A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

1. Faith is necessary, partly that we may have a right Apprehension of God, which by Nature we cannot have. It is not Godliness, but Idolatry, Superstition and Formality, until we have a right Knowledge of God. The Samaritans worshipped the true God, and yet it is said, John 4.22. Ye worship ye know not what. To worship God out of Form and blind Custom, it is to make him an Idol. But ⟨p. 90⟩chiefly is Faith required, because Trust is the Ground of all the other Respect that passeth between God and us. Look as Unbelief is the Ground of all Disrespect and Departure from God; Heb. 3.12. Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil Heart of Unbelief, in departing from the living God. So is Faith and Trust the Ground of all true Respect. You know our first Parents fell by Unbelief: First Satan seeks to weaken their Faith in the Promise: first he told them, Ye shall not surely die, Gen. 3.4. then ye shall be as Gods, ver. 5. First he persuaded them to Unbelief, before he persuaded them to Ambition, and aspiring after the Dignity of the Divine Nature. This is the Root of all; Men care not for God, because they do not believe him upon his Word. But now Faith is the Mother of all Respect, of all Devotion and Obedience to God. When we believe that he is, and is a Rewarder of those that come to him, this is that which makes us seek him diligently. To evidence this by the Influence which Faith hath upon the Soul: there are two powerful Affections by which the spiritual Life is acted and carried on, and they are Fear and Love; and they both need the Influence of Faith. There can be no Fear till we are persuaded of his Being and Power, whom we cannot see with bodily Eyes; but put on the Spectacles of Faith, and so we see him that is invisible, Heb. 11.27. God is within the Curtain of the Heavens; and carnal Men say, Tush! he cannot see; Job 22.12, 13, 14. Is not God in the height of Heaven? and behold the height of the Stars, how high are they? And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judg through the dark Cloud? Thick Clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not, and he walketh in the Circuit of Heaven. They cannot see him, and think he cannot see them: As the Panther hideth his Head in a Bush, and then thinks the Hunter doth not see him; and that is the Ground of all Disobedience and carnal Conversation.