Part II
PART II.
Of the acts of Faith.
BOOK I.
The acts offaith in the understanding is a sight of Christ, a discerning and knowledge of his excellencies, and a hearty assent to the truths of the gospel concerning him. That this mere assurance of the object, or a general assent
to the truth of the promises, is not the act of faith justifying, but an appli cation is necessary. What the acts of the will are, which are exercised on Christ in believing.
CHAPTEK I.
That faith in the understanding is a spiritual sight and knowledge of Christ. That it is a sight distinct from bodily sense, and from reason, and other ways of knowledge. That this sight hath the greatest certainty in it, and realiscth to the mind the things believed. That the true believer sees the
spiritual excellency and glory that is in Christ, so as to have his heart
affected with it. That he sees an all-sufficiency of righteousness in Christ. That he is persuaded of Christ s readiness to save sinners, with some
secret intimation that there is mercy for himself, though a sinner.
I And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and
believeth on him, might have everlasting life. JOHN VI. 40.
j THE subject I intend to treat of is to set forth to you those special acts of
1 justifying faith exercised upon and towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And
(that I may be distinctly understood) when I say the acts of faith, I do limit
i myself simply and merely to those acts which are of faith as justifying. There are the offices of faith (as you call them), which are many and diverse,
i each whereof have several acts ; as for example, it is the office of faith to
j justify, it is the office of faith to sanctify, it is the office of faith to enable you to live in communion with God and with Christ in all your ways, &c.,
in all conditions. Now I single out one of those offices of faith, and that
! is, as it justifies, as it treats with Christ about justification ; and I shall VOL. vni. R
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consider the acts that it performs as such. There are likewise several
degrees in faith, in which every one of those offices is performed. There
is weak faith and strong faith, there is faith of assurance and faith of
recumbency. Now in discoursing of the acts of faith, my scope is not
to speak of the high degrees, but those that are more essential, and are
ingredients in the lowest degrees of faith of recumbency, wherein a sinner
treats with Christ about justification. There are also the effects of faith as
it purifies, and sanctifies, and conformeth the soul to Christ, and bringeth joy and peace, and worketh love, and the like; my scope is to handle none
of these now. And thus by shewing you what my scope is not, I do
thereby open to you particularly what it is that I pitch upon. Now there
is no one scripture that puts all the acts of faith, as it treateth with Christ about justification, together ; neither shall I be able it may be to speak of all, but I purpose to follow the method that is here in this text ; and
* He that seeth the Son, &c.
I begin first with that of seeing
I purpose in a brief way to lay open those acts of faith (as it justifies a
sinner) whereby the soul doth pitch upon Jesus Christ as the object thereof. There is no one scripture that mentions all, neither shall I be
able to mention all to you ; yet those that are more eminent, and may come under what is here in the text, I shall go over with as much brevity as I can.
In these words, compared likewise with the 37th verse of this chapter, you have three several sorts of acts of faith :
1. Seeing the Son : Every one that seeth the Son.
2. A coming unto him ; so verse 37 (for you may take that verse in
likewise), He that cometh unto me.
* And believeth on him. 1 Now it is to be remarked, that that faith by which we are saved, which
8. A believing on him :
the apostle calls believing to the saving of the soul, is seated in the whole
heart, so you have it in Acts viii. 37, If thou believe with thy whole
heart ; and indeed every faculty, and every power of the soul in believing doth put forth a several sprig, a several Jlbra into Jesus Christ ; as you see in the roots that are in the earth, every root shoots a small string into
that by which the tree and the root is united thereunto ; thus are we rooted
in Christ, and grounded in him, as the expression is in Col. ii. 7, which is then when the faculties do thus shoot forth several acts suitable to them
selves, into our Lord Christ, and then the soul believeth on him.
I will begin first with the first act of faith here, and that is seeing t which notes out that act of faith which is in the understanding, which we
call the act of knowledge. Hence we find that in Scripture our being
justified by Christ is ascribed to the knowledge which we have of him ; you have it in Isa. liii. 11, By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many ; when he saith by his knowledge, he doth not mean that we are
justified by the knowledge that is in Christ (though perhaps in some sense
that might be said), but it is by the knowledge we have of him. The word
his there is taken objectively ; it is called, you see here, a seeing the Son ; here is the act, and here is the object ; the act it is seeing, the object is
the Son. In this sight of Christ there are four things which I would
speak to :
(1.) It is a spiritual sight or knowledge of him.
(2.) It is a sight in distinction to bodily sight, and in distinction from
reason, and other ways of knowledge.
(3.) It hath a certainty in it.
(4.) It hath a reality in it.
ClIAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 259
(1.) It is a spiritual sight, which doth distinguish it from all knowledge of Christ after the flesh; for there is indeed a sight of Christ, and a real
sight of Christ, which is contradistinct to faith, a sight of the bodily pre sence of Christ, and this the apostle speaks of in 1 Peter i. 8, In whom, though ye see him not, yet ye believe; and the truth is, our faith shall end
in such a sight, for we shall one day see him as he is, and to be believing in the mean time, having not seen, is that blessedness which is pronounced, John xx. 29. When Paul was converted he saw Christ, his eyes were
elevated to see Christ, whether as in heaven or in the air I will not dispute, as some do ; but certain it is that he saw him, and yet that was not a sight of faith. Now in 2 Cor. v. 16, 17, he prefers that knowing of Christ after
the new creature, by that spiritual sight the new creature hath of him, to
all the knowledge of Christ after the flesh in any such visible manner ; thus wicked men shall see him at the latter day, and be never the better for the
sight of him ; but it is a spiritual sight of Christ by the eye of faith that
saveth a man. In 1 Cor. ii. 14, the apostle tells us, that spiritual things are not known by the natural man, because they are spiritually discerned, so that the knowledge of a spiritual man is a spiritual knowledge. The
meaning is, it is such a knowledge and sight of Christ as is suitable to the
spiritualness that is in him, it takes in a genuine notion of him. Spiritual
things may be set out by words to the reason and to the fancies of men, so as to take with them ; but we do not know them nor see them till we see them purely and nakedly, by an impressson the Holy Ghost makes
upon us, that conveys the proper, and native, and natural image to us. As for example, go take a song in music, that is set or written, or pricked upon a book, a man may be taught the art of music, so that he may know
the proportions and harmony according to the rules of art that are in this
lesson as it is set or pricked upon the book ; this artificial harmony of it he may know, but yet notwithstanding the real, natural harmony, the ear
only taketh in when this lesson is sung. Why ? Because the ear is that sense which is suited to take in the harmony and sound of music. Thus
as God hath given us an understanding to know spiritual things thereby, the reason that is in them, the rational exercises of them, so far forth as
they may be set out by words, all this the natural man takes in, but still
there is that which is natural and proper to the things themselves, which he understands not.
(2.) It is, in the second place, called a sight, to distinguish it from reason and other knowledge. So faith is expressed, He that seeth the Son ; and
in Heb. xi., They saw the promise afar off, and Abraham saw Christ s
day, John viii. 56. And though Christ is now come, and exhibited, and
is taken again out of our view, yet it is the sight of him that saveth us. It
is not merely knowing him, but it is knowing him in a way of sight, for we may know him in a way of reason, we may gather one thing out of another, and so have the knowledge of him, and yet not have that which is faith about him, though whatsoever a man doth believe he hath reason for it ; reason subserveth and comes in to confirm it, yet the act of faith lies in a
sight, rather than in a knowledge that is made up out of reason.
The Holy Ghost still, when he speaks of faith, expresseth it to us by the
knowledge of the senses, Philip, i. 9. Spiritual knowledge is there called sense ; the word is so, if you read your margin, and it is so in the original,
4 That your love may abound in knowledge and in all sense ; so the word
is. It is true, indeed, that faith is said to be of things not seen, Heb.
xi. 1, but yet itself is said to be a sight. The things themselves are not
seen, that is, to reason, and to the bodily senses they are not seen : but
260 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I.
the mind hath a new sense, as it were, put into it, by which it sees them otherwise than either reason or sense could present them to a man.
The Holy Ghost (to make this a little out to you), when he doth work
faith in us, and reveal Christ and spiritual things to us, doth two things :
First, He doth first give us a new understanding, a new eye, as it were on purpose, that is as truly suited to behold spiritual things as the natural
eye is to behold colours : 1 John v. 20, He hath given us an understanding to know him that is true ; that is, a new eye to see Christ with ; he puts a spiritualness into the understanding ; he doth not create a new faculty, but endues this with a new activity, which is as much as if he gave us a new understanding.
Secondly, When he hath done so, himself comes with a light upon this new understanding, which light conveys the image of spiritual things in a
spiritual way to the mind, such an image of the things as is taken off from the things themselves, such as no form of words, no reasoning, not all the wit and parts of a man, no discourses about Christ and spiritual things, would ever form in him. The angels, who have seen Jesus Christ in heaven in his glory, if they should all come clown, and use all their art, all their
rhetoric, come with all their pencils to paint and set out Jesus Christ to us in the most lively manner that can be ; yet all they could do, or could say, would not beget (without the power of the Holy Ghost, without his art
joined with it) such a sight of Christ as faith gives us. If they should all set themselves to beget an image of Jesus Christ in our minds and under
standings, it would be but a, parhelion, as they call a false sun ; as we can not see the sun but by his own light, so we cannot see Jesus Christ but by his own light, and by the light of the Holy Ghost.
There is a seeing of spiritual things merely by the effects, and there is a faith wrought thereby; for the devils they have a sense, and they have a knowledge, and a real knowledge too (so far forth as effects go), that there
is a God, for they feel the lashes of his wrath upon their spirits ; yet, not
withstanding, this is not faith, this is not that faith which is the spiritual faith, which is the faith of sight, which here this text and the Scripture speaks of ; so that now it is a spiritual sight of him which is in the nature of faith. And the truth is, it is such an image of Christ framed in the heart (and when I say an image, I mean not the image of Christ in holiness, but the image of knowledge of him ; for a man knoweth nothing, but there
is an image of it framed in his mind) ; such a sight of him by which we know him, as all the creatures, and all the knowledge, and all the descrip tion of him in the world, would never work. As you have it in 1 Cor.
ii. 9, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him. He speaks there of the things of the gospel, and so of Jesus Christ eminently above the rest, and of the knowledge of them. There are such images of these things created there by a peculiar artifice of the Holy Ghost, as never entered into the heart of carnal men. It is his peculiar art (that is the truth of it), which is in no knowledge else, that is thus in faith. It is not that which we shall have in heaven, for that is seeing him face to face ; it
is not such a knowledge only as we have of other things here below, which
yet we believe really, though we never saw them ; but, I say, there is a
peculiarity in it, which the Holy Ghost works in the hearts of the people of God, which is the sight of faith. It is therefore called in 1 Cor. ii. 4,
* The demonstration of the Spirit. There are two principles in Scripture which all knowledge, even of spiritual things, is reduced unto. The one
is called the revelation of flesh and blood, Mat. xvi. 17; the other is called
CHAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 261
the demonstration of the Spirit, 1 Cor. ii. 4. Flesh and blood, saith
Christ to Peter, hath not revealed these things to thee ; implying that
there was a knowledge which flesh and blood works in us, which is the way of man s nature : but then there is another knowledge which ariseth from
the demonstration of the Spirit. It is light (as the apostle tells us in Eph. v. 13) that makes all things manifest. How comes your eye to see colours, or to see anything else ? Why there is a light comes, and that light takes
of the image of the colours, and of the things you see, and brings them to
your eye. Now spiritual things are all nothing else but light ; now God himself and Jesus Christ is nothing else but light ; and so is heaven, it is
called the inheritance of the saints in light. Now the Holy Ghost comes with the beams of this light, and every one of those beams doth bring the
image, the natural, native image of the thing to the eye, to the understand
ing ; and therefore the apprehension of it is called sight, and we are there
* see light in his light, Ps. xxxvi. 9 ; the beams
fore said by the psalmist to
of the sun, you know, convey every of them an image of the sun, and such an image of the sun whereby you see the sun, so as nothing else can repre sent the sun to you ; and so the Holy Ghost he doth cause the beams of God, and of Christ, who, as I said, is nothing else but light, for to shine
into our hearts, and all those beams which he letteth and bringeth in, they convey the image of God and of Christ to us, and so we see him. In
1 Pet. ii. 9, we are said to be translated into his marvellous light. It is
* marvellous because it is above reason, or the natural knowledge of
called
a man; and it is called his light, not only because Christ works it, as in
Eph. v. 14 it is said, Christ shall give thee light, but because it is the
light of himself, it conveys the image of himself to the heart.
Yea, let me tell you this, the sight of faith is so genuine a knowledge, that though it differ in degrees, yet the very same knowledge that Christ s human nature hath of himself, the same knowledge in its degree doth the Holy Ghost work of him in the heart of a Christian. This is a great speech, but
it is true the knowledge whereby Jesus Christ knows and sees himself, you must needs say is a natural knowledge of himself: that is, he sees himself
as he is in himself, not by hearsay. Now look what spiritual representa tions Jesus Christ hath of God, and of himself, and of his own righteous ness, in his mind, the Holy Ghost coming fresh from the heart of Christ,
stampeth the very same upon the heart of a Christian in his measure. You
will say, How prove you that ? the text is clear for it, in 1 Cor. ii. 16, We have the mind of Christ. He speaks there of spiritual knowledge ; that whereas other men have the letter, the literal knowledge, yet they have not
these thoughts, have not that mind stamped upon their minds which is in
Christ himself; but such we have (saith he), we have the mind of Christ, we have those spiritual thoughts as it were from his heart, because we have
the Spirit which works in us, impresseth upon us the same thoughts of him that are in his own heart of himself. All other enlightenings that men have, they are from Christ indeed ; he is said, John i. 9, to be the
light that enlighteneth every man that comes into the world with all sorts
of common knowledge. As now go take the light of the night, all the light you see in the night by the moon, it is all the light of the sun, but yet it is
not that light whereby the sun conveys its beams to the eye when it riseth, and when a man beholds it ; so men that are not regenerated, that have but a temporary faith, they have a light from Christ, such as is the light of
the sun shining in the moon ; they have a light, as from the effects ; they have a light also which the letter of the Scripture, and the Spirit shining upon it, begets in them ; but still it is not a sight of the thing itself, it is
262 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I.
not seeing the Son, it is not such as when the image of the Son himself is conveyed into the mind and understanding by the Holy Ghost. We may know there is a sun by what light we see in the moon, but it is another
thing to have a beam of the sun itself shine into a man s eye, whereby the very image of the sun is conveyed into his eye. And therefore this sight of faith it is called sight, because it is thus elevated above all rational knowledge of Christ whatsoever ; it is a further thing, though joined with
it ; it is (I say) superadded to reason, let it be elevated and enlightened ever so much by the Holy Ghost in a rational way.
Go, take a temporary believer, it is true he sees those things, by the help of the light of the Spirit, which nature would never help him to see, and yet it is but by natural understanding, remaining natural, and reason elevated, and reason improved, and reason enlarged and convinced. But faith goes higher than all this, faith is more than a man s having an optic glass set before his eye, to see that which else he could not see, because it
is so far off ; the eye of itself is capable of it, if it stood nigh it. There is more than all this in faith ; it is as it were a new eye, to see those things in such a manner as all the optic glasses in the world would never help a dim eye to see at a distance. Therefore, now faith (as I said afore), is called the demonstration of the Spirit ; all other knowledge is but by derived images of the things of Christ, by hearsay, so muchof Christ as may be conveyed to us by words and by rational discourses, the Holy Ghost
enlightening them. In all this there are but secondary images conveyed to the hearts of carnal men, more or less, as they are more or less en lightened ; but to see the Son as he is in himself, as here the text holds it
forth, this is proper to believers. So that, take any man that hath been never so much enlightened in the knowledge of spiritual things, and not
savingly enlightened, when that man comes to turn to God, and to believe in earnest, he will say he never saw these things before, he will say he doth ^now see Christ so as he never saw him before, and that he sees God in that manner as he never saw him before. And though he knew never so much before, yet now after he is turned unto God, he sees that old things are passed away, and all things are become new ; as the apostle says in 2 Cor. v. 17, and he speaks it in respect of knowledge. Let now a carnal man speak of Christ, and let a holy man who savingly believes speak of the same Christ, and of spiritual things, they shall both speak of the same things, yet the knowledge, that is, the sight which the believer hath of Christ, and of spiritual things, is clearly differing from that of the other.
I shall open but one scripture to you to express this ; it is in John iii. 12. Our Saviour Christ had been discoursing with Nicodemus, about the point of regeneration, which is a thing belonging to the kingdom of heaven. Now, saith he, if I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things ? What is his meaning there of having told him of earthly things ? He had spoken of heavenly things, and why doth he call them earthly ? Because he had expressed them under earthly words, and he had not given light, he had not gone forth with what he spake in a spirit of irradiation -to Nicodemus his heart; hence, therefore, Nicodemus clean mistakes Christ. But now when Jesus Christ doth enlighten a man, whilst he or the ministers of his word speak earthly things, he stamps the impress and image of the heavenly themselves upon the heart, and then a man believes ; he conveys them in their heavenly hue, conveys them in that notion and apprehension that his own heart hath of them, and therefore, John iii. 11 (saith he), We speak that we know,
CHAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 263
* we, too, who are believers, have
and testify that we have seen. And
the mind of Christ, 1 Cor. ii. 16. So that a believer hath such a kind of
knowledge of heavenly things as Jesus Christ himself hath, such a know
ledge of the Son as Jesus Christ hath of himself, in his measure ; it differs
indeed in degrees, but it is of the same kind.
Hence it is that a believer is said, when he believeth, to witness to the
truth of God, to set to his seal that God is true, John iii. 33. What is
the reason ? Because he knows the truths of God, the great truth espe
cially about Christ, which is the thing eminently he witnesseth unto, and
he knows it not by reason, but by sense, by sight, and therefore he is a
witness. For you know, if any man give a testimony merely by hearsay, we account it as no witness in comparison ; but if a man speak by sense
and by sight, then he speaks like a witness. Now, because a believer takes
in spiritual things by a spiritual sense, by a spiritual sight, therefore he is
said to witness when he doth believe.
And the sight of faith, though it is joined with reason, yet it is intuitive. We do not gather the knowledge of Christ out of other things, but it is a
sight of himself. In 1 Cor. xiii. 12, we are now said to see through a
glass darkly, yet we are said to see. Rational knowledge is to gather one
thing out of another, but the knowledge of faith, so far as it is a knowledge
of faith, is to see a thing in itself, to see Jesus Christ in himself.
That I may demonstrate this yet further, you shall find that the know
ledge of faith in the souls of men, is not proportioned to the compass of
their natural understanding. Why ? Because it is a way of knowledge above what the understanding naturally hath, or can be improved, or raised
up unto, remaining natural ; it is therefore a way beyond it, it is by way
of sight. What is the reason that God hath chosen fools, rather than the
wise men of the world ? You see your calling, saith the apostle, how
that not many wise men after the flesh, &c., 1 Cor. i. 26. If God had
meant to convey the knowledge of spiritual things only to those that know him here in a rational way, and by reason, elevated by the Holy Ghost,
certainly he would have chosen the wise men of the world, because they by
knowledge would have glorified him more in such a way of knowledge. No ; but he chose the fools of the world, because he hath a way of con
veying himself to their understandings beyond the way of reason, and that
is by way of sight. Therefore you shall observe, men who are ignorant in
a rational way, that cannot make out a rational discourse of spiritual
things, that cannot lay before you a rational connection of one truth
with another, and when they speak of them, though they have otherwise much grace and holiness, they will speak incoherently of them in their
expressions, and yet it is apparent that yet these men, as being godly, have
as strong and deep a knowledge of heavenly things as those who have
infinitely more strength of natural reason. Why ? Because faith goes by way of sight, it goes in a way beyond and above reason, and the knowledge
of God and of Christ in a rational way. When we come to heaven, will God then proportion to you a knowledge of himself (and degrees of happi ness depend upon greater degrees of knowledge of him), according to men s
parts arid understandings which they had in this rational way here ? No ;
but he lets in a light of himself, a light of vision, which he that hath the
lowest parts, if God let in no more* light to him, shall know more of him
than these of far greater parts, into whom he hath not let in so much light. And so doth God here, because that faith is sight, and is the prelibation, the beginning of heaven.
* Qu. let in more ? ED.
264 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I.
_ This is clearly (as to me), also the difference between that way of know ing God which believers have now, and that which Adam had in innocency ; if Adam^had stood, he amongst his children that had the most parts (those parts being all carried in a rational way), should have known more of God than he that, it may be, was more holy, and had lower parts. But it is not so m the second Adam, because he hath a way of letting things into the mind beyond the way of reason, by the way of sight and spiritual light, conveying beams of himself to us, which conveyeth those images of himself and oi spiritual things to us, which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard aor ever entered into the heart of man remaining natural.
I will only give you a caution, that I may not be misunderstood; for as
i is a great truth, so I would clear it from mistakes. The light of faith i not destroy reason, but makes use of it, subordinates reason to itself sth, rectifies it, and then useth it, even as reason makes use of senseign the acts of reason, the thoughts of a man in a rational soul, are clean differing to what he hath in the sensitive soul, yet reason makes use oi sense. ^And thus the Holy Ghost makes use of all the rational discourses and descriptions of Christ in the word, makes use of the letter of the word
; by them conveys those spiritual thoughts of Christ, which all that letter cannot hold forth to a man. And, as I said afore, if the angels from heaven should come and preach Jesus Christ to us, should with all their pencils go and paint out what knowledge they have of Jesus Christ, they could not beget one such sight of Christ in the heart as the Holy Ghost doth when he comes to work faith. And yet the apostle tells us it comes by hearin* id in hearing. The more rationally the preacher discoursed out of the word, and lays open the meaning thereof in a rational way, so much the 3tter, because it is suited to the minds of men; yet where the Holy Ghost works faith, he conveys a light beyond all that reason, though he makes use of that reason too. This word of God hath an harmony of reason in it and it a man would open a place of Scripture, he should do it rationally he 1 go and consider the words before and the words after; but yet still the Holy Ghost conies not with a further light than all this rational opening of the word affords, a man will never believe, for faith is a si^ht beyond it. The Holy Ghost useth motives to move you to holy duties then he comes with a power joined with those motives beyond the .ora force of them. He useth signs out of your own hearts to comfort you but he comes with a light over and above those signs ; for if you should stick there, you would never have comfort; so he useth reason; he destroyeth it not, but subordinated it. The apostle saith that the Scripture is not of any private interpretation, Z m. i. 20. If the Scripture might be known by the light of reason (it is written rationally, and suiting to reason, I acknowledge), but if the Scrip tures might alone be known, and the meaning of the Holy Ghost therein, by the light of reason, they were of private interpretation, for man s reason
rat a private interpreter in comparison of the Holy Ghost the author; yet notwithstanding he useth reason to interpret it ; but when he hath Lone,_ne himself comes and seals up to a man s spirit that this is the meaning of the Holy Ghost in it, or else a man never believes. So that it is the light of the Holy Ghost now that casteth the balance; and he doth this not only m the principles of religion, but in deductions of principles too; ior though a man gather by reason one thing from another, vet if he have not the light of the Spirit to seal up those deductions, he doth not believe in a spiritual way; therefore it is called in Job xxxiii. 16,
< sealing f instruction. If the Holy Ghost do not go, and by a supernatural ligS
ClIAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 2C5
reveal the truth to a man, all the reason in the world will never work
spiritual faith in his heart. Hence now you see why it is called sight. The end why I have insisted so long upon this is, as to open it, so to
take you off of yourselves, and all your own knowledge, that you may therefore
seek out to the Holy Ghost to make spiritual things evident to you by their own light, in their own hue, that you may not rest in rational knowledge, and in notional knowledge of the things of the word, for you may go to
hell with all that, unless you have a spiritual sight of the things them
selves.
(3.) As faith is a spiritual knowledge, and as it is a sight beyond that of reason, though of spiritual things, which yet are suited to reason, so the knowledge of faith is a certain knowledge. So you have it in Heb.
xi. 13, They saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them ; that is, they had a knowledge of assurance of the things they did believe.
I say the knowledge of faith it is a certain knowledge. And why ? Be cause it is a knowledge of sight. What a man sees, it is certain that he
sees it when he sees it. What is the reason? Because sensus nonfallitur circa proprium objectum, Sense is never deceived about its proper object. Therefore if it be a spiritual sight and a spiritual sense, it hath a certainty joined with it. The knowledge of faith it is called assurance in Heb. x.
22, but in Col. ii. 2, as you do increase in it, you are said to increase in
all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of
the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ. It is very em-
phatical. He tells us in the following words, that there are hidden in Christ
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ; and his scope is to prefer the
knowledge of the gospel, and of Christ therein, to all other knowledge. Nay, saith he, it doth not only excel all other knowledge in regard of the
object of it, but it is a knowledge that, when it is genuine, when it is saving,
it excelleth as to the riches of assurance in the knowledge itself. It is such an assurance, and so rich, as you cannot have from your senses, or any thing else. The apostle heaps up expressions ; he calls it assurance, he
calls it full assurance, he calls it full assurance of understanding, he calls it
riches of full assurance, and he calls it an acknowledgment; words enough, one would think, to make knowledge sure.
But let me here add a caution too. My meaning is not that every saint
that is a true believer hath an assurance that Jesus Christ is his, or that he hath the assurance of his own salvation. No ; many believers have not
that, neither is that essential to faith or to the act of application. This doth not lie in believing that Christ is mine, for if it did, God would give
it unto every man ; but the act of application is real application, giving myself up unto Christ, that he may be mine, and I his. But now, though there is not an act of assurance of my own interest, yet there is an act of assurance of the thing I believe on. I do never truly believe, unless there be an assured persuasion of the truth of the things on which I believe, and which I believe. Thus you must understand those scriptures where
you have mention of the assurance of faith, as in Heb. x. 22, Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. And so in James i. 6,
* If any man pray, let him ask in faith, without wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Of which place many have mistook the meaning ; for is the meaning this, that when a man comes to ask a promise at the hands of God, he must believe, without wavering, that he shall have it ? No ; if this were the faith that James here meant when he saith,
* If any man pray, let him ask in faith, without wavering, who almost is there (unless in some special manifesta-
2G6 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BoOK I.
tions of God to him) that doth thus ask in prayer, or can ask temporal promises with such a faith, without wavering? But yet there is a faith which is without wavering ; that is, there is an assured belief of the truth of those promises, that God made them, and that he is faithful to perform them according to the intention of them. Here now is a persuasion of the
thing, and an asking in faith without wavering ; and, saith the apostle, He that wavereth is as a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed ; a double-minded man is unstable, saith he, in all his ways. What is the reason that carnal men are unstable, and that they do not walk fully up in the ways of religion ? It is because that their faith in the things do not rise up to a stableness ; it hath a wavering in the belief of the prin ciples themselves, so far forth as they are principles of practice. Whereas now, if these things were spiritually and prevailingly rooted in their hearts, above the natural darkness of unbelief, that there is a God, who is a rewarder of those that seek him, and that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, and that he hath made these and these promises, and is thus
gracious and willing to receive those that come unto him; if these things, I say, were believed in a real and spiritual manner, and that the hearts of men were, without wavering, persuaded of them, without question it would draw men s hearts, and cause them to walk answerably, and keep them from being driven with the wind and tossed.
So that this is the apostle s meaning (which is the thing I drive at), that in all faith there is a fixedness, an assuredness, a persuasion, namely, of the things that I do believe; but it doth not follow that it should be an assured persuasion of my own interest in the things themselves, for so who asketh in faith ? Many poor souls that even ask salvation at the hands of God, they do not ask it as fully believing, and being assured that
they shall be saved, and yet in the mean time they fully believe that sal vation that God hath made known to them, and with which their hearts are taken, and that is the persuasion and assurance of faith. I shall give you some scriptures that this faith is a knowledge that riseth up to a per suasion, to an assurance, John vi. 69. Peter there, in the name of all the
apostles, confesseth his faith, and the faith of all the apostles: We
believe, saith he, and are sure of what ? that we shall be saved? no; but that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Of this a man must be sure, or it is not faith ; and so likewise he must be sure of all other things that are fundamental unto faith ; the things which he lays hold on, and which his soul pursues after, he must believe with a certainty that they are. When Jesus Christ was to go out of the world, what was
it that he thanks his Father for, and why ? I can (saith he) comfortably leave the world, and leave these disciples in the world ; for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, John xvii. 8. Wherein now lay their receiving them, and their believing them ? for that is the meaning of receiving. They have received them, saith he, and have known surely that I came out from thee. He had
begotten in them that faith which rises up to assurance, and he distin-
guisheth them thus from the world: I pray for them, saith he in the
very next verse, I pray not for the world; for indeed the world do not
surely know or are persuaded of the things that are in the word, for if
they were, certainly that persuasion would alter the frame of their lives, and would make them walk answerably, and cause them to be holy. If a man be unstable in his ways, it is because he is unstable in the belief of the principles he professeth to walk by ; and so indeed hereby Christ clis-
tinguisheth the faith of the world and the faith of those that were his
CHAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 207
* They have surely known, saith
disciples, whom he had wrought upon:
he, that I cameout from thee; and for these, saith he, I pray, but
I pray not for the world. And the truth is, this full persuasion or assur
ance of the thing,, it is an effect of the former property I mentioned, viz., of spiritual sight ; for if I see a thing, and see it really (which is another
property of the knowledge of faith, and which I shall speak to by and by),
it always begets a certain persuasion in me that the thing is. Perhaps I may not reflect upon my own knowledge, yet notwithstanding an assur
ance and a full persuasion doth always and most necessarily follow a real
sight of a thing. Take a man that is awake, he can and doth say with
himself, and say it by way of difference and distinction from one being
asleep, I know assuredly such a man is before me, I know assuredly that
the sun shines. Why ? Because he sees the man, and he sees the sun ; whereas if a man be asleep, and in a dream, it may be he thinks he doth
the same, but still there is no certainty in it. But now look where there
is a reality of sight, there is also always accompanying it so far a full per suasion and assurance; and the man is able to say, that the knowledge he hath is different from all other knowledge. So that, I say, this is the
third thing in this sight of Christ which a believer hath, he hath an assur ance of the thing. This even the poorest and meanest believer hath, take him out of those temptations and doubts which the devil may suggest to
him; take him when he is himself, he hath an assurance that is of the
things themselves. And the reason is clearly this, because he sees spiri tual things by their own light; and the ground of faith, the very form alls
ratio, is the light and demonstration of the Spirit. Now, that is more
infallible than all that a man knows by his outward senses, or by reason, by how much the witness of the Spirit is above the witness of nature, and
the light of the Spirit above the light of nature ; as an oath hath more
certainty in it than a promise, so the light and demonstration of the Spirit hath more certainty in it than all the rational apprehension a man hath of
Christ. In a word, the heart of a believer, by the light of the Spirit, sees more reason to believe that these things are so and so which the word saith, that there is such a Christ, so glorious and so good; he hath, I say, more reason to believe it than he could have by all the demonstrations that sense or reason can afford. As when a man sees the sun by its own light,
it hath riches of evidence in it, hath it not ? so when a man sees Christ
by his own light, it produces riches of assurance, namely, that the thing
is. I say not that it carries with it riches of assurance that Christ is
mine, or that I shall be saved, for that is another thing; all the torches in
the world cannot give that light which the sun itself gives, no more can all
the rational apprehensions a man hath give him such a sight of Christ as
a believer hath by the demonstration of the Spirit.
(4.) This knowledge of faith is a real knowledge, a real sight of Christ and of spiritual things. I do not speak of visions and revelations extra
ordinary, but it is such a knowledge as doth give a man a real possession of the things, and doth make the things themselves really subsisting to a man s spirit, and he feeleth really that there is such glory, and excellency, and sweetness in Jesus Christ as the word holds forth, and indeed as is in Jesus Christ himself; for now the Spirit of Christ is present, and joineth with his spirit, for always sight hath, as a certainty, so a reality joined with
it. A man may have by way of reason a conviction that things are, he may know that things do exist, as now a man may know by the light of the moon and by the light of the stars that there is a sun, which shines upon them, and that this sun existeth; but when a man sees the sun itself, here
OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I.
is a knowledge sub esse prasenti ; here is a presence of that sun to him, which makes it really existing to him. Such is the knowledge of faith; and therefore in Heb. xi. 1 faith is called faoaruas, the evidence, that which gives a subsistence to the things not seen ; that is, by the outward senses, or by the light and dictates of reason. Now, suppose that there were an artificial instrument made, by which things that we never saw, or never took in with our bodily eyes, might be really conveyed into our minds and
fancies, such (if it were possible) as might stamp the image of them upon our fancies, we would say this were a very strange kind of instrument. Optic glasses they do not so much ; they indeed will present a thing to you which you glimmeringly discern afar off, but you must first discern it with your bodily eye ; but now if there were an engine as could present a thing afar off, which your bodily eye never beheld, and stamp it upon your fancy, this you would say were strange. Now, the Holy Ghost hath an art to^do this, and he doth do it, though he useth the word, and the de scription of Christ in the word, and useth the promises, yet that image of Christ and of heavenly things which he works in the heart of a believer is by a peculiar art of his own which he useth, and it is far beyond, infinitely beyond, what we can take in by our fancies, or senses, or anything else; and therefore, because the knowledge of faith hath this reality in it, you shall find that there is almost no sense but in the Scripture faith is com pared to it. And this is merely, I say, because it is such a knowledge as hath a reality of the things known conveyed to a man s soul, though they
be^ absent. It is compared to hearing: John x. 16, My sheep hear my voice; and they hear it so as to discern it from the voice of a stranger. It is compared to eating: John vi. 54, Whoso eateth my flesh, &c. And elsewhere it is compared to tasting: Ps. xxxiv. 8,
< Taste how good the Lord is. Hence in John vi. 55 Christ saith his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed ; that is, the soul finds a reality in it, and it is not^as when a man dreams he eats, but Christ and the promises, and the things that the soul feeds upon, they have a reality in them, they are meat indeed and drink indeed, and the soul finds them so. They that are temporary believers have a show of this, both of a sight, and of a reality of
sight, and they are said to taste of the powers of the world to come ; but yet let me say this to distinguish it from this other. 1. They do not see spiritual things in their spiritual nature, as they are in themselves, though they may see an accidental goodness in them, and so be taken with them, and so may taste of the sauce of that flesh of Christ which it is sauced up in, as I may express it; that is, that acci dental goodness which it is presented to us in, with those benefits that accompany it, as freedom from hell and the like ; but the spiritual, the genuine, the native excellency that is in Jesus Christ himself, this they do not see, nor is it made real to them. Now, to see a thing, or to know a thing in the effects, or in the accidental goodness of it, is not to see or to know the thing properly and truly ; but to see a thing in its own true, genuine notion, to see the spiritual excellency that is in Jesus Christ, and so to have the heart taken with him, considered in all his spiritual excel
lencies, this is spiritual sight ; and indeed this is only to know the things themselves, which the other doth not.
2. ^And then again, though there be a seeming reality in the knowledge and impression that is made upon the heart of a temporary believer, yet it
is but as the knowledge one hath that is asleep, and dreams that he sees and converseth with a man, which sight then seems to be exceeding real, and indeed is more real than the picture of a man is, because in his fancy
CHAP. L] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 269
he seems to have the reality of the man presented to him with whom he
converseth, and his image seems, as it were, to be stamped upon his fancy ; but yet it is but a phantasmatical knowledge ; it is not that knowledge and
sight of a man which men have that are awake, that giveth a subsistence, as the knowledge and sight of faith doth, which is such a knowledge as is suited to the things themselves, a spiritual knowledge, and a real knowledge also. I told you before, that the knowledge of a believer is to have such
thoughts, in his measure and degree, as are in the heart of Christ himself. Now those things which yet are not (as the day of judgment is not yet), yet are present to the heart of Christ ; and therefore it is said, God calleth
things that are not as if they were, Rom. iv. 17. If now I have the mind of Christ, if I have that spiritual notion of things to come, of heaven that
is to come, stamped upon my heart, that is in the heart of Christ, that I know them in that manner he knows them, in my degree and proportion, then it is present to my heart as it is to his. Jesus Christ doth not only know things, but they have a subsistence, they are present to him : All
things are present and naked with him with whom we have to do, Heb.
iv. 13. So much faith then, so much openness and nakedness, and so much presence of the things we believe. You shall find in 1 Cor. ii. 9, that the things of God are said to enter into our hearts. It is not only that we know the images and notions of things, but we have the presence of the things themselves; therefore, in Heb. xi. 13, believers are there said to embrace the promises. What is the reason they are said to embrace them ? Because they so saw them as having a reality in them ; they did not embrace a cloud, but they felt a presence, a subsistence, in the things promised, in God, and in Christ, on whom they believed, though Christ was not then incarnate. And in John vi. 47, 51, and 54, when a man is said to
believe, he is said to eat the flesh of Christ, and to drink his blood, as truly as a man eats meat or drinks wine, and he feels a presence, even as a man
feels the presence of the wine he drinks to strengthen his spirits. He doth not only know that there is wine, and sees it, but he feels a power and virtue joining with his body and with his spirits ; so a man knows and feels the presence of Christ and of heavenly things in his spirit, while he believes, and finds a reality in them : My flesh is meat indeed, saith he, to shew that faith feels as true a reality in the things believed, as a man doth in the meat he eats. And indeed, what is the reason that carnal men leave Christ for the pleasures of the world ? Because the pleasures of the world are real things to them ; therefore, unless God make the things of another world real too, a man will never leave realities for notions. All that reason or notions can represent of Christ, will never take a man s heart off from the real things he sees here below ; and therefore God comes, and he weighs down the reality of the things of this world, by the reality of the things of the other world. And so much now for this first thing in faith, viz., that
: He that seeth the Son, saith he ; and so you have the act
it is a sight
seeing, with the kind and properties thereof.
I come now to the acts of faith in the understanding, as terminated on the great object of faith. I shall confine myself to Christ, because he is the
great object of our faith ; and for that I shall say these few things to you. First, The soul that God doth give faith to, sees the spiritual excellency and glory that is in Jesus Christ, and the heart is taken with it : in 2 Cor.
* We see as in a glass the glory of the Lord. I mention it for this, that it is called a
iii. 18, saith the apostle, speaking of the beholding of Christ,
seeing of his glory ; that is, that surpassing excellency, even to a glory, that is in Jesus Christ. Every one whom God draws in to believe, he doth
270 OF THE OBJECT AXD ACTS [PART II. BOOK I.
sooner or later cause some glimpse of the glory of Christ in a spiritual and
real way to pass before him, which takes the spirit, so that he is like one that is fallen in love with one at first sight, when the party is passed by ; but there is a sight, a glimpse that has taken the heart ; so though that
glimpse of Jesus Christ seems to be gone, yet there is that impression upon the soul, and upon the heart, that other beauties and glories are but as shadows in comparison of that which is in Jesus Christ. And such a sight of the thing, though it be but in transitu, takes the heart for ever. The church in Cant. v. 9 had such a sight of Christ, for see how mightily she
magnified him ; and though that sight was vanished, yet she was so taken with it, as she seeks all the world over for him, insomuch as others stand
* What is thy beloved, say they, more than another beloved? They saw no such beauty in him: Oh, saith she, my beloved
wondering at her;
is such a beloved as is thus and thus; and so she falls a-setting out of his
glories and excellencies. It is such a sight as doth put out a man s eyes to all things else for ever doting upon them as formerly he did ; even as
they that go on pilgrimage to Mahomet s tomb, after they have been there, they use to burn out their eyes, that, after that sacred sight, they may never behold creatures more. Such a thing now is really wrought in the heart of a Christian in some measure; as Christ saith, He that drinketh of this water shall never thirst any more, John iv. 13. So he that hath thus seen Jesus Christ, he never sees anything more as he saw it before ; he may have his heart taken with folly and vanity, yet not so as before, because he hath seen the Lord Jesus ; there is that impression made by that sight of the glory and excellency which is in him. You have this in 2 Cor. v. 17, If I have known things after the flesh, saith he, henceforth know I them no more ; that is, I can never value carnal things at that rate I have done ; I see through them all, saith he ; I do not value them now by a fleshly sight and consideration. If I have seen them so, I see them now so no more. Why? Because I have seen Jesus Christ by the know
ledge of the new creature, and now old things are passed away, and all
things are become new. Even as God has moulded fancies to faces, so he hath framed and moulded the knowledge of Christ to Christ; and even as the eye is framed to colours, so is the new understanding suited to Jesus
Christ; it is a spiritual understanding, and so suited to a spiritual Christ; that having taken in the image of Jesus Christ in the real and spiritual notion of him, the heart is moulded into it, and that heart can never be taken with any other beauty or carnal thing of what kind soever that is here below : 1 John v. 20,
* He hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true.
Secondly, When God draws the heart to believe, it sees also an allsuf
ficiency of righteousness in Jesus Christ, and in his satisfaction : Ps. cxxx. 7,
* With whom is plenteous redemption ; and in Eom. v. 17, it is
said, They receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of grace ; you have the like in Philip, iii. 8,
* I count all things, saith he, but loss and dung, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ; and next to the knowledge of Christ, what is most valued by him ? The righteousness of Christ ; and therefore saith he in the next verse,
* That I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, but that which is through the
faith of Christ. Now a man sees that satisfaction, and that worth aud fulness in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, that if he might have the
righteousness of Adam, or the righteousness of the angels, or as great a
righteousness made his, to be his, and be inherent in him, and he to be
justified by it, he would throw it all away as dross and dung in comparison
CHAP. I.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 271
of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, which he sees held forth to him.
The third thing that the soul sees, and is persuaded of when God draws the heart to him, it is the graciousness that is in the Lord Jesus Christ ; and that in two things :
First, In the general ; in his readiness to receive sinners. Whatsoever
thoughts a man had before of Christ (as when a man is first humbled he is
apt to have hard and sour thoughts of Christ), yet when he comes to know
the mind of Christ, as the apostle saith, 1 Cor. ii. 16, that is, to know his gracious inclination, God doth make an impression and stamp of the
gracious heart and inclination that is in Jesus Christ to receive sinners, and sets it as it were upon the heart, and he persuades them better things of Christ than either what they naturally, or when they are first humbled, think of him.
Secondly, There is stamped upon the heart of a Christian some secret hint or whisper of mercy to him ; I do not say it riseth to assurance, for then it would quell all doublings ; but in every one that God takes to himself, as he lets him see the readiness that is in Christ to receive sinners
indefinitely, so there is some secret kind of whisper of mercy and grace to him, a secret hint, as I use to call it. In John x. 8, it is said, that Christ calls his sheep by name, even as he called Moses by name, and Cyrus, which
implies a special intimation ; and Christ he doth distinguish, and saith, the reason why others that were not his sheep do not come, is because they do not hear his voice. Now that you may not mistake me, though it be a whisper, yet it is but a whisper and a hint, which the soul oftentimes in itself doth not so discern as to reflect upon it, but yet it is full enough to carry the heart after Christ, and never to leave him. I use to compare it to the scent of a bloodhound ; when he is sent to seek, though he finds not, yet having once had the scent he never leaves, but hunts up and down till he finds it, and though he knows not where it is, yet it is enough to carry him on. So the
soul, when it hath wound Jesus Christ, as we may so speak, this hint, this whisper is enough to carry on to Christ, so as never to leave him, and that with some encouragement, though it doth not rise up to assurance, and prevail over doubtings. I distinguish it thus : assurance is when the
Spirit of God so speaks to a man that he speaks as a witness, when he comes in and evidenceth to a man the truth of his estate, and that Jesus Christ is his ; and when he speaks as a witness he will speak so loud as to prevail over all temptations, and over all doubts, or else he will lose his end; for a witness must so speak as to put the thing out of doubt, or else he is no witness. But now in this secret whisper of faith he doth not so, he doth not come then to speak as a witness, but he comes to speak then as one that would work the heart into Jesus Christ, and carry on the heart to Jesus Christ, and in this case a secret whisper, which he himself doth really back, is enough to carry on the heart, though it is not enough to quell all doubts and temptations. Insomuch now as when a man is humbled, and sees his miser}
, and the like, and when he is walking alone, or is in prayer, he thinketh in himself, well, I may find mercy from God, Jesus Christ may pardon me, &c. This he may take for his own thoughts, because it doth not rise to that height as when the Holy Ghost speaks it as a witness, and in such a distinct manner from his own thoughts as that he should rest satis fied in it. Nay, a man is apt to take such thoughts, and to fling them away, and discerns them not from other thoughts put into his mind about other things ^ yet for all that the Holy Ghost, that puts them in, leaves them not, but carries them on in a way of encouragement and hopefulness, and
272 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK I.
never leaveth him till they have boiled up either to the vision of Christ, or to the assurance of Jesus Christ as being his.