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

Secondly, The Word doth imply such an evidence, that doth convince and bind up the understanding, that it cannot doubt or dispute any longer. All evidence may not presently convince; We see though erroneous persons read never so many excellent books, yet they are not actually convinced, the evidence indeed is able to convince, as the Sun-beams are able objectively to make a blind man see, there is light enough if he had eyes; but faith is here said, to be the actual conviction of the soul, to silence it, that it hath no more to say, according to the saying of the Schools, Fides non est tantum apprehensiva, sed quietativa; Faith is not only apprehensive, but quietative and resting of the soul; that it is not learning and learning, or seeking, but never coming to the truth.

Secondly, The Word doth imply such an evidence, that doth convince and binde up the understanding, that it cannot doubt or dispute any longer. All evidence may not presently convince; We see though erroneous persons reade never so many excellent books, yet they are not actually convinced, the evidence indeed is able to convince, as the Sunne-beams are able objectively to make a blinde man see, there is light enough if he had eyes; but faith is here said, to be the actual conviction of the soul, to silence it, that it hath no more to say, according to the saying of the Schools, Fides non est tantum apprehensiva, sed quietativa; Faith is not only apprehensive, but quietative and resting of the soul; that it is not learning and learning, or seeking, but never coming to the truth.

¹Fourthly, This Faith hath unlimitedness, and universality in it's assenting. The whole Word of God is the adequate Object of it; and therefore whatsoever is revealed in the Scripture, it believeth, it doth not pick or choose, believe some things, and not others, as they make for, or against us, but so far as the Word is propounded, it doth receive it. Therefore such threatenings, that condemn man, that makes him dead in sin, and guilty of hell, such threatenings that do speak terribly to such or such a sin, he is involved in, though it be a troublesome and unwelcome truth to flesh and blood, yet Faith makes a man to believe it Whether Faith be discursive, or put forth by one simple act, is disputed, howsoever it cannot be denied, but that there is an order in the things believed, a connection and dependence between one proposition and another though when