An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen, ¹Heb. 11. This, saith Erasmus, is encomium fidei, rather than definitio Dialectica: However be it, that justifying ⟨p. 336⟩Faith is here meant; Christ (the marrow and centre of the Covenant) must be included in it; Faith is the substance of things hoped for; that is, hoped for by virtue of the Promises, and in a special signal way, by virtue of the prime fundamental promise touching the Messiah, which (as we see, Gen. 3.15.) was delivered to Adam as an heavenly treasure, more worth than a world; and by him was no doubt handed down to his posterity, not merely in the bare words and letters of it (for that protevangelium, or first Promise of the Gospel was ministerium spiritûs) but with such Divine Commentaries upon it, as the illuminating spirit was pleased to give in to the heart of believing Adam; Faith, such is its excellent nature, presentiates and makes to subsist the good things hoped for, in such a lively manner, as if they were actually at hand, and before our eyes: Nay, as learned Pareus observes on the place, it makes them subsist, not only speculatively and assentively in the mind, but fiducially in the heart. Now by Faith in the Messiah the Elders had their divine Testimony. Abel was righteous before God; Enoch pleased God; Noah was an heir of ⟨p. 337⟩Righteousness, all of them were Justified and accepted in their persons and holy walking: The Author makes Faith to consist in a firm assent only, without any thing more in the nature of it: Thus the Romanists: Thus Bellarmine proves it to be only assensum firmum, […] certum ad ea omnia quae Deus credendae proponit: And to that purpose, among others, quotes this Text, Heb. 11. But I cannot find that this will down with Protestants: Faith is set forth by [Greek or Hebrew], confidence; [Greek or Hebrew], a firm persuasion; [Greek or Hebrew], a fiducial liberty; [Greek or Hebrew], a persuasion with full sails; [Greek or Hebrew], a fiducial subsistence of things hoped for; which expressions speak more than a naked assent: Faith receives Christ, puts on Christ, feeds upon Christ, such an [Greek or Hebrew], it was to the Fathers in the days of Moses, that they did eat the flesh, and drink the blood of the Son of God, even before his Incarnation,