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

Direct. 3. All that is efficiently necessary to our salvation, in or of God, is not objectively necessary to be known. And such a measure of the knowledge of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is necessary to save us, as is necessary objectively to sanctify us under the efficiency of the said Spirit: And all the rest is not of such necessity. And therefore as under the Gospel, the Spirit is Christs great Witness, as well as Agent in the world, it is more necessary now to believe distinctly in the Holy Ghost in that relation, than it was before Christs coming in the flesh.

Direct. 3. All that is efficiently necessary to our salvation, in or of God, is not objectively necessary to be known. And such a measure of the knowledge of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is necessary to save us, as is necessary objectively to sanctifie us under the efficiency of the said Spirit: And all the rest is not of such necessity. And therefore as under the Gospel, the Spirit is Christs great Witness, as well as Agent in the world, it is more necessary now to believe distinctly in the Holy Ghost in that relation, than it was before Christs coming in the flesh.

There is a great deal of the Divine Perfection, which causeth our salvation, unknown to us: As the Sun will shine upon us, and the wind will blow, and the rain will fall, and the earth will bear fruits, whether we know it or not; so our knowledge of it, is not at all necessary to any Divine Efficiency as such: The Spirit by which we are regenerate, is like the wind that bloweth, whose sound we hear, but know not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth (no nor what it is) John 3.6, 7, 8, 9. But all those things which are necessary to work objectively and morally on the soul, do work in esse cognito; and the knowledge of them is as necessary as the operation is. It was of absolute necessity to the salvation of all, before Christs coming, and among the Gentiles as well as the Jews, that the Spirit should sanctify them to God, by possessing them with a predominant Love of him in his Goodness; and that this Spirit proceed from the Son or Wisdom of God: But it was not so necessary to them as it is now to us, to have a distinct knowledge of the personality and operations of the Spirit, and of the Son. And though now it is certain that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man cometh to the Father, but by the Son,