nd
faith only that discerns unbelief. It is life and health only that feel
pain and sickness, for if all were alike, nothing could be found,(136) as
in dead bodies. Now, I say to such souls as believe in God the Lawgiver,
believe also in Christ the Redeemer. And what is that? It is not to know
that I have an interest in him. No, that must come after, it is the
Spirit's sealing after believing which puts itself out of question when it
comes. And so if you had it you needed not many signs to know it by, at
least you would not doubt of it, more than he that sees the light can
question it. But, I say, to believe in Christ is simply this:
I,--whatsoever I be,--ungodly, wretched, polluted, desperate, am willing to
have Jesus Christ for my Saviour, I have no other help, or hope, if it be
not in him. It is, I say, to lean the weight of thy soul on this
foundation stone laid in Zion, to embrace the promises of the gospel,
albeit general, as "worthy of all acceptation," and wait upon the
performance of them. It is no other thing but to make Christ welcome, to
say, " 'Even so, Lord Jesus,' I am content in my soul that thou be my
Saviour, to be found in thee, 'not having my own righteousness.' " I am
well pleased to cast away my own as dung, and find myself no other than an
ungodly man. Now it is certain that many souls that are still questioning
whether they have faith, yet do find this in their souls, but because they
know not that it is faith which they find, they go about to seek that
which is not faith, and where it is not to be found, and so disquiet
themselves in vain, and hinder fruitfulness.

Now, the faith of a Christian is no fancy, it is not a light vain
imagination of the brain, but it dwells in the heart,--"with the heart man
believes," and it dwells with love. Faith and love, we need not be curious
to distinguish them. It is certain that love is in it, and from it. It is
in the very bosom of it, because faith is a soul embracing of Christ, it
is a choosing of him for its portion and then upon the review of this
goodly portion, and from consideration of what he is, and hath done for
us, the soul loves him still more, and is impatient of so much distance
from him. We find them conjoined in Scripture, but they are one in the
heart. O that we studied to have these jointly engraven on the heart! As
they are joined in the word, so our heart should be a "living epistle."
Faith and love are two words but one thing under diffe