The right method for a settled peace of conscience, and spiritual comfort in 32…

(where the Examples and Elogies of Faith are set forth) do exclude Christ Crucified, or the respect to his Satisfaction, from Justifying Faith, and place it in a mere Expectation of Glory: and others do as ungroundedly affirm, that it is not the Justifying Act of Faith which Heb. 11. describeth, because they find not the Cross of Christ there mentioned. For as Believing in Christs Blood Comprehendeth the End, even the Expectation of Remission and Glory merited by that blood: so the Believing of that Glory doth always imply that we Believe and Expect it as the fruit of Christs Ransom. It is for health and life that we Accept and Trust upon our Physician: And it is for Justification and Salvation that we Accept and Trust on Christ. The Salvation of our Souls is the End of our Faith. They that question whether we may Believe and Obey for our ⟨image 13⟩own Salvation, do question whether we may go to the Physician, and follow his advice for Health and Life. Why then do you that are Believers, so much forget the End of your Faith? and that for which it is that you Believe? Believing in Christ for present Mercies only, be they temporal or spiritual, is not the true Believing. They are dangerously mistaken that think the thoughts of Heaven to be so accidental to the nature and work of Faith, as that they tend only to our Comfort, and are not necessary to Salvation it self. It is upon your apprehensions and expectations of that unseen felicity that both your Peace and Safety do depend. How contrary therefore is it to the nature of a Believer, to forget the Place of his Rest and Consolation! and to Look for so much of these from Creatures, in this our present Pilgrimage and Prison, as, alas, too commonly we do! Thus do we kill our Comforts, and then complain for want of them. How should you have any Life or Constancy of Consolations, that are so seldom, so slight, so unbelieving and ⟨image 14⟩so heartless in your thoughts of Heaven! You know what a folly it is to expect any Peace, which shall not come from Christ as the Fountain: And you must learn as well to understand what a folly it is to expect any solid Joys, or stable Peace, which is not fetched from Heaven, as from the End. O that Christians were careful to live with one eye still on Christ Crucified, and with the other on Christ coming in Glory!