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SERMON I.

The Nature and Neceffity of Faith

in GOD.

JOHN xiv. i.

---Ye believe in God, believe alfo in me.

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pre

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HESE Words are Part of our SERM. Bleffed Saviour's Difcourfe with his Difciples, in which he pares them for his Departure, tells them what should befall both him and them, comforts them against their approaching Lofs, and gives them the best and most comfortable Cordial to revive their drooping Spirits: Let not your Heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also

in me.

In my following Discourse I shall only confider the former Part of my Text: Ye believe in God; and, in order to explain this unto you, I fhall fhew,

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SERM.

I.

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I. THE Nature of Faith in the General,
II. MORE particularly the Nature of
Faith in God.

III. WHAT it is we muft believe con-
cerning God.

IV. THE Neceffity of believing thus ; and then,

V. I SHALL make fome Inferences from the foregoing Confiderations.

I. Of the Nature of Faith in General. Now Faith in General is nothing else but the Affent of the Mind to fome Propofition, upon the Authority of fome other Perfon, who affirms the Truth of it to us; for there is a three-fold Evidence by which we come to the Knowledge of Things, Sense, Reason, and Faith. The greatest Part of what we know, is taken in by the Senses; by the Senfes we converfe with external Objects, and, by the Images received by these Windows of the Soul, we frame our Notions and Ideas of Things; and we have the greatest Certainty of thofe Things which are approved of by the Evidence of our Senfes. And therefore the Apostle, proving to his Hearers the Certainty of those Facts upon which the Chriftian Religion is built,

tells

tells them, that the Things he had feen and SERM. beard, thofe he declared unto them.

I.

NEXT to the Evidence of our own Senfes, is the Evidence of honeft and faith- John i. 3. ful Men, efpecially in those Matters in which they have no Intereft, nor have they any Reason why they fhould impofe upon us. And the Affent to what fuch Perfons tell us, in fuch Cafes, and under fuch Circumftances, is what we call Faith; we believe what they fay, because we have no Reason to doubt of it, or to call it in Question.

THE other Means of Knowledge is by the Exercife of our Reason, and arifes from the Confideration of thofe fingle Ideas taken in by the Senfe, and framing general Notions from them; and this is most fubject to Error and Miftake, both from the Blindness of our difcerning Faculty, the Obfcurity of the Object, which generally turns its dark Side towards us, and our Unfkilfulness in applying them. From a due Confideration of the Difference between these three, Sense, Faith, and Reason, we shall the more clearly and easily discover the Nature of Faith. This being premised in the General, we shall the better understand,

II. THE Nature of Faith in God in Particular; which may be taken, either for the Affent of the Mind, to this Truth, B 2 that

I.

SERM. that there is a God; or elfe for the Doctrine to be believed concerning the Godhead : I fhall take it in this laft Senfe, both because it is most extenfive and comprehends the other, for he that believes the Doctrine which is laid down in the Holy Scriptures, concerning the Godhead, must needs believe and confefs that there is a God, the one being implied in the other. Now a due Faith in God implies these three Things:

1. A COMPETENT Knowledge of the Articles of our Faith, and a Looking into the Reasons why we believe them. For a blind Affent to we know not what, nor why, may be called Credulity, but not Faith, and by Confequence is not a Duty, but a Sin; true Faith is built upon reafonable Motives, and therefore Faith and Knowledge are frequently put one_for the other, in the Holy Scripture. For, when the Samaritans would exprefs the Certainty of their Faith, and the Strength John iv. of it, they faid, they knew that this is indeed the Chrift, the Saviour of the World;

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and St. Paul describes the true Believers by 1 Tim. iv. this Character, that they believe and know the Truth; for all Infidelity is founded in Ignorance, it is impoffible that we should confider the fundamental Truths of the Chriftian

upon SERM.

Christian Religion, and the Reasons which they are bottomed, and not affent unto them; nay, they are fo bright and glorious, that many of them would be feen by their own Light, did not Men wilfully fhut their Eyes, or fuffer themfelves to be blinded by their own corrupt Affections; so that, to the gaining of a true Faith in God, our first Business must be, to understand what Discoveries God has made of his Nature and Being; both by the Light of Nature, the Deductions of Reason, and the Teftimony of the Holy Scripture, and, when we have found them out, then

2. To give our firm and fincere Affent unto them; to rivet and fix the Perfuafion of God's Being, and the Notion of his Attributes, fo firmly in our Minds, that no Power fhall be able to move them, and that we may never admit any Doubt or Scruple of this fundamental Article of our Faith, or be fuch Fools, as to say in our Hearts, There is no God.

3. BUT that which perfects the Act of Believing is a fuitable Practice of Repentance and Obedience; fo to believe that there is a God, as to believe his Word, and yield Obedience to his Laws; and where our Obedience is defective, and we

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