A treatise of faith divided into two parts. The first showing the nature, the…A treatise of faith diuided into two parts. The first shewing the nature, the…

§. 1. Faith seeketh not life and salvation in the threatenings,¹ prohibitions or commandments, though it work by love, and earnestly contend against corruption: but acknowledging its imperfection in working,² and renouncing all confidence in works or in our selves, it resteth upon the promises of mercy in Jesus Christ, or word of reconciliation, which is called the word of faith. The more firm and lively our faith is, the more sincerely it worketh the better we discern and unfeignedly acknowledge our imperfections, and disclaim all affiance in our own righteousness and the more faithfully we renounce all confidence in our works, the more earnestly we seek for salvation only by Christ. Faith resteth upon Christ as Mediator or as God and Man obeying to the cursed of ⟨p. 74⟩of the cross, that from the grace o God we• might obtain pardon of sin, and be accepted as righteous unto life. For this we are alway s •o have in Mind, that Christ is the object of fai h not abstractly and nakedly considered, but Christ with his benefits, Christ lifted up as the brazen serpent, Christ set forth as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, Christ as our redeemer from sin and death, Christ as he is set forth to the believer: and thus to receive Christ and believe on him, is to believe and receive in him ransom from sin and death.³ Christ and his Apostles testify that this is specially to be preached, viz remission of sins in and through Jesus Christ: This the faith of all the Saints, [through it have respected every part of the word] hath in special manner respected, craved, embraced. But that which is specially to be preached and believed, that which the faith of all the Saints hath always in special manner respected, desired, craved, and obtained, that is the special object of Justifying faith. If at any time we read,^a that the belief of a temporary promise was accounted for righteousness, it is, because it doth in believing the thing temporal, apprehend him