God's name, and prepared to seek his face, ready to subscribe and bear witness to all God's ways and methods of saving; That he is righteous in his judgments, if he should condemn; wonderful in his patience, when he doth forbear; mighty in his power, wisdom, and mercy, when he doth convert; unsearchable in the riches and treasures of Christ, when he doth justify; most holy, pure, and good, in all his commands; the Sovereign Lord of our persons and lives, to order and dispose them at his will; on the sense and experience of these works doth grow that conclusion and resolution to cleave to Christ.

Lastly, Because this act of faith is our duty to God: As we may come to Christ, because we are called,—so we must come, because we are commanded. For as Christ was commanded to save us, so we are commanded to believe in him. From these and the like considerations, ariseth a purpose to rely on Christ. But yet still this purpose, at first, by the mixture of sin, the pragmaticalness and importunity of Satan in tempting, the inexperience of the heart in trials, the tenderness of the Spirit, and the fresh sight and reflection on the state of sin,-is very weak, and consisteth with much fear, doubts, trepidations, shrinking, mistrust of itself. And therefore though all other effects flow in great measure from it, yet that of comfort, and calmness of spirit, more weakly; because the heart, being most busied in spiritual debatements, prayers, groans, conflicts, strugglings of heart, languishing and sighing importunities of spirit, is not at leisure to reflect on its own translated condition, or in the seed-time of tears, to reap a harvest of joy. As a tree, new planted, is apt to be bended at every touch or blast of wind; or children new born, to cry at every turn and noise; -so men, in their first conversion, are usually more retentive of fearful, than of more comfortable impressions.

The last act then of faith, is that reflexive act, whereby a man knoweth his own faith and knowledge of Christ, which is the assurance of faith, upon which the joy and peace of a Christian doth principally depend, and hath its several differences and degrees according to the evidence and clearness of that reflection. As beauty is more distinctly rendered in

a clear, than in a dim and disturbed, glass; so is comfort more distinct and evident, according to the proportions of evidence and assurance in faith. So then to conclude with this general rule: According as the habits of faith are more firm and radicated; the acts more strong, constant and evident; the conquests and experiences more frequent and successful; so are the properties more evident and conspicuous. For the measure and magnitude of a proper passion and effect, doth ever follow the perfection of the nature and cause whence it proceeds. And therefore every man, as he tenders either the love and obedience he owes to God, or the comfort he desires in himself to enjoy,-must labour to attain the highest pitch of faith, and still, with St. Paul, to 'grow in the knowledge of him and his resurrection and sufferings.' So then, upon these premises, the heart is to examine itself touching the truth of faith in it :-Do I love all divine truth, not because it is proportionable to my desires, but conformable unto God who is the author of it? Can I, in all estates, without murmuring, impatiency, or rebellion, cast myself upon God's mercy, and trust in him, though he should kill me?' Do I wholly renounce all self-confidence and dependence, all worthiness or concurrence of myself to righteousness? Can I, willingly, and in the truth and sincerity of my heart, own all shame and condemnation, and acquit God as most righteous and holy, if he should reject me? Do I not build either my hopes or fears upon the faces of men, nor make either them or myself the rule or end of my desires? Do I yield and seriously endeavour a universal obedience unto all God's law, and that in the whole extent and latitude thereof, without any allowance, exception, or reservation? Is my obedience not mercenary, but sincere? Do I not dispense with myself for the least sprigs of sin, for irregular thoughts, for occasions of offence, for ' appearances of evil,' for motions of concupiscence, for idle words and vain conversation, for any thing that carrieth with it the face of sin? And when, in any of these, I am overtaken, do I bewail my weakness, and renew my resolutions against it? In a word, when I have impartially and uprightly measured mine own heart by the rule, doth it not condemn me of self-deceit, of hypocrisy, of halting and dissembling, of halfing and prevaricating, in God's service?

I may then comfortably conclude, that my faith is, in some measure, operative and effectual in me which yet I may further try by the nature of it, as it is further expressed by the apostle in the text; "That I may know him."

Here we see the nature of faith is expressed by an act of knowledge, and that act (respectively to justification) limited to Christ; "This is eternal life,-to know thee, and him whom thou hast sent:" where by knowledge I understand a certain and evident assent. Now such assents are of two sorts; some, grounded upon the evidence of the object,and that light which the thing, assented unto, doth carry and present to the understanding; as I assent to this truth, that the sun is light by the evidence of the thing itself; and this kind of assent the apostle contra-distinguisheth from faith, by the name of sight. Others are grounded upon the authority or authenticalness of a narrator, upon whose report while we rely without any evidence of the thing itself, the assent which we produce, is an assent of faith or credence. Now that faith is a certain assent, and that even above the certainty of mere natural conclusions, is, on all hands, I think, confessed: because, however in regard of our weakness and distrust, we are often subject to stagger, yet, in the thing itself, it dependeth upon the infallibility of God's own Word, who hath said it, and is, by consequence, nearer unto Him who is the fountain of all truth; and therefore must needs more share in the properties of truth, which are certainty and evidence, than any proved by mere natural reasons: and the assent, produced by it, is differenced from suspicion, hesitancy, dubitation, in the opinion of schoolmen themselves. Now then inasmuch as we are bound to yield an evident assent unto divine truths, necessary hereunto it is, that the understanding be convinced of these two things:-First, That God is of infallible authority, and cannot lie nor deceive,-which thing is a principle by the light of nature evident and unquestioned: Secondly, That this authority, which, in faith, I rely upon, is indeed and infallibly God's own authority.

The means whereby I come to know that, may be either

k Aquin. ii. 2æ. qu. 4. art. 8.—Greg. Val. tom. iii. Disp. 1. qu. iv. punct. 8.— Aquin, ii. 2æ. qu. 1. art. 4.

extraordinary, as revelation, such as was made by the prophets concerning future events; or else ordinary, and common to the faithful. This, the papists say, is the authority of the church. Against which if one would dispute, much might be said. Briefly (granting first unto the church a ministerial, introductory, persuasive, and conducting concurrence in this work, pointing unto the star', which yet itself shineth by its own light, reaching forth and exhibiting the light, which though in itself visible, could not be so ordinarily to me unless thus presented, explaining the evidence of those truths unto which I assent for their own intrinsical certainty :) I do here demand how it is that each man comes to believe? The collier will quickly make a wise answer, As the church believes.-But now how or why doth the church believe these or these truths to be divine? Surely not because the church hath so determined; our Saviour himself would not be so believed. "If I bear record of myself, my record is not true "." Well then, the church must needs believe by the Spirit which leads it into all truth. And what is the church, but the body of Christ," the congregation of the faithful, consisting of divers members? and what work is that, whereby the Spirit doth illuminate and raise the understanding to perceive aright divine truth, but only that 'ointment which dwelleth in you,' saith the apostle, whereby Christ's sheep are enabled to hear his voice P,' in matters of more heavenly and fundamental consequence, and to distinguish the same from the voice of strangers?

Now, have not all the faithful, of this unction? Doth it not run down from the head to the skirts of the garment? Are we not all a royal priesthood? And in both these respects anointed by the Spirit? and having all the Spirit, (though in different spirits and degrees) is it not in congruity probable, that we have with him received those vivifical and illightening operations, which come along with him? Capable is the poorest member of Christ's church, being grown to maturity of years, of information in the faith. Strange therefore it is, that the Spirit, not leaving me desti

1 Aug. de Doctr. Christ. lib. 1 in proœm.

01 John ii. 27. P John x. 4.

m John v. 31.

q1 Pet. ii. 9.

n Eph. i. 23.

tute of other quickening graces, should in this only, leave my poor soul to travel as far as Rome, to see that by a candle, or rather by an ignis fatuus,' which himself might more evidently make known unto me. For the Spirit doth beget knowledge; "We have received the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God." And again, "Hereby we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." And again, "Hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." Especially since we must take even the determinations of the church and pope (though they were infallible in themselves) at second hand, as they pass through the mouth of a priest, whose authority being not infallible, nor apostolical, but human,—impossible it is not but that he may misreport his Holy Father, and by that means misguide and delude an unsettled soul.

Again I demand, How doth it appear unto me that the judgment of the church is infallible, when it alone is the warrant of my faith? That this is itself no principle, nor to the light of natural reason, 'primo intuitu,' manifest 'ex evidentia terminorum,' is most certain. For that this company of men should not err, when other companies of men may err, cannot possibly be immediately and 'per se' evident; since there must first needs 'a priori' be discovered some internal difference between those men, from whence, as from an antecedent principle, this difference of erring, or not erring, must needs grow.

Now then I demand, What is that whereby I do assent unto this proposition (in case it were true) That the church cannot err? The church itself it cannot be, since nothing bears record of itself; and if it should, the proof would be more ridiculous than the opinion, being but idem per idem,' and 'petitio quæstionis.' Above the church a priori' there is not any light but the Scriptures and the Spirit. Therefore needs by these must I assent unto that one proposition at least. And if unto that by these, why then, by the same light, may I not assent unto all other divine truths,since evident it is, that the same light, which enables me