to support us, a plaister to heal us, a friend to comfort us, and a golden key to open heaven unto us. Faith of all graces is the most useful grace to the soul of man. Without faith it is impossible to please God. All those services are lost, wherein faith has not a hand. You may write loss upon all the prayers you make, and upon all the sermons you hear, and upon all the tears you shed, and upon all the alms you give, if all be not managed by a hand of faith.

Fourthly; you should labour above all to be rich in faith, because faith is that princely grace which Christ is most taken with. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my Spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, that is, with that piercing eye of faith that looks up to my mercy-seat, with one chain of thy neck, Cant. iv. 9.

There are two things that with open mouth speak out Christ to be most taken with the faith of his people. And, the first is, his uncrowning himself to crown his people's faith. Christ often takes the crown off his own head, and puts it upon the head of faith; witness such passages as these, which are frequent in scripture, Thy faith hath healed thee; Thy faith hath saved thee; Thy faith hath made thee whole. Christ takes the crown off his own head, and puts it upon the head of faith; and no wonder, for of all graces, faith takes the crown off a man's own head, and puts it upon the head of Christ. Man naturally is apt to crown any thing but Christ. He is apt to crown his prayers, and crown his desires, and crown his endeavours. O but now faith acts like a king of kings, and uncrowns all, and sets the crown upon the head of Christ.

And then a second thing that speaks out Christ to be most taken with the grace of faith, is this, that he overlooks all other graces in comparison of faith, as you may see in the Canaanitish woman, Matt. xv. 21-29. The poor woman shews a great deal of compassion, a great deal of wisdom, a great deal of humility, a great deal of love, and a great deal of self-denial; but in the close Christ says, O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt. He does not say, 'O woman, great is thy love,' nor, 'O woman, great is thy wisdom,' nor, 'O woman,

great is thy humility, and self-denial,' nor, 'O woman, great is thy patience,' but, O woman, great is thy faith. He overlooks, as it were, all other graces, and sets the crown upon the head of faith, O woman, great is thy faith. So the woman that had a bloody issue twelve years, comes to Christ for cure, and in the close of the story, Christ says to her, Woman, thy faith hath made thee whole. He does not say, 'Woman, thy pressing hard to come to me hath made thee whole,' but, Thy faith hath made thee whole. He does not say, 'Woman, thy earnest desires and endeavours to be made whole, have made thee whole,' but, Thy faith hath made thee whole. He does not say, Woman, thy fear and trembling have made thee whole,' but, Thy faith hath made thee whole. So in Luke vii. 50. Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace. Though she wept much and loved much, yet Christ does not say, Thy tears have saved thee, thy sorrow hath saved thee.' He does not say, Thy humility, thy charity, hath saved thee,' but, O woman, thy faith hath saved thee. Christ overlooks all other graces, as it were, and casts a loving eye upon the grace of faith.

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Fifthly; and then again you should above all labour to be rich in faith, because of all graces in the soul of man, faith makes him most lively and active. There is no grace, say, no grace in the soul of man, that makes him so full of life and action, as the grace of faith. Faith is the primum mobile, the first pin, the first wheel that moves all the golden wheels of obedience. In Heb. xi. you read what those worthies did, who left their country, their kindred, upon a bare command of God. Faith has Rachel's eye, but Leah's womb; it makes souls very fruitful in ways of well-doing. Faith is as the spring of the watch, that moves the wheels; not a grace stirs, till faith sets it to work. Faith is like Solomon's virtuous woman, who sets all her maidens to work. Faith sets joy to work; Abraham desired to see my day; he saw it, and was glad. Faith sets love to work; it works by love, Gal. v. 6. It sets hope to work, Rom. viii. 24, 25. It sets godly sorrow at work, Zech. xii. 10. It sets patience at work. I believe that God is wise and loving, and what he does is out of some noble design to do my soul good: this spins out patience. Faith

fits a man to do, to suffer, to wait, to walk; therefore labour above all to be rich in faith.

And then, Sixthly, of all graces, faith renders the soul most invincible; and therefore you should labour above all to be rich in faith. It renders the soul invincible and unconquerable under all the hardships and trials it meets with in this world. Faith makes a man triumph in all the changes and conditions of this life. It was their faith that made them invincible in Dan. iii. 16-18; O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter; if it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. And so Daniel's faith stopped the lions' mouth; it made him too strong for the strongest beasts of prey; as you may see in Dan. vi. Though the enemies of a believer are very subtle, strong, and experienced, and though the battle be hot and long, yet a soul rich in faith shall have the day. Faith will render a believer victorious in the close. 'He may suffer death,' as Cyprian said to Cornelius, but never conquest.' Faith renders the soul a lion, a rock. It is reported of some of the Roman and Grecian captains, that they proved always victorious and were never beaten by any. Such is the nature of faith. It renders a soul victorious in all engagements. In all engagements faith brings a man bravely off, and enables him to keep his ground, and triumph. God hath spoken in his holiness, I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of my head; Judah is my law-giver ; Moab is my wash-pot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; Philistia triumph thou because of me, Psal. lx. 6—8. It is not great resolutions, nor big words, nor high looks, but faith, that will make a man stand fast in shaking times. No hand can put the garland upon a Christian, but the hand of faith.

Seventhly; And then, above all, labour to be rich in faith, because Satan will labour might and main to weaken your faith. O, the great design of Satan is not so much to

weaken you in externals, as it is to weaken you in internals. Satan can be contented that men should have their heads full of notions, and their mouths full of religion, and their bags full of gold, and their chests full of silver, and their shops full of wares, so that their souls be either void of faith, or but poor and low in faith. Satan's greatest plot is to weaken the faith of Christians. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, Luke xxii. 31, 32. Satan has an acheing tooth at thy faith; his design is upon that; he will labour might and main to weaken that, to frustrate that; and therefore I have prayed that thy faith fail not.'

And then, Eighthly, consider this-of all graces faith contributes most to the bringing down of mercies and blessings upon yourselves and friends; and therefore you should above all labour to be rich in this particular grace of faith. Faith contributes to the bringing down of blessings upon ourselves. In Dan. vi. 23. Daniel was delivered, says the text, because he believed in his God. It was his faith, and not his prayers; it was his faith, and not his tears; it was his faith, and not his sighs; that stopped the lion's mouths, and wrought deliverance for him. So in Psal. xxvii. 13; I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. So in 2 Chron. xx. 20; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper; and so they did. That is a very famous scripture to this purpose in 2 Chron. xiii. 15-17; Then the men of Judah gave a shout: and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah : and the children of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand: and Abijah and his people slew with a great slaughter; so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand men; and the reason is rendered, in verse 18; Because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers.

And as faith is the only way to bring down a blessing upon ourselves, so faith is the only way to bring down blessings upon our friends and relations. Though another man cannot be saved by my faith, yet he may be blessed

with many blessings, upon the account of my faith. It was the Canaanitish woman's faith that brought a blessing of healing upon her daughter. And so in Matt. viii. 5—13, the centurion's faith healed his servant that was sick of a palsy; From that very hour he was healed. The servant got well by his master's faith. And so likewise in Mark ix, the faith of the father prevailed for the dispossessing of his son. If thou canst believe, said Christ, all things are possible. And the poor man said with tears, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. And presently Christ charged the foul spirit to come out of him. A believing husband, a believing wife, a believing child, or a believing servant, may bring down, by the actings of faith, many a blessing upon their relations. Faith has a happy hand, and never but speeds in one kind or another. It has what it would, either in money or money's worth. 'Apollonius,' says Sozomen, 'never asked any thing of God, either for himself, or his friends, but he had it.' And one pointing to Luther, said, "There is a man who can have any thing of God that he will ask.'

And as faith brings down blessings upon our own heads and the heads of our friends, so it often brings down wrath upon our enemies. There is nothing contributes so much to our enemies' ruin, as faith does. I am confident, it has neither been armies, nor navies, nor parliaments, that have had the chief hand in bringing down the proud and stout enemies of Christ and Zion, in this and other nations, but the faith of his despised people. One enemy may stand before the face of another, but what enemy can stand before the face and power of faith? That is a remarkable Scripture, Heb. xi. 33; Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of aliens. Other means were used, but that which did the work and struck all dead, was faith. Faith engages God in every encounter, and who can stand before a consuming fire? Mary, queen of Scots, who was mother to king James, was wont to say, that she feared Master Knox's prayers, who was a man of much faith, more than an army of ten thousand