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Disc..IX.]
FAITH
BUILT.
ON.
KNOWLEDGE,
249
firm
confidence,
we
proceed to enquire;
What
sort
of
knowledge this
is,
or
how he
comes to know
him so
as
to
trust
in
him,
and rejoice
in
his
faith
?
The
answer may be
reduced
to
these
two
heads
:
A
believer
that
is
arrived
at
such
a
knowledge,
of
Christ,
has
obtained
it
partly
by
the testimony
of
others,
and
partly
by
his own
experience.
L
It
is
a
knowledge
that
arises
from the
testimony
of
others.
And
this
sort of
knowledge
is
generally called
faith
;
that
is,
the
believing
of
any
proposition
upon
the
authority of
those
that
relate it
;
and according
as
the
witnesses
that
make
the
report
are morecredible, and more
numerous, so
we
give
the
firmer assent
to
their
testimony;
our
faith
grows so
much
the
stronger,
and our
know-
ledge
is
the more
certain. Now the
witnessess
that
give
evidence
to the
power and faithfulness.
of
Christ our
Saviour,
are
so
gloriously
credible
in themselves,
and
so
many
in
number,
that
.a
believer has
the
most
rational
and
solid
ground
for
his
faith.
Let
us
take
a
short sur-
vey
of
these
witnesses,
and
humbly examine'
their
tes-
tirnony.
God
himself,
the
all
-wise,
the true, and the
eternal
God,
in
the person
of
the
Father,
has
borne
witness
from heaven
to
his
Son
Christ Jesus
in all
ages.
This
he
did in
old
time
by visions
and
voices, by
prophecies
and
holy institutions.
It
is
of
him
that
God
Math
spoken by
the mouth
of
all
his
holy
prophets,
since
the world
be-
gan
Acts
iii.
2
1.
What
is
the
seed
of
the
woman,
thai
.
should break
the serpent's
head
;
Gen.
iii. 15.
but
a
pro-
mise
of
our Lord
Jesus
Christ, the Saviour, given to
Adam, to
prevent
his
despair
:
and
a
testimony
of
his
power to destroy the works
of
the
devil,
and
to
save
fal-
len
man
?
What
is
the
seed
of
Abraham
"
inwhom
all
nations
should
be
blessed
;
Gen. xxii.
18.
out
a
prophecy
of
the
blessings
of
life
and salvation
to
the
nations
of
the
earth,
by
Jesus
the
son
of
Abraham
?
Who
was Shiloh,
of
whom
Jacob
prophesied,
to him shall be
the
gathering
of
the people,
but
Christ,
who
was
sent of God, that
the
gentiles Might
commit
their
souls into
his
hands,
and
join
themselves
to him as
their
head and governor
?
Gen.
xlix,
10,
It
would be endless
to
run
through
a11'flie,
messages
5