of. The word imports Belief or Per-Ch. 4. fwafion, as when we give Credit to any thing which is told us by God or Man; whence Faith is properly divided into Human and Divine. Again, Divine Faith is either when God speaks to us immediately himfelf, or when we ac quiefce in the Words or Writings of those to whom we believe he has spoken. All Faith now in the World is of this laft fort, and by confequence entirely built upon Ratiocination. For we must first be convinc'd that those Writings are theirs whofe Names they bear, we then examine the outward State and Actions of thofe Perfons, and lastly understand what is contain❜d in their Works; otherwife we cannot determine whether they be worthy of God or not, much lefs firmly believe them.

53. To be confident of any thing without conceiving it, is no real Faith or Perfwafion, but a rash Presumption, and an obftinate Prejudice, rather becoming Enthufiafts or Impoftors than the taught of God, who has no Intereft to delude his Creatures, nor wants Ability to inform them rightly. I

Sect. 3. prov'd before, (Sect 2. Chap. 2.) tháť the Difference between Human and Divine Revelations did not confift in degrees of Perfpicuity, but in Certitude. So many Circumftances frequently concur in Hiftory as render it equal to Intuition: Thus I can as foon deny my own Being as the Murder of Cicero, or the Story of William the Conqueror; yet this happens only fometimes: But God fpeaks always Truth and Certainty.

54. Now fince by Revelation Men are not endu'd with any new Faculties, it follows that God fhould lose his end in fpeaking to them, if what he faid did not agree with their common Notions. Could that Person juftly value himself upon being wifer than his Neighbours, who having infallible Affurance that fomething call'd Blictri had a Being in Nature, in the mean time knew not what this Blictri was? And seeing the Cafe ftands really thus, all Faith or Perfwafion must neceffarily confift of two Parts, Knowledg and Affent. 'Tis the laft indeed that conftitutes the formal Act of Faith,but not without the Evidence of the firft: And

There

4.

this is the true Account we have of it Ch. all over the New Teftament. we read that without Faith it is im- Heb.11.6.1 poffible to please God; but he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently. feek him. So the firm Perswasion of a pious Man that his Requests will be granted, is grounded upon his knowledg of the Being, Goodness,and Power of God. It was reckon'd no Crime not to believe in Chrift before he was reveal'd; for how could they believe in Rom.10.14. him of whom they had not heard? But with what better Reafon could any be condemn'd for not believing what he faid, if they might not underftand it? for, as far as I can fee, these Cafes are parallel. Faith is likewife faid to come Ver. 17. by hearing; but without Understanding 'tis plain this Hearing would fignify nothing, Words and their Ideas being reciprocal in all Languages.

55. The Author of the Epiftle to the Hebrews do's not define FAITH a Prejudice, Opinion, or Conjecture, but Conviction or Demonftration: Faith, fays he, is the confident Expectation of Heb.11.1. things hop'd for, and the Demonftration

K

of

Sec. 3. of things not feen. These last Words, things not feen, fignify not (as fome would have it) things incomprehenfible or unintelligible, but past or future Matters of Fact, as the Creation of the World, and the Refurrection of the Dead, or the Belief of fome things invifible to our corporeal Eyes, tho intelligible enough to the Eyes of our Understanding. This appears by all the Examples fubjoin'd to that De finition. Befides, there can be. proporly no Faith of things feen or prefent, for then 'tis Self-evidence, and not Ra tiocination: Hope that is feen is not 24, 25. Hope, for what a Man fees why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we

Rom. 8.

fee not, then do we with Patience wait for Heb. 11. it. So the Patriarchs receiv'd not the Promises, but faw them afar off, and were perfwaded of them.

13.

56. Without conceiving Faith after this manner, how could Chrift be Joh. 8. 12. term'd the Light of the World, the Light &9.5. of the Gentiles? How could Believers Act.13.47. be faid to have the Spirit of Wisdom, Eph.1.17. and to have the Eyes of their Hearts Ver. 18. enlightn'd? For the Light of the Heart

or Understanding is the Knowledg of

things;

things; and as this Knowledg is more Ch. 4. or lefs, fo the Mind is proportionably illuminated. Be not unwife, fays the Eph.5.17. Apostle,but understanding what the Will of the Lord is. And in another place he exhorts Men never to act in dubious Matters till they are fully perfwaded in Rom.14.5. their own Minds

57. But to all this will be objected that remarkable Inftance of Abraham's Faith, who was ready to facrifice his only Son, notwithstanding God had promis'd that Kings should defcend of him, and his Seed be numerous as the Stars of Heaven, or the Sand upon the Sea fhore. Did Abraham blindly obey then, without reconciling the apparent Contradiction between God's prefent Command and his former Promises? Far from it: for 'tis exprefly recorded, that be that had receiv'd the Heb.11.1", Promifes offer'd up his only begotten, of 18, 19. whom it was faid, that in Isaac fhall thy Seed be ble Jed: Reasoning that God was able to raise him again from the Dead, from whence alfo he had receiv'd him in a Figure. He rightly concluded that God

K 2

* So AoyoiperC should be translated.