Living Faith
But if you have learned " the truth as it is in Jesus," I tell you (saith the Apostle) what that must be : it must come to this, the " putting off of the old man, which is corrupt by deceivable lusts/' and " being renewed in the spirit of your mind." Ephes. iv. 22, 23. You are never come into the unity of that faith which belongs to all that shall be saved, till there be thereupon a divestiture and total investiture. A dives titure and " putting off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceivable lusts;" you must cease to be the man that you were before, and (as that which is inter vening and central in the case) there must be a renovation even in the spirit of your minds, a new heart and a right spirit being created and renewed in yon, being renewed in the spirit of your minds, the inward seat of vital go verning principles. If the spirit of the mind be renewed, that spreads influence through the man, then there is a new man put on. Not some slight, superficial change in this or that particular respect, but an entire new man. As he that is iu Christ is said to be a new creature. There is a new creation introduced, the man is new. This must be, if your faith be to any purpose. The apostle blesses God for the Thcssalonians, in that he could look upon them, as those that were chosen to salvation by the remarkable and observable effects. The way that God had taken with them was, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth j such a believing of the truth as had been ac companied with the sauctitication of the Spirit. Agreeably
to that of our Lord himself, " Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John xvii. I/. 4. See that it be such a faith as doth and shall govern your lives, so that you live by it, and thereupon cannot only say, I did believe seven or ten or twenty years ago, but I continually live by my believing. A man is not said to live by that which rarely happens to him, or once or twice in a lifetime. We are to live by breathing, but we cannot do so if it be not continual. So we are to live by believing; " the just shall live by his faith." That he is continually to live by all his days. Can it be thought that such an one shall be said to live now, because he ' drew breath twenty years ago? But that belief which is true, real, vital, will be continually repeating its acts and exercises. (( The life that I live in the flesh (says the Apostle,) I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Gal. ii. 20. That is, if your faith be a right vital principle, and such as the gospel means and signifies by the name of faith, it is such a thing as carries up the soul into a conti nual course, into an invisible scene of things. There you have an invisible God, and an invisible Christ, and an in visible glory, still in view. There are some that talk of such a thing as a double sight, or a second sight, so as that they who have it have a visible world and an invisible world in view at once. I know no second sight like that of faith. That, indeed, will present an invisible world, and keep it in view before you, so that by it you will be more conversant in the world of spirits, with the Father of spirits, and with spiritual and invisible things ; more conversant in your hearts, more with delight, more with savour and relish, than in this shadowy scene of things which you have within the view and under the notice of your sense. You will look upon this world " as that the fashion thereof passeth away ;" but by your faith (which is to you " the sub stance ot things hoped for," &c.) you will live above, you will live with God, you will live with Christ, you will live as on the brink and borders of eternity, ready to enter in, only waiting for a dismission hence—a call and translation thither. This is living by faith.
to that of our Lord himself, " Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John xvii. I/. 4. See that it be such a faith as doth and shall govern your lives, so that you live by it, and thereupon cannot only say, I did believe seven or ten or twenty years ago, but I continually live by my believing. A man is not said to live by that which rarely happens to him, or once or twice in a lifetime. We are to live by breathing, but we cannot do so if it be not continual. So we are to live by believing; " the just shall live by his faith." That he is continually to live by all his days. Can it be thought that such an one shall be said to live now, because he ' drew breath twenty years ago? But that belief which is true, real, vital, will be continually repeating its acts and exercises. (( The life that I live in the flesh (says the Apostle,) I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Gal. ii. 20. That is, if your faith be a right vital principle, and such as the gospel means and signifies by the name of faith, it is such a thing as carries up the soul into a conti nual course, into an invisible scene of things. There you have an invisible God, and an invisible Christ, and an in visible glory, still in view. There are some that talk of such a thing as a double sight, or a second sight, so as that they who have it have a visible world and an invisible world in view at once. I know no second sight like that of faith. That, indeed, will present an invisible world, and keep it in view before you, so that by it you will be more conversant in the world of spirits, with the Father of spirits, and with spiritual and invisible things ; more conversant in your hearts, more with delight, more with savour and relish, than in this shadowy scene of things which you have within the view and under the notice of your sense. You will look upon this world " as that the fashion thereof passeth away ;" but by your faith (which is to you " the sub stance ot things hoped for," &c.) you will live above, you will live with God, you will live with Christ, you will live as on the brink and borders of eternity, ready to enter in, only waiting for a dismission hence—a call and translation thither. This is living by faith.
Comments
Post a Comment