Under these Difficulties, whither shall we go for Refuge and Support? whither! but to the Promises of God, and to this full Perfuafion, That what he has promised he is able to perform. If we hold fast this Perfuafion, and stagger not through Unbelief, then shall we indeed be the Children of the Faith of Abraham, whofe Faith was imputed to him for Righteoufnefs: For, as St. Paul tells us, this Testimony of Abraham's Faith was not written for his fake alone, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raifed up Jefus our Lord from the Dead. Here then is the great Article of Christian Faith, even of that Faith which will be imputed to us for Righteousness: It is a firm Confidence and Reliance upon God, under this peculiar Character, That he is the Raiferup of the Dead, and will, according to his Promife, raife us to Life eternal.

For the Confirmation of this Hope and Faith God raifed his own Son from the Grave; who for that Reafon is faid to be raised for our Juftification, fince upon the Authority and Credit of his Resurrection depends that great Article of Faith by which alone we are to be justified.

As the bleffed Fruit of this Faith is to all true Believers Life and Immortality, fo it

highly concerns us to confider what the

Event of Unbelief muft be. perhaps content themselves Hopes of Glory and future

Many would without the Happiness, if

that was all. But that is not all: For the Dead fhall be raised, whether you like it, or like it not; all who are in the Grave fhall come forth, fome to Life, fome to Condemnation, according to the Things done in the Body. Nothing can fecure to us more effectually an happy State in Futurity, than a conftant and steddy Belief and Expectation of the Refurrection of the Dead. This will convince us that what we are now doing are not fuch trifling Things as to be soon forgotten, or attended with Confequences only for to-day or to-morrow; but they are Things long to be remembered, Things noted down in God's Book, and will be exposed to View at the great Day in the Prefence of Men and of Angels, and be attended with Confequences through all the Ages of Eternity, to our great Honour and Happiness, or to Our great Confufion and Misery.

DISCOURSE VIII.

ROMANS viii. 16.

The Spirit itfelf beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the Children of God.

T

O be the Children of God is the greatest Privilege under the Gospel, and, confequently, implies in it all the Advantages that belong to, and all the Qualities neceffary to make, a good Christian. Thus our Apostle argues: If Children, then Heirs; Heirs of God, and Joint-heirs with Chrift. As this is a new State, which belongs not to us by Nature, fo our Entrance into it is ftyled a new Birth; and we are faid to be born again, and to be begotten again, to thefe Hopes: He, from whom we receive these Hopes, is the Father that begets us, and his Q 2 Children

Children we are: And therefore, as we re ceive our fpiritual Life from the Gift and Mercy of God, he is our Father, and we are his Children. Thus St. Peter tells us, that we are born again, not of corruptible Seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever, 1 Pet. i. 23. This new Life we receive by the Miniftration of the Spirit: The Powers which belong to this Life, and in which it confifts, depend upon the Influences of the Spirit: And therefore we are faid to be born of the Spirit. He is the Earneft of our Inheritance, the Pledge and Security which we receive from God of our future Immortality: Our Right of Inheritance depends upon the Relation we bear to God of Sons and Children: And therefore the Spirit of Adoption, by which we are born to God, is the Pledge and Security of our Inheritance, as he is ftyled by our Apostle.

But the Difficulty is, how to make the first Step, and to know affuredly that we are the Children of God. When once we are fure of this, it will not be hard to believe that God will provide for his own Children, and fecure to them an Inheritance that fadeth not away. And here the Apostle tells us,

that