+I. What faith it is through which we are saved.+--1. It is not
barely the faith of a heathen. 2. Nor is it the faith of a devil,
though this goes much further than that of a heathen. 3. It is not
barely that the apostles had while Christ was yet upon earth. 4. In
general it is faith in Christ: Christ and God through Christ are the
proper objects of it. 5. It is not only an assent to the whole Gospel
of Christ, but also a full reliance on the blood of Christ, a trust
in the merits of His life, death, and resurrection, a recumbency upon
Him as our atonement and our life, as given for us and living in us,
and in consequence hereof, a closing with Him and cleaving to Him as
our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, or, in one
word, our salvation.
+II. What is the salvation which is through faith?+--1. It is a
present salvation. 2. A salvation from sin. 3. From the guilt of all
past sin. 4. From fear. 5. From the power of sin. 6. A salvation
often expressed in the word "justification," which taken in the
largest sense implies a deliverance from guilt and punishment by the
atonement of Christ actually applied to the soul of the sinner now
believing on Him, and a deliverance from the power of sin, through
Christ formed in his heart.
+III. The importance of the doctrine.+--Never was the maintaining
this doctrine more seasonable than it is at this day. Nothing but
this can effectually prevent the increase of the Romish delusion
among us. It is endless to attack one by one all the errors of that
Church. But salvation by faith strikes at the root, and all fall at
once where this is established.--_Wesley._