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

as when a man brings a candle in the room, then a man seeth by his own power, who could not before; for God doth not only propound the object, but enlightens the understanding, and boweth the heart to believe.

2. God works faith in us, not absolutely, or by the creatures, the beholding and seeing of them, but by the word. Thus Rom. 10. Preaching,¹ hearing and believing are chained together; We are then in and by the Word to expect this work of God, not to fly to the creatures, making them equal to Gods word for begetting faith, or to enthusiasms and private revelations, but to the word of God, which gives light to the simple, but as the Word is an instrument of begetting faith, so faith is afterwards an instrument of improving the Word, for the Word doth not profit in the increase and benefit thereof, unless there be Faith. ²Thus as the Spirit of God doth at first work Faith, and yet by Faith we are made further partakers of Gods Spirit; So the Word doth at first produce Faith in us, which when wrought, doth again improve the Word for further edification and growth in grace.

2. God works faith in us, not absolutely, or by the creatures, the beholding and seeing of them, but by the word. Thus Rom. 10. Preaching,¹ hearing and believing are chained together; We are then in and by the Word to expect this work of God, not to flie to the creatures, making them equal to Gods word for begetting faith, or to enthusiasmes and private revelations, but to the word of God, which gives light to the simple, but as the Word is an instrument of begetting faith, so faith is afterwards an instrument of improving the Word, for the Word doth not profit in the increase and benefit thereof, unlesse there be Faith.