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§. 1. IT is a Principle, common amongst our Adversaries, that eve•y conclusion issuing from one proposition revealed expressly in Scripture, & another clearly and certainly known otherwise, and by evident and good consequent added unto it, b longs to faith and is believed by no other habit, then of faith. As for example; All the dead shall rise. Peter is dead: therefore Peter shall rise. The conclusion is Theological and belongs to faith, though it be not expressly written, that Peter is dead, or that he shall rise again. So it is in this present matter; All that believe sh•ll be saved: this proposition is of faith because it is immediately revealed and expressly written. But I believe; this is certain by the testimony of the renewed conscience, to him that hath proved himself to be in the faith. The conclusion, therefore I shall be saved, is certain by faith: because it is inferred of one thing believed, and another that is evident. And although the holy Ghost, not tying himself to terms,² do sometime call it knowledge, yet calling it again believing alone, or believing and knowing, it is manifest such a knowledge is intended, as not only flows from the principles of faith, but also is reduced to the same habit. For with what other eyes can the soul behold the heavenly light of the Gospel. How shall that confidence, assurance or certainty which is created by the mixture of the light of the Scripture, with the light of a good conscience renewed by the holy Ghost, belong ⟨p. 95⟩to any humane knowledge, when the Scripture saith expressly, The promise of the Spirit is received by faith; and wheresoever in all the Bible,³ the Gospel is revealed, men are called upon to believe. And if there be granted a certainty of a mans own special standing which certainty arises from the Scriptures, one ground thereof being a proposition or sentence immediately divine, the other inferred and concluded from that which is divine: it must be granted also, that it is a work or effect of faith. The Scripture reports how many of the children of God were tried by mocking and scourging,