The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

2. Faith is expressed by looking. Look unto me and be saved, Isa. 45.22. A man shall look to his Maker, and his Eyes shall have respect unto the Holy One of Israel, Chap. 17.1. They shall look on me whom they have pierced, Zech. 12.10. See Psal. 123.2. The nature hereof is expressed, Joh. 3.14, 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have eternal life. For so was he to be lifted up on the Cross in his Death, Joh. 8.28. Chap. 12.32. The Story is recorded Numb. 21.8, 9. I suppose none doubt but that the Stinging of the people by fiery Serpents, and the Death that ensued thereon, were Types of the guilt of Sin, and the Sentence of the fiery Law thereon. For these things happened unto them in Types, 1 Cor. 10.11. When any was so stung or bitten, if he betook himself unto any other Remedies, he dyed and perished. Only they that looked unto the Brazen Serpent that was lifted up, were healed and lived. For this was the Ordinance of God, this way of healing alone, had he appointed. And their healing was a Type of the Pardon of Sin with everlasting life. So by their looking, is the Nature of Faith expressed, as our Saviour plainly expounds it in this P]ace. So must the Son of man be lifted up, that he that believeth on him, that is as the Israelites looked unto the Serpent in the Wilderness. And although this Expression ⟨p. 423⟩of the great Mystery of the Gospel by Christ himself, hath been by some derided, or as they call it exposed, yet is it really as instructive of the Nature of Faith, Justification and Salvation by Christ, as any passage in the Scripture. Now if Faith whereby we are justified, and in that exercise of it wherein we are so, be a looking unto Christ, under a sense of the guilt of Sin and our lost Condition thereby, for all, for our only Help and Relief, for Deliverance, Righteousness, and life, then is it therein exclusive of all other Graces and Duties whatever; for by them we neither look, nor are they the things which we look after. But so is the Nature and Exercise of Faith expressed by the Holy Ghost. And they who do believe, understand his mind.