The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb.…

Direct. 8. There is no nearer way to know what true Faith is, than truly to understand what your Baptismal Covenanting did contain.

In Scripture phrase, to be a Disciple, a Believer, and a Christian, is all one, Acts 11.26. Acts 5.14. 1 Tim. 4.12. Matth. 10.42. & 27.57. Luke 14.26, 27, 33. Acts 21.16. Joh. 9.28. And to be a Believer, and to have Belief or Faith, is all one: and therefore to be a Christian, and to have Faith, is all one. Christianity signifieth either our first entrance into the Christian State, or our progress in it. (As Marriage signifieth either Matrimony, or the Conjugal State continued in.) In the latter sense Christianity signifieth more than Faith; for more than Faith is necessary to a Christian. But in the former sense, as Christianity signifieth but our becoming Christians, by our covenanting with God; so to have Faith, or to be a Believer, and internally to become a Christian in Scripture sense, is all one; and the outward covenanting is but the profession of Faith or Christianity: Not that the word Faith is never taken in a narrower sense, or that Christianity, as it is our heart-covenant or consent, containeth nothing but Faith, as Faith is so taken in the narrowest sense: But when Faith is taken (as ordinarily in Scripture) for that which is made the condition of Justification and Salvation, and opposed to Heathenism, Infidelity, Judaism, or the works of the Law, it is commonly taken in this larger sense.