Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

Here we see the nature of faith is expressed by an act of knowledge, and that act (respectively to justification) limited to Christ; This is eternal Life to know thee, and him whom thou hast sent: where by knowledge I understand a certain and evident assent. Now such assents are of two sorts; some grounded upon the evidence of the object, and that light which the thing assented unto doth carry and present to the understanding; as I assent to this truth, that the Sun is light by the evidence of the thing it self: and this kind of assent the Apostle contradistinguisheth from faith by the name of sight. Others are grounded upon the authority or authenticalnesse of a narrator, upon whose report while we rely without any evidence of the thing it self, the assent which we produce is an assent of faith or credence. Now ⟨p. 517⟩that Faith is a certain assent, and that even above the¹ certainty of mere natural conclusions, is on all hands I think confessed: because, how ever in regard of our weakness and distrust, we are often subject to stagger, yet in the thing it self, it dependeth upon the infallibility of Gods own Word, who hath said it, and is by consequence nearer unto him who is the fountain o• all truth, and therefore must needs more share in the properties of truth, which are certainty and evidence, then any proved by mere natural reasons: and the assent produced by it is differenced from suspicion, hesitancy, •ubitation in the opinion of schoolmen themselves. Now then in as much as we are bound to yield an evident assent unto divine truths, necessary hereunto it is that the understanding be convinced of these two things. First, that God is of infallible authority, and cannot lye nor deceive (which thing is a principle by the light of nature evident and unquestioned.) Secondly, that this authority which in faith I rely upon is indeed and infallibly Gods own authority.

Here we see the nature of faith is expressed by an act of knowledge, and that act (respectively to justification) limited to Christ; This is eternall Life to know thee, and him whom thou hast sent: where by knowledge I understand a certaine and evident assent. Now such assents are of two sorts; some grounded upon the evidence of the object, and that light which the thing assented unto doth carrie and present to the understanding; as I assent to this truth, that the Sunne is light by the evidence of the thing it selfe: and this kinde of assent the Apostle contradistinguisheth from faith by the name of sight. Others are grounded upon the authoritie or authenticalnesse of a narrator, upon whose report while wee rely without any evidence of the thing it selfe, the assent which we produce is an assent of faith or credence. Now