A brief discourse of justification. Wherein this doctrine is plainly laid down according to…

3. That property of Faith whereby it justifies, is that it helps the soul to rely upon Christ for all the good which is laid up in the promise; ⟨p. 86⟩this reliance, trust or confidence is the proper justifying act of Faith. It is true, at there is a promise revealed to the soul, by which he comes to take hold of Christ by Faith, so there are two things necessarily prerequired to this confidence: As

1. That he have the understanding or apprehension of the things that are promised, and of the terms of the promise: there can be no justifying Faith without this; the object must be revealed to the man, or otherwise it can not be relied upon by him; without the knowledge he cannot close in with the good of the promise, an ignorant faith is a great contradiction: Paul knows whom he hath trusted; our Saviour Christ speaking to the woman of Samaria, tells her, John 4. 22. Ye worship ye know not what? we worship what we know: Faith is the act of a reasonable creature; now the natural motion of the will in man, is by the light of the understanding, which is to be eyes unto it, and hence Faith is said to come by hearing, Rom. 10. 17. and that there is no believing in him of whom men have not heard, ver: 14. now hearing is counted the sense of discipline, because by it the understandings of men are ⟨p. 87⟩wont to be informed in the notion of the things that they are told of: