Chapter III
The proofs of this assertion: 1, by Scripture, and afterwards by reasons One
Scripture above all other singled forth, and that alone, Exod. xxxiv. b, 7. TM made a new text for the subsequent discourse. The grand assertion
resolved into two heads, both of them distinctly drawn out, and proposed to
be proved out of the text. The eminemy of this one Scripture is commended
thereby to all our faiths. Old Testament faith, and New, one and the same.
1 come to the confirmation of the assertion, as thus stated and explained,
which proceeds,
1. By Scripture. ,, 2 By the true and innate reasons thereof, drawn from the nature ol
faith, and the wonderful suitedness that the mercies in God s heart hold,
by way of object, with and unto that principle of faith in our hearts, so as
to attract and draw forth faith in all the acts of it.
1 By Scripture. I single out only that renowned original God himselt
immediately published unto Moses concerning his pardoning mercies to him
and us all; for unto him it was, though on our behalf also, that they were
proclaimed, Exod. xxxiv. Two grand deeds there were, which Old -tes
tament faith held all upon. The first, of the promised Messiah, given to
Eve and Adam at first by God himself, the immediate revealer, and after
renewed to Abraham, David, and so on. The second, this glorious display
of pardonincr mercies, which was as immediately, but far more solemnly
proclaimed, regio more, by God himself. And these two were as the two
pillars, Boaz and Jachim, in the house of God, and are in Ps. cxxx. set
out as two known cities of refuge for broken hearts to fly unto. I shall
make the latter of these the stage or substratum of all throughout this
treatise, the grace and mercy in God being the originale ongmans, the
womb or original even of the promise of Christ himself, and bears up an
answerable pre-eminence of order and stress in the foundation of our iaitn.
And this scripture, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, holds forth the amplest and largest
display of mercy any other affords. And therefore I have most deservedly
CHAP. IV.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 13
precious ones of old. And we that are believers under the New Testament, we having the same spirit of faith ; according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken, we also believe, and therefore speak, 2 Cor.
iv. 13, as the great apostle, citing David s Old Testament faith to express his own New Testament faith by ; and we professing with all the apostles and primitive saints to believe that we shall, be saved by the same grace of Christ and mercy of God that they, under the Old Testament, were
saved by (which great maxim is expressly uttered in the name of the
apostles, and of all the Christians of the New, Acts xv. 11), may well be
induced to make a like improvement and valuation of this Old Testament
carkanet,* bestudded with so many jewels.