CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

Distinct. I As First, That Faith is sometimes taken for the Object, the Faith quae creditur, The Doctrine believed, and sometimes for the Grace of Faith quâ creditur, whereby we do believe Colos. 2.5. To be established in the Faith, that is, in the Doctrine; So some are said to err, to deny, or depart from the Faith, that is, the Doctrine; But commonly it is used for the gracious actings of the Soul towards those Objects, only it's good to observe this distinction, because some places are brought to prove Apostasy from inherent faith, which speaks only of the doctrine.

Distinct. I As First, That Faith is sometimes taken for the Object, the Faith quae creditur, The Doctrine beleeved, and sometimes for the Grace of Faith quâ creditur, whereby we do believe Colos. 2.5. To be established in the Faith, that is, in the Doctrine; So some are said to erre, to deny, or depart from the Faith, that is, the Doctrine; But commonly it is used for the gracious actings of the Soul towards those Objects, only it's good to observe this distinction, because some places are brought to prove Apostacy from inherent faith, which speaks only of the doctrine.

2. Faith is taken sometimes actively, and sometimes passively, Actively for fidelity and veracity in promises, in which sense it's attributed to God, and to men. Sometimes passively for the assenting unto Truths because of another's Testimony; And this again is twofold, Either Humane Faith, when we believe any thing merely because of humane authority; or divine, when we believe, because of divine authority; (and this is greatly to be observed) for when I believe a divine Truth for humane Authority or witness, my Faith all that while is but humane; as those that believed Christ, for the Samaritan Woman's Testimony, all the while they had no higher a ground then that, it was but an humane Faith, and then a Papist as a Papist, and by Popish principles can have no more then an humane Faith, for the utmost motive in which their Faith is resolved is the Authority of the Church, which is but humane, and so if the Church had propounded Titus Livius, or Aesops Fables (as some grant) to be the Word of God, people were bound to believe it, but there is no divine Faith unless there be a divine Testimony, and this doth sadly discover Millions of baptized persons, yet to have no divine Faith, for all the ground of their Christian Faith is Education and humane Authority, it is not because God hath said it, or he hath revealed it; They cannot say with those Samaritans, Now we believe no longer for Education sake, or the Churches sake, but because of the Authority and Divine Light which is coruscant in the Scriptures themselves; Insomuch that the Jesuit Valentia doth confess there are such inward discoveries of purity and Majesty in the Scripture, that they breed such an inward reverence and persuasion that no other book can do.