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…

¹Christ is the fountain, and faith the means of life. The power and original of life is entirely reserved to the Lord and Prince of life, the Light and Life of men, the Author of eternal salvation: But faith is the radical ⟨p. 201⟩band on our part, whereby we are tied unto Christ, and live in him. The body hath it soul which inclines it; and so hath the soul its soul whereby it lives, and that is Christ the quickening spirit. ²Take away the soul from the body, and earth becomes earth: sever Christ and the soul, what is it but a dead carrion? The members die if they be separated from the Head, live so long as they be conjoined to it:³ Christ is to his Church and every living member of it, what the natural Head is to the natural members. And so we live primarily and properly by Christ as by the soul and Head; by faith secondarily, as by the Spirits, the band of soul and body, or by Nerves and sinews, the ties of the Head and Members. Look as the leg or arm lives by proper sinews, uniting them to the Head: so doth every believer live in Christ by a well-rooted, sovereign, particular faith, whereby he receiveth Christ, and is made one with him. Thus saith he himself, Who is the truth and the life, ⁴I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, ⁵though he were dead, yet shall he live; and, I am the bread of life, ⁶he that believeth in me shall never hunger; and again, As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. Thus speak the holy Scriptures of him, In it was life, and that life was the light of men; ⁷When Christ who is your life shall appear; Our hands have handled the word of life. For the life was manifested, ⁸