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FAITH
BUILT
ON
ICNOWLEDGB.
tDISC.
I. Who
is
this
great
Friend
of
St.
Paul's,
whom he had
believed., and
of
whose
ability
hewas
so well
persuaded?
These
words can
be
properly
applied
to
none
§o
well
as
to
Jesus
Christ, the
Son
of
God, the
Mediator
;
and
that
for these
reasons.
It
is
he
that
is
spoken
of
in the
context;
ver.
10.
Who has abolished death
and brought
life
and
imnior-
tality
to
light
through
the gospel
:
And
it
is
this
gospel
of
Christ
for
which
Paul
is
not
ashamed to
suffer,
in
the
words
just
before the text.
It
is
Christ
who
is
recommended'
as,
the
proper
object
of belief
or
trust
in,the New Testarpent,
as
God
the
Fa-
ther
was
under
the Old
:
So
our
Lord
himself declares
;
John
xiv.
1.
Ye
believe
in
God
:
believe
also
in
me.
This
was
the
great
duty
that
all
the
first
preachers
of
the
gospel
pressed upon
their
hearers,
even a
belief
on
Jesus
Christ. This
was
the
perpetual subject of
St.
Paul's
exhortations,
the
matter of
his
practice, and the
ground
of
his
hope, the
instances are
so
numerous,
that
it
is
needless and
endless
to
collect
them.
It
is
Jesus
Christ into
whose
hands the
Father
has
put
all
his
saints
and
children, and committed them
to
his
care,
that
he may
keep
them. John.
xvii.
6,
9,
12.
Thine
they
were,
and
thou
gayest
them to
me
out
of
the
world
;
and
I
have
kept them
through
thy
name.
And
therefore into
the
sane
hands a
child
of
God
most
natu-
rally
commits himself.
II.
What
does the word believe signify
here
?
By believing we
are
here to understand
an
assent
to
the
revelation that
Jesus
Christ
had made
of
himself, as
sent
from the
Father
to save sinners, an&
a
trust
in him for
this
salvation
:
For
the
word
7:7rLssvx0%,in
the greek, natu-
rally-
includes both, and the
following
part of
the
verse
confirms this
sense
;
which
will
be
made more
corn=
pletely evident
in
the improvement
of
this discourse.
IIere
let
it
be
remarked,
from
the bold and pathetic
manner of
speaking,
that
the apostle
appears
as.
a
strong
believer,
as one
that
had
much
acquaintance
with Christ,
and
long
trusted
in
hire,
and
every day gained
further
confirmation
of
his
faith..
Observe the expression,
I
know
whom-I
have
believed,
and
am come to
a confident
persuasion
in myself,
that
he is
able,
&c.
It
is
a
faith
rising
to
divine joy
;
for he
mentions it
as his
support
against
shame
and
suffering.