ceiving Jesus, rolling ourselves on Jesus; it is á trusting in the Lord Jesus. I do not know any one single thing more variously expressed in the scriptures than believing; why? because it is the marrow of the gospel. Without faith we cannot be justified, either in our persons or performances; and therefore the Holy Ghost has variously expressed it, to let us see the importance of the point. It is expressed by a coming, trusting, receiving, and relying, (all which amounts to the same thing) under a felt conviction that we are lost, undone, condemned without him: for, as a good old Puritan observes, Christ is beholden to none of us for our hearts? we never should come to Jesus-Christ, the sinner's last shift, till we feel we cannot do without him. We are like the woman with the bloody issue; she spent a great deal of money upon physicians; if she had the sum of one half guinea more, till that was gone she never would have come to Christ; but having spent all, and then hearing that Jesus was to come that way, a sense of her need, a feeling sense of her importance, and insufficiency of all other applications, made her come to Christ; saying in her heart, If I could but touch the hem of his garment I should be whole; Jesus the son of David, would have mercy on me; or words to that purpose. She did not go about and say, pray lend me a common prayer book; it was not in print then. Where must she borrow one; her heart, touched by God, was the best common-prayer; and a few words uttered from a sense of her weakness and misery, was more rhetoric, was more music. in the ears of God, than an extempore prayer by a gifted man, admiring himself for an hour and a half .As a person told me but yesterday, of a poor

outlandish Papist that was condemned to die, held out for a long while; he would not speak to a Protestant minister, but a night or two before he suffered, comes out to him, and says, Me now see the necessity of a greater absolution than a priest can give me; and then, in his broken language, cries out, Dear Lord Jesus, show thy charity to thy poor sinner! There is language! there is rhetoric for you! and we ourselves like such language. You don't like fawning people that come into your room, and by their very manner of coming prove they are not sincere; but a poor creature that comes to pour out two or three words you see is honest, you will not say to such a one, Why do you come to me, and not speak blank verse? why do you come to me, and not speak fine language? No; sincerity is the thing; sincerity is all in all. When we are once convinced of our need and helplessness, and of Jesus's being a Redeemer, that is mighty and willing to save, a poor soul then throws himself upon this Jesus, receives this Jesus, ventures upon this Jesus, believes the word, and by thus venturing on the promise, receives from Jesus the thing promised, Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But then where there is true faith, that will, my dear hearers, be attended with what? why with salvation. He that believeth, and is baptized, saith our Lord, shall be saved: saved from what? why, from every thing that he wants to be saved from, and receives every thing God can give to compleat his whole salvation. What is it a poor sinner wants to be saved from? O, sin, sin, the guilt of sin. The first conviction brings the creatures to God by force; there are very few that are drawu by love entirely; and I seldom

find any of those that have been drawn by love but have had dreadful conflicts afterwards: for either before or after conversion, our hearts must be plowed up, or we shall never be prepared for the kingdom of heaven.

Ye shall be saved from the painful guilt of sin: what is that? why, the common-prayer book will tell you in the communion office; the rememb rance of our sins is grievous unto us, and the burden of them is intolerable. There is methodistical language. Cranmer, Latimer, or Hooper, were my brethren, what? why, they were Methodist preachers; and they used to preach in Paul's Cross, a pulpit said to be made in the shape of a cross, near St. Paul's church; and a salary given for that very purpose, I believe to this day. No matter where we preach, so that sinner's feel Christ's power in delivering them from this, which certainly implies a consciousness of pardon. I don't think the poor creature that was respited the other day, would have believed it, had he not seen the king's warrant just before the others were carried out. Why, say they, here is his majesty's pardon; he takes and receives it with joy, and is now freed from the gallows. And if persons can give this credence to an earthly king, why cannot a believer have a sense of the pardon of his sins from God? if a person reading this to me, telling me the king has pardoned me, has such an effect, why may not God's word, backed by his spirit, be brought home with such power on my heart, that I may be assured God has pardoned me, as well as a criminal that his king has saved? If this is gospel away with it, say some, who think we are not to be justified till we come to judgment. O blessed creatures! this is mod

ern divinity! our reformers knew nothing about it. We are to be declared, if you please, justified, in the day of Jesus Christ, who will pronounce it before all mankind. But, my brethren, we are to be married to Jesus Christ in this world, and the marriage is to be declared in another; and I will insist upon it, though I will not pretend to say that all that have not full assurance are not christians, yet I will say, that assurance is necessary for the well-being of a christian; the comfortable being, though not for his very existence: and I will venture to say, that a soul was never brought to Christ, but what had some ground of assurance of pardon; though, for want of knowing better, he put it by, and did not know the gift of God when it came.

But, my brethren, we shall be saved from all our sins. Here is glad tidings of great joy now come: satan may hear that; and any of you here that are coming into the Chapel as you pass along. I am glad to see poor creatures come, that I may tell them, God is love. Believers, you shall be saved from all your sins, every one of them: they shall all be blotted out. Generally, when persons are convinced, the devil preaches despair; some great sin lies upon them; and says, the poor sinner, I shall be saved from all but that; had I not been guilty of such a crime I might have hope, but I am guilty of such a sin, which is so awful, with such dreadful aggravations, I am afraid I shall never be pardoned. But, my dear souls, Christ is love; and when he loves to forgive, he forgives like a God; I will blot out your iniquities, transgressions, and sins. Come now, saith the Lord, let us reason together: though your sins are as scarlet, yet they shall be as white as snow.

I am

so far from being unwilling to save or pardon, that the angels, every time the gospel is preached, are ready to tune their harps, and long to sing an anthem to some poor sinner's conversion,

They shall be saved from the power of sin. Don't you remember that when Joshua was going on with his conquests, that there were some kings in a cave; and when he returned, he ordered them to bring the kings out for God's people to tread upon them. When I read that passage, I used to think these kings were like our corruptions hid in the cave of our hearts, and the stone of unbelief rolled to keep them in: but when we receive Christ by faith, and have pardon in him, our great Joshua takes away the stone, and says, bring out these kings, these corruptions, that have reigned over my people, and by faith let them tread on the necks of them. Our great Master, when he gave the command in the text, says, these signs shall follow them that believe, in my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with newtongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly think it shall not hurt them. These were things peculiar, in one sense, to the apostles; but in the power of faith, and as brought home to every believer, he casts out devilish lusts: and if they had drank any deadly thing, as God knows we have, they may do by them as Paul did by the viper, through the power of faith cast them off, and by this mean prove that Christ is God.

This is, my dear hearers, a present salvation. The wickedest wretch in the world will cry, I hope to be saved, though they have no notion of being saved but after their death; as a woman in Virginia told me once, when I said she must be born again; I believe you, sir, but that must be