t66 The Gofpel- .tl'lytery D reEi . X. God; that is, the direr aa: and it is that very faith whereby the juft do live, even juftifying faxing faith, verfe 38. And this affurance muft be full, at leaft in the trueand proper nature of it, inoppofition to mere doubtfuinefs and uncertainty, though we are yet fur- ther to labour for that which is full in the higheft de, gree of perfection. And the fame faith whereby we are exhorted to draw nigh unto God, and whereby the juft liveth, is, a little after, chap. xi. i. affirmed to be the fubftance of things hoped for, and the evi. deuce of things not Peen. Why fhould laying faith have there high titles and attributes given to it, if it did not contain in it a Pure perfuafion of the great things of our falvation hoped for, making them to be evident to the eyes of our mind as if they were al- ready prefent in their fubftance, though yet not vi. fible toour bodily eyes ? That faith whereby we are made partakers of Chrift, and to be Chrift's houle, mutt be worthy to be called confidence, and accom. panied with rejoicing hope; "Whole houfe are we, " if we hold fact the confidence, and rejoicingof if the hope firm unto the end." Pleb. iii. 6, 14. What is confidence concerning anything, but truftìng con- cerning it with a firm perfuafion of the truth of it If we have only a itrong opinion concerning a thing, without any abfolute certainty, we ufe to fay, that we are not altogether confident of it. The faith whereby we are juftified, mutt be in a meafure like to the faith whereby Abraham "againft hopebeliev. ed in hope, that his feed fhould certainly be multi- " plied according to the promife of God ; though, " by reafon of the deadnefs of his own body, and of " Sarah's womb," he could have no evidence front his own qualifications to affure himfelf of it; but all appearances were rather to the contrary; as the A- poítle teacheth clearly, Rom. iv. i8, 19, 23, 24. M abfolute as this prornife was, thus made to Abraham, yet it was not to be fulfilled without this affurance of faith, and, by the like faith, the free promife;a, of fat.
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