is ascribed to the Father particularly, in regard of the order and manner of their working. Whether natural reason may evince the creation of the world, we will not dispute; we know that he that had very much of that, and is the great master of it in the schools, could not see it by that light; yet there is enough in reason to answer all the false cavils of profane men, and very much to justify the truth of this we believe. However we must endeavour to believe it by divine faith, according to that of the apostle, By faith we believe that the worlds were framed by the word of God. And this is the first article we meet withal in the Scriptures, and our faith is put to it in a very high point in the very entrance.

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth, speaking like himself; it is not proved by demonstrations nor any kind of arguments, but asserted by the authority of God: and with that which begins the books of the law, John begins his gospel; that, upon His word that by his word made the world, we may believe that he did so.

This is fitly added to the title of Almighty as a work of Almighty power, and therefore a clear testimony of it, and both together will suit with our profession of believing in him; for this is a main support of our faith, to be persuaded of his power on whom we trust. Our God is able to deliver us (said they); and Abraham, the apostle says, he offered up his son, accounting, or reasoning with himself, or laying his reckoning, that God was able to raise him from the dead.

We make more bold to speak out our own questioning the love and good-will of God, because we think we have some reason in that from our own unworthiness, but if we would sound our own hearts, we should often find in our distrusts some secret doubting of God's power. Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? said they; though accustomed to miracles, yet still unbelieving. We think we are strongly enough