;< r o Chap: 7. Qf.Fì thand`Unbelief. Coin. r, r Cor. r4. zo. The Apoftle faith, we mutt not be Children in knowledge, that is, carried away Judge' z.i, with every falfe wind ofdoeirine, but muff be rooted and grounded, that we may be itedfaft inthe truth; not Clouds without water, carried away with every Wind, as Saint pude path it, and like 'Waves of the Sea, that is, carriedwith the Tide, here with the ebb, and there with the flood, as it is in cur times. The laft rule is, we muff not hinder knowledge in others, either byauthority, corn. trtandment, permiffron or counfel, but provoke othersto it, and increafe it in them as much as can be. Our knowledgemuff be to helpothers, and that three ways. t. In teaching them that are ignorant. 2. In fatisfying them that doubt, and ftrengthning them that waver. 3. In comforting the diftreffed and aftliftedConfcience. And thus much for knowledge, the frrft duty of the mind. CHAP. VII. Thefecond inwardvertue commanded in thefirffprecept, is Faith. Reafonsfor the neceffi- tyof Faith. AdditionS. Concerning the evidence of Faith, and Freedoms of agent. The certainty of Faith. Ofunbelief,Additian 9. Concerning thenature of Faith. Means of believing. Of Trull in Godforthings temporal. The tryal of our craft. Sixfigns of Faith. THE next inward vertueof themind, is Faith. This fuppofesa knowledge of Forsh. the objeEt or things to be believed, which being propounded fufficiently, as credible, our affent thereto is called Faith, which refs upon divineauthority, though it fee not the proper reafons to enforce affe.nt; for feeing we cannot by weer na- turalreafon attain fufficient knowledge of fupernatural truths, but that divine reve- lation is needful, thereforebefidesnatural knowledge, Faith is neceffary, which re- ceives them for this authority of the fpeaker. To explain this. There is in every propofitionan affirmation or a denial. r. Sometimes a man holdeth neither part, becaufe he fees that equal reafons may be brought onboth fides; and that is called doubting. 2. If weenclineto one part, yet fo as we fearthe reafons ofthe other part Luke r2. 2.9, may be true; then it is called Opinion. As Agrippa was almoft perfwaded to Aft. 26. 28, be a Chriftian. 3. If we confent to one part, that is called knowledge, which goes beyond both the other, and rifes from evidence and afí'urance of the truth. Knowledge is threefold. t. By fenfe. 2. By difcourfe of reafon. 3. By relationof other men : and this is properly Faith. s. Knowledge by fenfeIs fuch as was that of 7ofephs Brethren, that had feen him before they fold him into v- gyps, and therefore knew him. 2. Knowledge bydifcourfe. Such as 7acobs was, when he faw the chariots come Caen, 4s. ,, . out of ,Egypt, he conceived ftraightway that his Sonwas alive. 3. That by relation of others; as ?acobknew that his fon yet lived, when his fons told him fo. r. For thefirft, when a thing cannot be prefent to thefenfe, then muff we rely r Jtiag. to, r.3 upon the third C relation. ] the seen of Sheba did firft hear of Solomon: wifdome in her own land, before the came and heard him her felt. z. For point ofreafon, there's nothing abfent from that, but that which is fuper.i natural and above our underftanding; when a thing exceedeth the capacity ofmeer john ;. g, natural reafon without divine illumination, as we fee in Nicodemue, a great Rabbi in r Cor. a. y. ffrael. For concerning myfteries in religion, the Apoftle faithout oftheProphet, Eye Eli, 64.4. bath not fees, nor Earheard, nor hath it entred into the Heart ofman :. thatis, they exceed both thecapacity of the fenfe and reafon, and therefore we mutt come to job. s6.ó6, the third way, which is by Faith; for Job fpeaks. God is great, and we know him
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