*4. Men _talk_ bravely of believing; but few _know_ it. Christ is the mystery of the scripture. Grace the mystery of Christ. Believing is the most wonderful thing in the world. Put any thing of thine own to it, and thou spoilest it; Christ will not so much as look at it for believing. When thou comest to Christ, thou must leave behind thee thy _own_ righteousness, and bring nothing but thy _sin_. (Oh that is hard!) Leave behind all thy holiness, and bring nothing but thy _wants_ and _miseries_, else Christ is not fit for thee, nor thou for Christ. Christ will be a pure Redeemer, and thou must be an _undone_ sinner, or Christ and thou will never agree. It’s the hardest thing in the world to take Christ _alone_ for righteousness: that’s to acknowledge him Christ. Join any thing to him of _thy own_, and thou _un-Christ’s_ him. Whatever comes in when thou goest to God for acceptance, (besides Christ) call it _anti-christ_; bid it be gone; make only Christ’s righteousness triumphant; all besides that, is _Babylon_, which must fall if Christ stand; and thou shalt rejoice in the day of the fall thereof. Christ _alone_ did tread the wine-press, and there was none with him. If thou join any thing to Christ, Christ will trample upon it in fury and anger, and stain his raiment with the blood thereof. Thou thinkest it easy to _believe_: was ever thy faith tried with a thorough sight of sin? Was it ever put to grapple with Satan, and the wrath of God lying upon the conscience? When thou wast in the mouth of hell, then did God shew thee Christ a ransom? If then thou couldst say, _Oh I see grace enough in Christ_! Thou mayst say that which is the biggest word in the world, _thou believest_; but untried faith is uncertain faith. *5. To believing, there must go a clear conviction of sin, and the merits of the _blood of Christ_, and of Christ’s willingness to save upon this consideration merely, _that thou art a sinner_: things all harder than to make a world. All the power in nature cannot get up so high, in a storm of sin and guilt, as really to believe there is any willingness in Christ to save. When Satan chargeth sin upon the conscience, then to charge it upon _Christ_, that is gospel like. That is to make him Christ, he serves for that use. To accept his _blood alone_ for salvation, that is the sum of the gospel. When the soul, in all duties and distresses, can say, nothing but Christ for justification, sanctification, redemption; not humblings, not duties, not graces, that soul hath got above the reach of the billows. All Satan’s advantages are laid in _self-righteousness_. God pursueth this by setting Satan upon thee; this must be torn from thee; this alone hinders Christ from coming in; and till Christ come in, guilt will not go out; and where guilt is, there is hardness of heart.