THE Instrumentality OF FAITH Asserted, proved, explained, compared with, and preferred to a Conditional Relation thereof, in order to Pardon and Happiness, when strictly taken in a Legal or federal Sense. delivered in Several SERMONS.  
By W. across, M. A.  
LONDON: Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Three legs in the Poultry, over-against the Stocks Market. 1695.   

A Schematical INDEX.  

The PREMISES.  

1 THE Context. Pag. 1  
2 Faith the subject of the Text, its various Acceptions. 2  
3 The Definition of Faith in the Text is good. 4  
4 The Division of the Text, and Parts of the Treatise. 6    

Of Faith's Instrumentality in general.  

1 The particular Function of Faith is that of an Instrument. 7  
2 Faith compared with other Instruments. 11  
3 The various Acceptions of the competing term Condition. 14  
4 Faith's Conditionality in a strict Law sense rejected. 17  
5 The Covenant of Grace abstractly, has not a strict legal Condition. 20    

Faith an Instrument of Natural Evidence in particular.  

1 The Nature of Evidential Instruments. 23  
2 Faith is one, by way of Sight and Proof. 24  
3 The Number of Luminous Instruments three, Sight, Reason, and Faith. ibid.  
4 The Nature of Sight. 25  
5 The Nature of Reason. 26  
6 Faith preferable to Reason without Scripture. 27  
7 Faith preferable to Reason with Scripture. 28  
8 Faith and Reason compared in general. 30  
9 All Creatures represent somewhat of God. 31  
10 Man only his Image by Faith and Reason 32  
11 By Faith Man is the Image of the Trinity, 33. the Capacity of Faith the Father by Contraposition, 34. the Object of Faith the Son, or is the Son, 35. the Effect the Spirit 36  
12 By Reason Man the Image of God, as consulting the Creation, and governing it only. 37  
13 By Faith we see God more immediately, by Reason his Image only. 40  
14 By Faith man's whole appetite satisfied, by Reason one particular. 41  
15 By Faith real Godliness is produced, by Reason it's only ap'd. 42    

Faith an evidential Instrument by way of Proof and Argument.  

1 Faith is an experimental Argument to convince of the truth of Invisibles. 44  
2 Experience is a most convincing Argument. 45  
3 Faith is an experimental knowledge. 46  
4 All Believers have experience of unseen things. 50  
5. By this experience their minds are confirmed about the reality of them. 51    

Faith an Instrument by way of Substantiation.  

1 Faith is an earnest or Instrument of conveyance, because a Substance. 52  
2 An earnest of hoped for things, because an Hypostasis. Pag. 53  
3 From the Nature of an Earnest. ibid.  
4 From the Nature of Faith. 54    

In what Respects Faith is an Earnest or Instrument of Conveyance.  

1 Not as a Work or Meri●. 56  
2 But as a Gift. 57  
3 As Correlative to the Object. 59  
4 In respect of Divine Institution. 60  
5 In respect of its Fitness. 61    

The Conclusion in these Aphorisms.  

1 All terms of Art applied to Divine things, admit of limitations. 62  
2 Faith in common with other Graces, may be called a condition sine qua non. ibid.  
3 As distinct from them, is more properly an Instrument. ibid.  
4 Not a legal condition with respect to Right. 63  
5 The Case is more easy in our practise than in Contemplation, ascribing particular terms of Art to each distinct Use. 64     

TO THE 

Truly Honourable and Nobly accomplished Sir JOHN THOMSON, Kt. Bart. Patriot of his Country, and Chief of his Family.  
To his Right Honourable Lady my Lady FRANCES THOMSON, Daughter to the late Earl of Anglesea, A Consiliis Sacris& Sigillo Privato Carol. II. Regis.  
To the much Respected and Renowned WILLIAM THOMSON, Capt. and his Beloved Consort KATHERINE THOMSON, Daughter of the late Famous General, Lieutenant-General Drummond.  
To all the Honourable and Honest Families of that Numerous, Ancient, and Honest Name of THOMSON, especially the Branches of the Four Famous Merchants and Brothers in the City of London.   Grace, Mercy, and Peace.  

Honoured Sir,  
THIS payment is Scholar's Coin; such as we have, we give; tho it seldom deserves a Receipt in full, yet it is fair Reckoning, and that savours of Honesty when insolvent. My account is Seven years long without a Days intermission. I have no room for particular Items, and therefore must insert my acknowledgement for summa totalis. The value of Letters sink in time of War usually, yet they are always currant with the Ingenious, and in a special manner with Sir John Thomson. I sand this as naturally to your Study, as Rivers return to the Ocean; and to your Patronage, expecting the same quiet to it that I enjoyed under it for a considerable period of my life, when the Weather abroad was very stormy. But I crave no Patronage, without Approbation to the Truth in it, not the Treatment of it; its Garb is very Course, but its Heart is Honest, for which I appeal to your judgement, for I know not where to find a more Competent Judge of the Doctrine of our first Reformers, from whence we Glory in the Name of Protestant: Nor where to find a more Impartial Judge in any Affair: Catonism is your greatest Crime, your Adversaries being Judges. I wish your prosperity in Piety and Learning, might encourage many an English Gentleman that needs it, to follow your Example, and convince them that the last may be first; and I have a constant Monitory of Sympathy to wish, that you may prosper, and be in health, as your Soul prospers.   

Madam,  
SUch has been your kindness, that I ought not in this Monument of Gratitude, nor can I in any, part your Honour from Sir John, nothing but Death can be so cruel, as to break a Bond of Love cemented with so many amiable Pl●dges, th●n which the Nobility of your Birth, and the Happiness of your Engrafture, are not greater Blessings. Rachel and Leah, with both their Handmaids, have not laid more living Stones in the building Jacob's House; and yet Number is the smallest Blessing, it is not one of a Tribe, or two of a Family, rich Blessings! but some are already crowned with Glory, some nigh ripe in Grace, all hopeful. But Children, hopeful Children, gracious Children, glorious Children, are not the only good things you have been fertile in; I have been a witness, a sharer, a dispenser to some of a more moral nature; but it is yet too early, and long may it be before the fit Season for publishing your virtues.   

Captain,  
YOur particular Desire midwiv'd this Birth into the World, it is just you stand Godfather for it also; that Desire was but a small Spark of the Zeal you have exerted for publishing the Truth of the Gospel in City and Country. By Sea and Land, in England and the Indies, you have promoted preaching of the Gospel. It is not one Synagogue only you have helped to build, nor one Pilgrim Prophet your House has been Hospital to. You have not only been a kind Patron to the Levites in your Family, but a Father to their Children, and a Husband to the Widow; and as your help has been meet in your domestics, so cheerfully encouraging in your Piety and Charity.   

Gentlemen,  
THere is no Name better known to me than yours; some in Scotland very ancient Families, if the Antiquaries Rule be true, your Name is older than the use of surname. Some in the North of England very numerous; in Germany some Soldiers of great Valour. Some Divines of great Learning both in Scotland and England; four noted Writers at one time. Some Merchants of great Riches, as the four famous Brothers, Mr. Maurice, the Colonel, Sir William, and the mayor, who found the ston their Father in vain sought long for. But though neither Divinity nor Morality consist in Nam●s, I never observed any Name that Uprightness and Integrity did accompany with fewer Exceptions, and generally a love to Religion, than the Name of Thomson: But as there is a Name better than the name of Sons and Daughters, so than this of yours, to be the Sons of God, called by his Name, and Callers on it. That this may be more generally your privilege, and that this small Treatise of the few of Heaven, the fee of Felicity, the hold of Happiness, and tenor of Eternity, may contribute to entitle you to this Inheritance, and give you comfortable Evidence of it, is and shall be the Prayer of   
Your Minister in Gospel-Service, WALTER across.   

THE Instrumentality of FAITH, &c.  HEB. XI. 1. Greek. 
{αβγδ}  
{αβγδ}  Eng. 
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  sir. Var. 
Faith is a persuasion of those things that are in hope, as if they were in act; and a revelation of things not seen.  Aethiop. Var. 
Faith is the hope of them that believe, and the substance of things not seen.  

EVERY Subject of our Christian Faith has its proper place, one or more, in Scripture, where it is of purpose treated of; and this place, in my opinion, is the proper one for Faith, especially for its use and instrumentality. For,( 1.) It is the only place in Scripture where Faith is so largely, so designedly, and so definitively treated.( 2.) If approbation of the Apostolical Wisdom were not a kind of derogation from it, I would say the Apostle had placed it in its proper file and order in this Epistle; viz. between the Doctrines of Faith, and Duties of practise. He had through the former part of the Epistle treated of the Doctrines of Faith, the Mysteries of the Gospel, especially Christ in his Person and Offices, as tipified by the Old Legal Worship: Hence in the 10th Chapter, v. 21. he exhorts to the exercise of Faith, since there is so great, sure, and clear foundation for it; Let us draw near in full assurance of faith.( 2.) He exhorts to it from the need of Faith by reason of their manifold Affliction, Verse 35. Cast not away therefore your confidence, for through the faith of that Enduring Substance they could only be enabled to endure the loss of their own Temporary.( 3.) From the great advantage of it, Verse 38, 39. The just shall live by faith— We are of them that believe to the saving of the soul. In this Text he shows what that Faith is, which he afterwards exemplifies by instances, and illustrates by its effects, until he comes to the 12th Chapter, where he ends with an account of its great Cause and Author, and then proceeds to practise.( 3.) It is proper in respect of the Faith now to be described, the catholic Faith, which is Abraham's Faith, as it is a pattern of Believers Faith under the Gospel. For Beza saith well, That the Faith here defined comprehends both the Faith of the Old Testament and the New; and the Examples here brought, and the use he brings it for, shows the truth of Beza's Notion; for it is from the Believers of the Old Testament to the Believers of the New.  
There are two parts in the Text; the thing defined, Faith; and the definition of it, it is the substance, &c.  
I shall begin with the thing defined, Faith; the different acceptations whereof occasions many different definitions of Faith; not only between them that are sound and erroneous, but among the Orthodox themselves. Faith is taken three ways, viz. Actively for fidelity, Passively for assent and trust, Objectively for our Creed. Some Interpreters are of the opinion, that Faith is taken Objectively in the Text, viz. the Doctrines of the Gospel; but that doth not agree with the apostles scope, who is discoursing of the Faith by which we believe, not of the Faith which we believe; nor with the Examples; for it's the Faith by which they believe, Noah and Abraham, their firm Faith without wavering and doubting in God's Word and Promise; not the Word and Promise which they did believe. It cannot be said in any tolerable sense that they passed through the read Sea by the Doctrines of the Gospel; and that the Walls of Jericho sell; and the Harlot Rahab did not perish.  
( 3.) Things hoped for, and things not seen, is too narrow and limited to comprehend all the Doctrines which we do believe; for the Scripture, which is the Record of Faith, proposes many seen things, and many things more feared than hoped for. The Apostles, and many more, saw Christ in the exercise of all his Offices; in his Person, state of Humiliation, and Exaltation, Actions and Sufferings; it is therefore without doubt Faith passively taken is here described. But that wants not its different acceptations, either sometimes for Historical Faith alone, an assent to proposed Truths upon the Testimony of the Speaker, sometime for Saving Faith, and that without doubt is the Faith here described; for the immediate preceding words say, It's the faith of them that believe to the saving of the soul. The Faith by which the just lives; but even Saving Faith wants not its different Acceptations, sometimes more strictly and limitedly, as distinct from Historical, which is presupposed, not comprehended, and distinct from its blessed blossoms and flourishes of assurance, which consists in the reflex acts of Faith, and distinct from the effects and fruits of it, which by virtue and power of the Objects believed on, it doth produce; so that nothing is defined but the formality of it as justifying; sometimes it is defined as comprehending one or more of these so nearly related Acts; sometimes it is defined with respect to its degrees, either the lowest, or highest, or middle degree of Faith; sometimes only what's essential to it in all these degrees; sometimes its defined more absolutely in its absolute nature, either as an act of the Soul or Spirit, producing it; sometimes more relatively with respect to its several Objects, and by reason of them going under several denominations; as first with respect to the Instrumental Object, the Scripture, its called Assent or Historical Faith, for the Scripture bears the same relation between God and the Soul, that Bonds, Bills, and other Legal Instruments, do between men in Trade.( 2.) With respect to its principal Object, God and Christ; Ye believe in God, believe also in me. And this Trust is two-fold, either conditional or absolute; the one respects only the Person's Fidelity, and in Nature is antecedent to the Faith of Assent and Consent; the other supposes his Engagement and Undertaking, that he has given his Word and Promise to me, and it's two fold too; either respecting what he will do, or has done; I trust he will pardon me, or has pardonned me.( 3.) Faith respects the means and terms of our attaining the things we trust God for, and so Faith is a consent and acceptance; This is worthy of all acceptation, saith the Apostle Paul, that Jesus Christ came to save sinners; that is, there is no Term, no Condition so hard, but is worthy the acceptance in order to such an end; and this Consent bears sometimes the name of Resignation, because indeed Universal Resignation is that we consent to, though this is as necessary to our Salvation as any. But I think it is more remote from the nature of Faith than any of the former: Mr. Ba. against Dr. Crisp. p. 94. Trust is the formal act, and trustiness the formal ob. Consent is the material act. John 1.14. To as many as received him, to them gave he power,— even to them that believe in his name; the one is commonly thought explicative of the other, yet it seems additional to comprehend the whole condition of the Covenant trust in him, and obedience to him; receiving him as our Lord trusting in his name as Jesus our Saviour.( 4.) Faith is sometimes considered as it respects the things we trust God for; hence doth it so frequently in Scripture bear the name of desire, and so I think it is here defined in the Text; for there are none of the three former Objects here mentioned, viz. Scripture, God or Duty, but only hoped for unseen things.  
The second thing is the Definition itself in general, about which Interpreters propose these Two questions: The( 1st.) whether the Definition be a good Definition, yea or no; Erasmus says not, except we would call every thing a good Definition where the word is is put, as Learning is a Comfort in Adversity, and an Ornament in Prosperity; and with him Calvin and Gerard agree: But if the matter depended on human judgement, or Authority, we may drop Fathers in opposition to Reformers, Jerom and Theophylact say, the Definition is perfect; Chrysostom says its a wonderful one in his 21 Homily on this Epistle, page. 539. A Vision of Invisibles, a Subsistence of Non existence; what is invisible to Sense or Reason, is visible by Faith; and what is not existant in Nature, may exist in the thoughts and hopes of our Mind, as the Resurrection and Glorification of our Bodies. Dr. Manton asserts the goodness of the description, because, saith he, it's the Definition of a habit by its proper Acts and Objects; and though it be an Encomium that is not inconsistent with a Definition, for nothing can more exalt and commend things of great worth and excellency, than the bare explication of their Natures. When the thing defined is Worth, the Definition must be Lustre and Glory; however we are secure as to this one thing, that it is infallibly true: And 2dly. its apparent to me, that though it is not a perfect Definition of Faith in all its several respects, yet respecting the Objects, we trust God for that the Definition is complete; and though it seem difficult or obscure, the sequel of the Discourse may show that it is more from the weakness of our Minds, the mysteriousness of the Matter, and our unacquaintedness with it that it flows from, than the Phrases that the things are clothed with. The 2d. Question is, Whether the Definition consists in one Proposition or two; Castal is for the former, rendering the sense thus, Faith is the Evidence of Invisible things which we hope for subjected, viz. In our Minds or to our thoughts. Resp. 1. This is only a Definition of Historical Faith, many are convinced of unseen things without a Saving Faith, except he add Savingly, and then the Subject is not touched, viz. How Faith is in the Minds after a Saving manner. 2d. It is a too narrow Definition of Historical Faith, to have Hoped for things only for its Objects. 3d. Faith has a further Instrumentality towards objective Hopes, than barely as means of our thoughts about it, for it is as much the instrument of their Existence as of any Miracle; the Faith of things Hoped for is as much the instrument of them, as the Faith of Miracles is of Miracles; the one as much Raises our Bodies and Glorifies them, as the other Cured the Diseases and Exorcis'd the Devils. 4th. The Apostle has put the Definition in Two Propositions, and we should comform our thoughts to Scripture.  
I shall now begin with the Definition in particular, wherein there are Two Objects and Two Acts, or relative Influences that Faith has on these Objects expressed in the words {αβγδ} and {αβγδ}, Substance and Evidence; but there is a 3d. General wherein these Two Acts agree, viz. Instrumentality; Faith is an instrument( so Dr. own and others before him) of Substantiating hoped for things, and Evidencing things unseen; though others think the word Foundation, or Principle, may be understood; the Text is an Eliptick or Figurative Expression, as this is my body, that is the sign of it; so Faith is the Substantiation, or rather Instrument of Substantiation and Demonstration.  
So there are these Four general Branches the Text may be divided into. 1. The Object hoped for and unseen things; it's a question whether it be an enlargement or Limitation of things Hoped for, if it comprehend things feared also, or if it distinguish between the things Hoped for in the other world and this; the influence of Faith being by way of distinction called Evidence, only imports the former. Saving Faith sees future Evils but is not the substance of them: But since our Senses are the Substance or Instruments of Substantiation of seen and temporar● Hoped for things; Faith is only of unseen Hope; there was need of th● Limitati●n, and the examples only illustrate Faith in this respect, viz ●oward unseen Hope, and in this sense only I shall use it, but in no sense enlarge upon it, the Influence of Faith on it being only my design.  
The 2d. Which shall be first in the Treatise, Is the common notion wherein Substance and Evidence do agree to represent the general Influence of Faith on this Object, which I shall prove to be that of an Instrument.  
The 3d. Is its Instrumentality as an Evidence in particular.  
And the 4th. Its Instrumentality, as a Substance by its own aptitude, it is an Instrument of Evidence, but there needs Institution to make an Instrument of Conveyance.   

Under the First Head I shall Discourse on these Four Members. 1. I shall prove that Faith's general use and influence toward promised and hoped for things, is that of an Instrument. 2dly. show wherein its general Instrumentality consists. 3dly. How far a Conditionality is consistent with its Instrumentality, and è contra, wherein it cannot. 4. That the Covenant of Promises and Hopes is unlike man's, by reason of the want of a proper and strict Conditionality.  
1. That in the economy of our Salvation, Faith bears the part of an Instrument, is a very descriminating Doctrine between Protestants, Socinians, Arians, and Papists; who, however they differ about explaining its Conditionality, agree in the Thing, That Faith is properly and in a Law-sense a Condition; Protestants on the other hand say, if Condition be taken so largely as to signify Connexion, Priority, or Instrumentality, Faith may be called a Condition not otherwise; so the question is, if Justified by Faith or for Faith; the Interpreters of this Text, Men. Er. &c. say the word Instrument is here to be supplied; and though some say that Foundation is understood, yet they mean an Instrumental Foundation, such as Planks in Sandy or Moorish ground, for they s●y it is the Foundation by which things Hoped for do subsist. Greg. Nysa. says, that Faith is, sustentaculum& firmamentum speratorum: Our Hopes are liable to many infirmities, waverings, and doubtings, but Faith is a pillar that unde● props; hopes of Heaven without Faith to support them are vain: The Westminster large Catechism says, Faith Justifies only as it is an Instrument, and denies all other ways or places for it in that affair, concomitant Repentance, or consequent Obedience, or itself being imputed either Act or Grace of it, nor as if the Grace of Faith or any Act thereof were imputed to him for his Justification, but only as it is an Instrument, &c. confess. Ch 11. Faith is the al●ne Instrument of Justificatum, &c. And the Articles of the Church of England say the same, Article 11. That we are Justified by Faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine and very full of comfort, as is more largely expressed in the Homily of Justification, the which Homily says, page. 17. It's not the act of Faith that Justifies, that were by some act or virtue that is within ourselves. Ravensperg has Collected the Fathers for this, and scarce any of the Conf●ssions in the harmony of Protestants omits the very term. So much for Authority. 2. In the Oriental Languages the same word signifies both Faith and Instrument, {αβγδ} Cheli is the usual word for Instrument of music, War, or other Arts, and in the Chaldee Paraphrase, it signifies Trust or Hope, Psalm 31.17. I have hope in the Lord. 32.10. Who has Hope in the Lord, 91.2. Who Trust in his word. And hence Cheleth is the usual Term for Hope or Faith, Psalm 119.116. Let me not be ashamed of my hope, and the etymology suits it well for Cala {αβγδ} signifies to Perfect, complete, or Finish any thing, and the act of the Instrument is usually the completing act, the Instrument being the last Cause and Executioner: And so in the Greek, Rom. 6.13. the word that we Translate Instrument, 2 Cor. 10.4. is applied to Faith; in the one place its Translated Instrument, in the other Weapons; the Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal, the Shield of Faith is the principal Instrument of that War, and it is by virtue of this Instrument that Believers are in Scripture called Vessels of Mercy, and Vessels of Honour, {αβγδ} an usual title for Instruments or household Goods, Luke 17.31. it's translated Stuff. mat. 12.29. Goods. 3. The usual Metaphors that it is represented by in Scripture, and other Writings, are derived from Instruments of Arts and Sciences, it's called a Shield, an Hand, an Eye, an Arm; and in this Text it is defined by Two Instruments, the one Logical, the other Physical {αβγδ}, is one of the Four Logical Instruments, by which a thing is proved or demonstrhted, Hypostasis, though it is Translated a Person, Heb. 1.3. which is {αβγδ}, that which doth Subsist, yet according to Grammar it is Actio, {αβγδ}, that which doth Uphold; and some explain the Trinity of Persons by this mutual Relation, that the Son is God as known to himself, his Own Image, in his Own Mind, which is God by reason of his Simplicity, all that is in him being so; and the Father is Hypostasis God as upholding this Image and all things else, the Principal and Foundation of every thing, and Substance is of the same Signification, our Senses only teach the accident, figure, colour, hard, soft, smooth, sweet, bitter, but there is something under them that supports them, and because we cannot dive further into its Essence we call it substance, i.e. that which stands under the Accidents, and if we go to the Hebrew, Hypostasis is the Translation of {αβγδ} that which a man Lives by, Sustenance an Instrument of Life, for M. Servile beginning a word in the Hebrew, and ending it in the Latin, is the sign of an Instrument to the Action in the Verb, which is here {αβγδ} to Live. 4. The Particles that are annexed to it in the Scripture, shows it to be an Instrumental Cause; all Causes have their proper Particles to distinguish one another by, the Particle of the material Cause is of the efficient by the final for, and so the Meritorious or Conditional in Moral or Legal Affairs: The proper Particles of an Instrument are always added to explain Faith by, viz. by Faith and through Faith, and though the Particles of the Instrumental and Efficient are often the same, yet when the Principal Author cannot be mistaken; viz. That God is the Author, not Faith, these Particles clearly denote the Instrument.  
5. When all the Causes of our Justification and Salvation are ranked up in their Order, there is no other room left for Faith but this, for instance, God is the Efficient Cause, or Christ the Visible; he is Judge of the Just and Unjust; his own Mercy is the motive, as G●marus says, though its hard to ascribe a Cause to God, but here its after the manner of men; for the first Cause cannot be a moved Cause, and so admits of no motive distinct from itself, He and his Mercy is one, to do out of mere Mercy, Favour, and Grace, is to do from no Motive distinct from himself. 3. The Precatarctick, or Meritorious Cause, is the Satisfaction of Christ; this is the Price or Condition, which yet is not to be considered as having any Causality upon the internal and immanent Acts of God, not to excite his Mercy, but to make way for his Mercy; est Causa doni, non causa donandi; he purchased to us a Remission of S●ns, but not to God either a Power or Will of Pardoning. When the Deists ( Oracle of Reason) say the Christian Religion sets up one more Gracious than God, they abuse it, for it says only that Christ has received more Grace than all Creatures, and that no sinful Creature receives any but through him; Is there more water in the Cistern than Fountain, because we receive all out of it? It says, God out of infinite Grace made him a way for Graces being Communicate to Rebels, so that Authority might not be contemned, Holiness reproached, or Justice injured. Some unite here with Christ's Satisfaction, his Intercession, our Prayers, our Indigency, and an occasion for God's Glory; but surely they most confoundedly mix distinct things, that put these under one kind of Influence and Causality; that put the Disease and its Cure, our work and Christ's, under the same Causal Respect. Such might have been silent at the Analogical Language of our Fathers, saying, we are formally Justified by the Righteousness of Christ; since the Denomination is usually borrowed from the formal Cause. 4. The formal Cause is not very proper in the case, but if we respect the denomination of the concrete, it is the Righteousness of Christ; a man is called Just by the Righteousness inherent in himself, as a wall is called white or black; but it is by the Righteousness of Christ that we are declared judicially, or denominated and pronounced Justified: But since Justification is an Action, and the Action and Form of it do not differ, Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is our Justification, imputation, the formal Act, and Christ's Righteousness the matter Imputed; in this a sinners Justification is unlike others, being both a Pardon and a Justification. So if we respect the constituent Causes, First, we are counted Just, then pardonned; if we respect the Sentence, the Execution, we are declared pardonned, then counted Just, and so treated; it's called Justification from Christ's Righteousness, Imputation from the Relation of it to us, not inhaesion, but donation, so as the effects may inhere. 5. The final is a delightful communication of God's Goodness in the top branches of Grace and Mercy, and a resulting manifestation of how Good he is, that can freely Pardon such obstinate Rebels; as man's end is to get, his is to give. 6. The Instrument is Twofold, 1st. External; As Writings are Legal Instruments, so is the Word of God, wherein is an account of the Inheritance; and by it the Estate being offered Authoritatively, it gives a Right if received. 2dly. Faith is th● Internal and Physical Instrument that we take hold both of the Writings and Contents by; to make it a Condition, is to make it a Principal Cause, for a Condition is the chief Cause of the Bargain, and stands in the rank of Meritorious Causes; and hence Two Conditions; for Christ's Suffering and Merits thereby, is our justification, and a new series of Causes to each.  
6thly. Faith Miraculous is only the Instrument of the Miracles; therefore by parity, Faith Saving is the Instrument of Salvation; an effect as Miraculous as Curing the Blind, Raising the Dead, &c. they were not Conditions for which Christ wrought these Works; the Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick, no other influence can be ascribed to it, and that Faith was God's gift, when he intended to Cure, he gave the Faith as earnest of the Mercy; it's a notable instance to explain the other by.  
7thly. Repentance in the Root and Seed of it. A new disposition of Mind, a Regeneration, is, tho no Cause, a Concomitant, or conditio sine qua non, for that is only to say, it is of necessity present, though of no influence, for it is quâ, ungodly, that God pardons it's as a Guilty person even after Regenerated long; that the Believer craves Mercy at the Throne of Grace. It's by the hand, as Instrument, the Beggar receives Alms, but Head and Feet are conditio sine qua non; if they were not there, the Hand could not Act, nor F●ith without Regeneration A disposition belongs to the Material Cause; but we are not pardonned, quâ, so disposed, but è contra, quâ, ungodly, Rom. 4.5. Conditio sine qua non, belongs to no Cause; so though this disposition is a conditio sine qua non, it is not an antecedent disposition, as such, qualifying for Pardon, for that would make it a Cause, and not a conditio sine qua non; the Penitent Person is pardonned, but as a sinner he is pardonned, and sin is the disposition of the Subject that renders it capable of a Pardon. They who confounded conditio sine qua non, Disposition and Instrument, make the Material Cause, Efficient Cause, and no Cause, all one thing: And when a Covenant or Legal Condition is made one, with conditio sine qua non, the mass of confusion is augmented, for that is a meritorious Cause.  
The Second Head, Is to show wherein the Instrumentality of Faith consists in the business of our Justification. In general, an Instrument is that which subserves the Principal Efficient in order to obtaining the end, and it is either especially in this case External, or Internal; the Word of God and all the Ordinances therein appointed, are Instrumental means both of our Faith and Justification; but External ones; Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God; these Instruments are like the day and Spittle in Curing of the Blind, or like the Handkercheifs that were given by the Apostles, and they being often like the Staff in Gehazi's hand, that can work no effect, discover theit own bare Instrumentality in this case. We are to work about( not out as we red it) our own salvation in the exercise of them; and of his own good pleasure God works to will and to do: and hence they differ as to Success and efficacy; from this Instrument of Faith, all that believe are Justified, but all that hear do not believe. 2. An Instrument is to be considered with Respect to the Author, and the End, Matter, and Form, have nothing intervening between them and their Effects. Instruments are only applicable where there is some distinction between Cause and Effects. 1. With respect to the Cause; it is questioned among Divines, Whether Faith be an Instrument of Justification actively considered, yea or no; but Dr. Tuckney and M. Frost are for the Affirmative, for the Phrase of the Scripture doth countenance it, Rom. 3.30. He Justifies the Circumcision by Faith, and the Uncircumcision through Faith; so 'tis ascribed to God as that which he in Justification acts by: The Objection that is laid in their way is this, That then God would Believe, and Christ would Believe for us; but they Answer, He doth not justify by acting of Faith, but giving of Faith, as when a Man conveys an Estate; though the Word, Writings, and Seals, are the first Instruments of Conveying the Right, yet the giving of a Turf, or ston of the Inheritance, is the last completing Act of Confirming a Title; and with relation to this sense, Thom. Aquin. says, That Substantia Substance, is the beginning, or inchoation of a thing, as the Psalmist calls the Embryo of himself in the Womb, his Substance, My substance was not hide from thee. I shall only add this, That certainly God doth something when he Justifies a Person; it is a transient Act if a man be Justified this year who was not the last, God doth something that makes the change; besides Justification and Adoption are new Relations, and there must be a new Foundation. What can we imagine else to be the Action, but the giving, or the Foundation, but this Gift of Faith? 2. With respect to the end, and then an Instrument is called a Mean, or in the Latin destinatum; and this the Scripture owns; Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls; and the end is Predicated of the Mean, when it's said, This is eternal life to know thee the only true God. Means or Instruments, with respect to the end, are of Two kinds, 1. Such as contribute to attain the end by Institution, as all External Ordinances, which God has enjoined as means of our Salvation, but with the reserve of his Sovereign Pleasure as to their efficacy. Faith hath its efficacy too by Institution; for it doth not follow by any natural Connection that if a man should have once any part of the Image of God on him▪ that therefore he should enjoy everlasting Happiness; for Adam once had the Image of God, and in it Faith, but there was then no Law or Institution which made that a Title of Right to eternal Blessedness, without a perfect and perpetual complying with the Dictates and Inclinations of it: But there is now under the Gospel this Law of Heaven revealed, and Authenticly proclaimed, That he who has begun a Good work, will perfect it until the day of Christ; and that whom the God of all Grace calls into eternal Glory, he will after they have suffered a while, Establish, Settle, Strengthen, and perfect them; just as here on Earth, one's having a piece of another man's Ground in one's hand, would give no Title, nor Right, to the Estate, but by virtue of the Municipal Laws of the Kingdom; such a Transaction Legally performed gives seizing of the Estate; and thus it's God's instrument by Ordination, as Mr. black, Am●s. and Ant. burgess have explained, and proved. 2dly. Instruments that have a Physical influence on the End, or Effect, are of Two kinds, either practic, or Applicative; Faith is not an Instrument in the working of our Justification, or effecting that which doth justify us; the Body of Christ, his Human Nature, was the great Instrument for this End; A body hast thou prepared me; he could not Suffer, he could not Bleed, nor Die, be a Priest, or Sacrifice, or give a Satisfaction in the room of man, without this Manhood; our Faith has no Interest here but in the applying of it: To as many as received him, that is, believed in his Name, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, John 1.12. By this we receive remission of sins, Acts 26.18. By this we receive the gift of righteousness. So there is a Threefold Instrumentality in Faith, viz. by way of Donation, Ordination, and Application; the Gift of Faith, the Doctrine about Faith, and the Exercise of Faith. There are Four more distinctions of Instruments worthy our Consideration: 1. Spiritual, such as are the Thoughts of the Mind; and Carnal, such as are the Tools for the Hand, or some other Sense and Organ of man; Faith is no Carnal Instrument; it is not by the Hand, but Heart, that we accept of Christ; with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; and Spiritual Instruments are of these Two kinds, Instruments of Life, or of Death; all the ideas, Suggestions, and Objective Thoughts that Satan throws into our Minds, or that bubbles up from the heat of our own Lusts, by which Visible things are represented as most worthy our Choice, Time, and Pains they are Inst●uments of Cruelty and Death. But the Just lives by Faith, the discovery of unseen things, and the Objective Subsistency of hoped for things are Instruments of Life.  
2dly. Instruments are either in a large and metaphorical sense, wherein they act, though subserviently, yet by their own form and activity, as Creatures reasonable are God's Instruments, and Courtiers the King's Tools; but strictly they are altogether passive with respect to the end they are Instruments for: For instance, Ink by its own nature and form makes the Paper black, but is altogether passive as to Lett●rs or Words; it's the Printer or Writer's Tool. So the Strings of a Musical Instrument are wholly passive as to the melodious noise they suffer; the harmony is ordered by the Musician, and they are either complete Beings, as a Saw or Sword; or incomplete, not subsisting by themselves, as our Members and Faculties; and of this last kind Faith is; for the Eye is passive in seeing, and the Mind in understanding; and if there be any degrees more passive in the knowledge, that comes by impression; there seems more activity in the mind, as to the knowledge, by sensation or reflection especially, our Eye is passive in seeing other things by light; but when terminate on the Sun it's passive unto pain sensibly felt: It's new logic to attribute an efficiency to Instruments; for though it's reckoned among the Efficients, it is because by its aptitude it's more like them than final, material, or formal, but nothing is more like than conditio sine qua non& Instrumentum; for the one is a cause without proper efficiency, only passive aptitude; the other is necessary to the effect, without causality; as a Lawyer must be in the Court to pled his Client's Cause; his presence is a condition, but no cause. So Regeneration being a necessary concomitant of Faith, and Repentance in the Root, must be present when we are justified; they are conditio sine qua non, but not Instruments, because they want a natural fitness to unite the Soul and Christ; to receive him, and be received by him, are the acts and gifts of Faith; the one an unition on God's part, the other union on ours: So Faith is more than a conditio sine qua non, and is pro●erly an Instrument with respect to hoped for things. They are very nice who fall out for such a difference.  
3dly, Instruments are either natural, when their fitness serves for the effect alone; as a Seed of Corn for producing the Stalk, Blade and Ear, and th●se are more Causes than bare Instruments: So Faith with respect to conquering the World, mortifying Lusts, resisting Satan, purifying the heart, it doth it by its own fitness; one cannot through faith see hop'd-for things, but will practically and effectually prefer them to this World. But there are Instruments supernatural, when another cause produceth the effect, by virtue of a Promise, Contract or Institution; as when Satan cures a Disease, or raises in the Brain the notion where a thing lost or stolen is, at the use of his Charms and Ordinances: And thus Faith, though by its natural fitness it unites to Christ, there was need of Divine Institution to make it give right to the Promise; and so Faith is properly a mean, and so is Repentance. Promises by Institution are annexed to both; the end, Salvation; and they are necessary united by Divine appointment, and so was the faith of Miracles, Thy faith hath made thee whole.  
4thly, Instruments differ in their dignity; a Tool is a pitiful mean Title, but there are noble Instruments; the Word, the Ministry, Ordinances, the Body and Blood of Christ, were, and are noble ones: So is Faith a rare one, scarce to be found when Christ comes to look for Believers; a necessary one, impossible to please God, or be pleasant in his eyes, without it; it's the only Bridge over the gulf; a profitable one, Remission, Justification, Heaven, are the gains; the Inheritance is of Faith, and we are Heirs of God by Christ; it's a noble one, Christ dwells in us by it.  
I come to the 3d Head, the Negative; to prove that Faith is not a Condition so as may not consist with its Instrumentality; a Procatartic and an Instrumental are far distinct in order of Causes; when a King pardons a Person, his former Service, future Usefulness, a Sum of Money, or Interest of Courtiers, is the Protatartick Cause, that is, the meriting; but the Instrumental is his Word, Writing, Seal, or some Symbol accustomend to that use; this is a very discriminating Character between a true Protestant and an Arminian, Socinian, or Papist: Is it for Faith we are justified, or by it, when the Scripture says Faith is imputed to us for Righteousness? is it the Act or the Object? Arminius, in his Epistle to hippolytus, says, Faith is the object of Imputation. Socinus, It pleased God to put our Faith in the place of Righteousness. Remonst. of Dort, The Covenant of Grace consists not in this, that we are justified by Faith, as it apprehends the Merit of Christ; but that God graciously reputes our imperfect Obedience of Faith for perfect. But yet they will not have it bear the name of a Meritorious Cause, but conditio sine qua non; this Smalcius opposes to an Instrumental; and Socinus in his Synopsis of Justification, We do not affirm that Holiness is the efficient or impulsive cause of our Justification, but causa sine qua non, a term of his own coining; for conditio sine qua non, is not a cause, but somewhat necessary to the effect without causality, therefore this cause must be reduced to efficient matter or form. This controversy is of concern; for the Purity of the Gospel, the Glory of Free Grace, the Honour of Christ, and Humility of Man depends on it; and as Chemnitius says, The Devil bends all his enmity against it; he cannot hinder our Salvation in its efficient cause, therefore he attempts it in the application, either to rob us of the organ and instrument of it, or corrupt and deprave it. And as it is of concern, so it wants not difficulty, for Protestants commonly defend the Covenant of Grace to be conditional, and pardon of sin is one of its great Promises in it; Faith is a duty antecedent in order, therefore it's the condition of Justification. To remove this, I shall first show in what respects Faith is a condition. 2dly, In what respect it is not. 3dly, In what respect the Covenant of Grace is unlike Man's by reason of removing a proper conditionality out of it. For the f rst, the Equivocation is removed from a word when it's applied to its proper Science or Art; and there are these five in which Condition is used, First Grammar, and then it signifies the act or fabric of Building, according to Etymol. as Creation; tertul. adversus conditorem conditi●nem colere, to worship the Creation for the Creator; thus it is applicable to all the Causes of our Salvation, constitutive or applicative, for there is no cause without some causality; but if condimentum were a word used, it were fitter.  
2. The Logicians use it to signify any necessary connexion, as in all Conditional Propositions; and in this sense 'tis true, if he believe he is justified, and as true, if he is justified, he doth believe; and in this sense, not only Faith, but Repentance, to self-denial, and all sincere obedience is a Condition of Justification, especially in a grown Christian.  
3. The Physicians use the word, and that two ways. 1. For the disposition of a Subject, if in a good or bad condition, fit or unfit for such an end, and thus there is a new disposition in every justified person; for no sooner can this glorious new Object enter the Soul, or affect the longing desire, and craving appetite of the Soul, but it presently moulds it into a new frame and posture; and this act of God in giving Faith being the fundamentum relationis, is in order of Nature antecedent to the relation; but this is far from being the Condition for which we are justified, since it is that by which Divine Mercy and Favour for this end is declared to such a particular person. 2. The Physicians call that conditio sine qua non, which has no causal influence on the effect, but yet it's necessary to its production; as in order to the reducing of Wood into Ashes, fire is the cause but application or approximation is the conditio sine qua non; but the term is such, that any cause may be expressed by it equivocally; for the material cause, the efficient cause, the meritorious cause, are Causes and Conditions sine qua non; but when it's used properly for that which has no causality, and yet is necessary, Faith is a conditio sine qua non about Justification, for none is justified without faith; and to say faith is an instrument, it is to ascribe more to it, than barely to call it conditio sine qua non; but the Socinians, who call it causa sine qua non, mean a meritorious one, ex parte pacti; it's a term not used in Arts and Sciences, and therefore we must gather its sense from what they assert about it.  
4. Condition signifies sometimes Election; for I find but these two words in Greek for Condition, {αβγδ} and {αβγδ}, Election and Covenant; and thus it is reducible to the ethics; and it is one of the vital acts of Faith, as it respects the forsaking of the world, and choosing of God's Promises for our Portion; for as it's called Consent with respect to the terms of Salvation absolutely considered, so it's called Election with respect to 'em, as compared with the things of the world, which we forsake and reject. Thus Condition would signify more the nature of Faith than use of it; but it's not usual, except in Translation, {αβγδ} is too large for it signifieth all things.  
5. And most properly Condition is used in a Law-sense; and tho therein the term is sometimes abused, as first to signify Marriage, or what is like it in a worse sense; conditione tua non uta●, are legal terms of Divorce, and to look out for a Condition is to look out for Marriage, or what doth imitate it in a worse sense. 2. Condition is sometimes taken for the mode of doing a thing; as Acurtius out of Ulpian, if we may credit him, He on the very same day, and s●me condition, shall exhibit the Legacy to the Heir that is used to the Legatory; the Gloss says upon this Sentence, Condition is put for mode or manner, for no true and proper Conditions belong to an Heir, his right is antecedent to Will, and therefore cannot be limited. In all th●se senses we own Faith to be the condition of Justification, and by it we own room enough for explaining that connexion that Scripture asserts to be so necessary between Faith and Justification, and doth so frequently express it by the Conditional Particle if, on which I would put these two Remarks, one out of Priscian, who says, that {αβγδ}, if, is causal, but ●… is only conjunctive; which distinction I much doubt, if it hold in the Scripture-use of the word; but this I find, that they are both oftener used in another sense than proper conditionality. 1. It's put for a Question, Luk. 13 23. Are there few that shall be saved? 2. For Asseveration, If they shall enter into my rest. 3. For but, Galat. 2.16. Kn●wing that a man is not justifi●d by the works of the law, but by faith. The Particle {αβγδ} is there used, as it is mat. 9.21. for a ba●e instrumental and applic●tive Particle. If I may but only t●u●h the hem of his garment, I shall be whole. The if there expresses the connexion between a miraculous Faith, and a miraculous Cure, and so most fitly represents the present question; and it signifies bare conjunctiveness often, Matth. 15.14. If the blind led the blind. The second observation I would m●ke on it, is from the Law, where they speak of a two-fold if, viz. of Demonstration and Condition, the one signifying only when, the other for.  
But in a proper Law-sense it is taken for the Price, or that for which the Reward or Benefit is bestowed, which is defined lex negotio annexa, or more largely suspensio dispositionis ex eventu futuro& incerto ei opp●sito; In which sense Justification is not conditional, nor Faith the Condition of it: For 1. Condition in this sense is causative or mer●tori●us; and Merit is of two kinds, either by virtue of proportion, and so none can assert it, Papist or Pagan, that Faith is worth Heaven, or worth a Pardon; or by virtue of a Paction; and for the truth of this, we must view the Tenor of the Covenant, and we can find no such thing in the Records of it; for though it's said, They who keep the Commandments of God have right to the three of Life, yet not for it; and when the Lord treats with Abraham, I am the Almighty, walk thou before me, and be perfect; he lays the stress of his obedience upon Power and Authority, not upon Reward; Conditions of M●rit a●e of two kinds, conditio facti, or conditio doni; as for gift, God renounces it; Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again: For Work or Service; the Apostle asserts, We have no sufficiency of ourselves to think a right thought; and what we do through Divine Ability, still falls short of what's required, and needs a pardon instead of deserving reward.  
2. Condition of this kind is potestative, but Faith and Repentance are not in our power; when a Condition is impossi●le, the Promise is either an utter denial, or an absolute certainty. 1. If a man should say, I will pay you to morrow if you m et me at Paris, or if you will fly up to the Sun; the design is a removing of all expectation, it's as much as to say, By no means I will. As to the 2d. A Testamentary Conditional in Law is only interpnted, if he can, yea if he can conveniently; hence is th●ir general Axiom about an institution of an impossible Condition. That the disposition ought to be fulfilled, if the let was not on his side who was to perform the Condition. Gothofredus saith. Conditio habetur pro impleta s● à parte altera stet, cur non impletur; When a Condition is impossible the Event is certain. But  
3. Uncertainty is a third property of a proper condition. Conanus saith, If a Condition be certain or casual, it doth not suspend the Obligation, for the Obligation is presently in force; but doth only prorogue the Effect, and so is a mean in order to an end; but a voluntary Condition wholly suspends the Obligation; by this Rule the justification of an Elect person is an absolute mercy in opposition to conditionality, though relative in respect to means. For first, The Omniscient God knows all things; he being the other Party, the Condition is certain. 2. Faith being his gift, he is under ●… ligation by his Promise. 3. His Purposes are stable and fir●, and there is an obligation to the performance from the immutability of his Nature. 4. Besides his purpose, he hath promised to jus●… fie the Elect upon a Condition which he knows will come to pass, yea which he is obliged to give, and therefore wants the property of uncertainty, and makes this part of the Definition to fail; a suspension of a disposition from a future and uncertain Event annexed to it. But  
4. The very general nature of a Condition, to wit, Suspension, is inconsistent with this Case; for Independency is one of the most discriminating and incommunicable Attributes of a God; he puts no trust in his Saints; he never built any Design upon such a tottering Bottom as a Creature's Free-will, without his own absolute Purpose to determine it for such an End; his own Free and Sovereign Will is the primary foundation of all his Actions; Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. And he predestinates unto the adoption of children, according to the good pleasure of his will. If Faith does not make God dependant as to his Actions of Pardoning, Justifying, Adopting, it cannot suspend the Disposition; and to attribute a Suspensive Power to Faith, is to add an Omnipotency to it, or rather to Unbelief, that it can bar up all the Issues of Grace and Mercy towards Sinners, tie the Hands of our Creator, and shut up the Womb of the Impregnated Promises; it prorogues the Effect, because it's relative, but doth not suspend the Disposition or Promise; for that makes the Promiser a dependant, which is a great absurdity when attributed to God: The two Pillars of the new method, are 1. The universal extension of Redemption intentionally to all: 2. The limitation of the success of that Intention by a Condition depending on the will of man; they do not say that God cannot by grace determine every Will, and certainly produce the Condition; but it was his Will, as to many, to leave it under their power and choice; the former is Arminianism; the latter is bad enough, That God in the most glorious and sovereign of his Works had a will to render and represent himself a dependant God. But I hope, when the Resurrection of the Jews, and fullness of the Gentiles c ●nes, the extensiveness of God's Love and Christ's Death will be better understood. Besides, Suspensive is an equivocal word, by reason of its largeness, for it may be applied to the Blood of Christ, the Gift of the Spirit, or any other Cause necessary to the Effect; for they suspend the Effect till they be in exercise, and so doth the Instrumental Cause, in vulgar and improper Speech. Conanus's Phrase is more suitable to it; to wit, it prorogues the Effect, but doth not suspend the Obligation; for Suspension properly is not applicable to God.  
5. This only remaining part of the Definition, to wit, a suspension of the Disposition, in the Greek {αβγδ}, is inconsistent with Faith, for there is no other term in Scripture to express the Covenant by but this, which is translated sometimes Testament, sometimes Covenant, and properly a Disposition: Therefore since the Scripture makes the Covenant to be wholly a Disposition of Grace, this other part added to it, a Suspension, is a Human Invention, and mere figment; it is a superaddition to the disposition of Grace. A disposition of Grace, and a properer conditional Covenant, are repugnant: The other definition, Lex negotio annexa, a Law added to the Bargain or Estate, is no fitter. For, 1. It's common to all necessary duty and holiness, and therefore is too large to signify the peculiar use of Faith in this Affair. All of it is conditio foederatorum, a condition in order to possession. 2. It makes Faith to justify as a work, for that's obedience to a Law. 3. It makes no differen●e between the Old Covenant and New, for the Old was Lex negotio annex●, a Law added to Life. 4. There are many Laws annexed to the Inheritance, where the connexion is not of absolute n●c●ssity; m●ny that the Thief on the across never obeied. I might in the next place take a view of the Covenant of Grace, and show how its firmness, its freedom and fittedness for a Sinner's Salvation, renders it inconsistent with a Condition properly taken; but this is largely in●isted on by many: This I have spoken to, because least known. The last Argument I shall use, is, That there is no such term in the Originals of our Bible, Luke 14 32. We have the word in our Translation in a Parable, and a desire of Conditions of Peace in the Original, what things belong to peace, and it is applied to the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace, or being a Disciple of Christ, to wit, forsaking all that a man hath; but that is Conditio f●deratorum, not federationes, that is, the Conditions that persons in covenant are obliged to perform; Without holiness no man shall see the Lord; but not the Condition that is to be performed by them before they are taken into Covenant; the Instrumentality of Faith serves that turn, the Conditionality of Obedience the other; which is rather a Condition in order to possession, than right; but Condition properly is in order to Right, for it suspends the Obligation; our possession of the Absolute Promises gives us a Right to the Con●itional Promises, and God's Eternal Purposes secures the former; but this may be sufficient for the proof of the Second Proposition, to wit, that Faith stands not in the place of a Condition in a Law-sense properly so taken.  
But a Condition being essential to a Covenant, and a Covenant being a term so frequent in Scripture, and in Writings and Discourses of Divinity that a man can hardly speak without it; I shall show both from Causes and Kinds, that the Covenant of Grace, in respect of giving a Right, has not a Condition in a proper Law-sense, as Covenants between man and man have. And first from Causes; 1. The vast distances between the Parties; distinctness of parties fits for a Covenant; for when Job says that he had made a Covenant with his Eyes, 31.1. it was only a Purpose and Resolution, and not prop●rly a Covenant; but distance of Persons, by reason of unequality especially, turns the nature of a Covenant into a Law; the more superior one is to the other, the more there is of the nature of a Law, and the less of a mutually intended Contract: The Transactions between a Patent and a Child, especially of younger years; or the Transactions between a Conqueror and a Captive, are not formally federal by reason of the defect of wisdom in the one, and liberty in the other. In the Civil Law, a Bond given in Prison is not valid; but how much vaster is the distance betw●en God and Man, either with respect of Wisdom and Power on his ●art, or Liberty on our? The Transactions of God with Irration●l Creatures are called a Covenant; and his Covenant with man is more compared to such Transactions, than the Transactions between man and man, Jer 33.20 The Covenant between God and David is compared to the Covenant between God and his Ordinance about day and night; and in 45 ●sa. 9. the Covenant between God and his Church is compared to that betwe●n him and Noah about the Earth, never more to be overflowed by the Deluge; which Covenant had no Condition in it, and that had all the Inf●rior Creatures as w●l● as Noah for the other Parties of it, Gen. 9 12. So that there is a great deal of reason to think, that the Covenant between God and man is more like his Ordinance towards other Creatures. J●r. 31.35. than like the mutual Transactions between man and man; for God governs man as certainly as he governs the other, though he deal with them in a suitableness to the Natures that he hath made; the one by a kind of Physical motion, the other by a kind of objective motive, which wants not Physical operation in it; yet whether he determine, or whether he permit, he never fails of his Design; Man is but God's Instrument he works by. 2. There is requisite to the form●l nature of a Covenant, that both Parties have a freedom to indent, and to have an active hand in the contriving of the Articl●s; but this is a commanded Covenant, Psal. 103.9. Only from our conviction of its being for our advantage, and our consequent choice, it is called a Covenant; and the Lord delights in our willing service. 3. In a formal Covenant each contributes something to the other's benefit or advant●ge; but our goodness cannot extend unto God: His ultimate end is as much to give, as the indigent Creature is to receive. 4. In formal Covenants the Parties are free; before they consent, the Penalties or Damages cannot affect them: But in this, he that believes not, is condemned already; he that sins without Law, shall perish without Law; and they who sin in the Law, shall be judged by the Law. 5. The very act of our consenting, by which we are brought into Covenant, is the act of God, the other Party in the covenant; Jer. 50.5. Th●y shall ask the way to Sion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord with a perpetual covenant. Ezek. 20.37. I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. Jer. 31.33. This is his Covenanting Act; I will put my law in their inward parts, and writ it in their hearts. And Ezek. 36.27. I will put my spirit in you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. I will, and you shall, is not the usual way of covenanting. 6. Tho there is work and reward, promise and practise, yet they have not that relation to one another, that they have in mens Covenants, to wit, the one for the other, else it were a more Covenant of Works: They that keep his Commandments have right to the three of Life, Rev. 22.14. but their Obedience does not found the right; it's a certain Mark of the Title, but not the Merit of the Title; and this dissimilitude destroys the Vi●als of a formal Covenant. Altho mutual consent, mutual obligations to duty on one side, and reward on the other, gives reason for the name, and lays a f●undation for the Meta●hor, yet in the Original the●e is no more mention of Covenant, than there is of Condition. 7. In Covenants there is a mutual dependence, but here the inviolableness of the Covenant depends wholly on God: 2 Tim. 2.13. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.  
I might 2dly, further prove this from all the several kinds of Covenant, among men; but I shall only name them. 1. It's a Covenant of Reconciliation; but Christ made the Restoration, not we: Psal. 66.4. Then I restored that which I took not away. 2. It's a Covenant of War, howev●r treacherously we act; the s●ating mutual Allies, and the espousing of mutual Interest, is the design ●f the Engagement, but all the aid and assistance is fr●m the Lord of Hosts. It is 3. a Municipal Covenant; but if Acts of Parliament be more pro●erly Laws than Covenants, much more the commanded Covenant of God; for we could s●nd no Representatives to Heaven to indent for us. 4. It's a Covenant of Exchange, but our Prayers speak all our Bills to be Bills of Trust, and that on another's Credit; our barren Country affords ●either Bullion nor Goods to be imported there as a Fund of Credit. 5. It's a Covenant of Society, but we disburse nothing, he runs all the haz●rd; we trade with his Money for our own Gain. 6. It's a Covenant of Trade and Commerce; but bid high, and buy for nothing, i● our bargain. 7. Its a Covenant of Insurance, but Chr●st is the i●surer, and there is no venture upon the Merchants side; there is c●… t●in ruin without it, and certain safety within it, without a penny of insurance-Money. 8. It's a Conjugal Covenant, but there is neither Portion nor Beauty on our side, Ezek. 16. H●sea 3. 9. It's a Transaction of Conquest; but Isa. 57.14. we held out to the very last. 10. It's a covenant of Royalty and Loyalty, but the King's Title is not founded upon our choice. 11. It's a Despotical Covenant, there is Master and Servant in the case, but it's no Covenant of Works. 12. It's a Covenant of Honour and Homage, but we sit Rent-free, and that without paying Fine. So whatever Covenant we mention between man and m●n, there is always a dissimilitude in the Conditionality. Thus much for the first Doctrine about the Nature of our Faith, That the room and place it bears in the economy of our Salvation, is that of an Instrument, as Protestants explain it, and not that of a Condition.   

I come now to the 2d. or 3d. proposed General Head, viz. That Faith is an Instrument of Evidence; which I shall subdivide according to the two kinds of Evidence, Natural, as Light, that which we see or apprehended a thing by; Logical, as an Argument of Proof, that which we receive Conclusions and Convictions by. Under the first I shall discourse on these Particulars, 1. The Nature of Instrumental Evidence. 2. The Number, viz. Sight, Reason, Faith. 3. The Nature of Sight and Reason. 4. The pference of Faith to Reason: 1. Without the help of Scripture. 2. With it: proved. 5. Illustrated in these five Particulars: 1. Faith is an Instrument by which the Trinity is represented; Reason is only the Picture of God as Creator and Governor. 2. Faith is an Instrument by which we see God more immediately; by Reason only Images of him. 3. Faith is an Instrument by which the whole appetite is satisfied; by Reason only pleased in delusion, or superficially. 4. Faith an Instrument of more noble effects; by Reason alone very bad effects. 5. Reason is a more Divine Instrument.  
As to the first, Faith is a Lucid or Luminous Instrument: it's 1 Cor. 13. a Glass we see through, a Light we see by. In the Optics it's a question, whether Light be that we see, viz. the Object, or the Instrument we see by, or r●ther both; for Colour is but Light reflected or terminated in a solid body, that is, what we see; and Light in Emanation through the Air is that we see by; by this the Images of Bodies are conveyed into the Retina of the Eye, which as a Glass or Mirror receives them: In Logics there is as little difference between the thing proved, and the Instrument or Argument we prove it by, viz. the Essence or Propriety of the thing itself: A Man is reasonable, because capable of Learning; a Brute is a living Creature, because sensitive. So Faith is but a Ray from the Object of Faith, as we see the Sun by its own Light: So God and Christ by the Light of the O●ject his glorious Image formed in the Soul, is an enduing its dark capacity with the Light of Faith. Hence we h●ve this Obser●ation, That Instruments of Light are of ●igher kindred with the O●jects than other Instruments; which is all I shall say on the nature in general.  
As to the 2d. Faith is repres●nted in the Text comparatively, as that we can see further off by, than any other Light, 2 Pet. 1.9. He that lacketh Faith is blind and ca● not s●e far off; it's a most excellent Tellescope, we can see through all th● heaven of Heavens by it; we can see from Eternity to Eternity by it. Abraham's aged eye could see Christ's day afar off; and M●ses could s●e him who is invisible: It's a coloured Glass, all things we see through it, become of the sa●e kind and colour; if we look on judgement by Faith we see it a Mercy, and Captivity a Deliverance, Chastisement tokens of Love. It's a Magnifying-Glass, that we can see not only the most spiri●uous refined Bodies, the Atoms of Air by, but the most Infinitely Pure Spirit, God, who is a Spirit, and the Father o● Spirits; and when men talk of Spirits without Faith, they intrude into th●se things they have not seen, Col. 2.18 It is not expressed in the Text what Instruments of Light Faith is compared with, but both the Light of Sense and Reason is p●inted at; the word seen, {αβγδ}, points at Sense; and evidence, {αβγδ}, points at the other; yet if we take Faith as c●mprehending all its acc●dental d●fferences, we may say, the reason why none are name, is because by none else hop'd-for things can be se●n: It's the only Instrument we can savingly see or know a God by; for it may be left among the Problems of Divinity, Whether Saving Faith and Heavenly Vision differ in kind, or degree only; since the Apostle explains, Now abideth Faith, by this, That wh●n Perfection comes, that which is in part perish●s: Vision is Faith in perfection; they differ as the Seed and Tr●e; Faith here is as a Grain of Mustard-Seed in comp●rison of that vast three it is in perfection; no Grace perishes; all the good work wrought in the Soul is to be perf●ct●d, not destroyed; he that has begun a good work will perfect it until the day of Christ; but this is certainly supposed, that there is another way of seeing than by Faith; and that th●re are some means we can see other things by, that are not Faith's peculiar Object; f●r it's reckoned Faith's Excellency to evid●nce and d●monstrate what other means cannot reveal or discover. Now these are the Three great Instruments of seeing, the Eye, Reason, and Faith.  
3. The Eye is distinct from both the others in this, That by it only corporeal things are seen: Sight is one of our Senses, but one of the most Spirit-like Senses, having 1. more Variety of Objects, Light, Colour, Rest, Motion, Quantity, Figure, Distance, Number, &c.; and 2. reaching them at greatest distance; Smell, Taste, or Hearing, can reach nothing so distant as a Star. 3. Nor do they so exquisitely observe their Objects; we have more differences of Colours and Figures, &c. than Tastes, Smells, Voices or Noises. 4. It is more the Index of the Soul than any other; in it we may not only red Health and Sickness of the Body, but dispositions of the Mind, if angry, envious, meek, bold, &c. 5. More the Instrument of the Soul, it more immediately darts its fascinating or inamouring Spirits by the eyes, than any sense. 6. The Image of the Soul, not only in Light, but Liberty: Sounds compel our ears, but we can make choice of what we will see, by shutting or opening the Eye-lids. And 7. It has not only a Soul-likeness in it, but Divinity: How full of fear and horror doth darkness make us! Nor is there more of Spiritualness or Divinity in Sight, than there is in Light, the Queen of all Corporeal things; the most pleasant if we view it in a Jewel, Glow-worm, Candle, Star, or Sun; it's delightful, refreshing, and yet an occult, mysterious thing in its nature; no Philosopher has given the world satisfaction about it, and it's a great question if ever any satisfied himself: But it's like a Soul to the world; How fertile and lively doth the returning Sun render the passive Earth! and how Actively doth it convey the Images of every thing through the Air, the formation of Images in Looking-Glasses, or Water, or the Eye of man is the work of this sprightly Light: But however useful, comfortable, or active this is, it comes short of Reason.  
Reason, Prov. 20.27. Reason is the Candle of the Lord; it's a fallen Star it's true, but outshines any Light that's Earthly. The Soul's Lustre, Glory, and Happiness, is lost by its apostasy, but not it's Spiritual Faculties and Capacities; this Picture, or Image of God, has lost the Oriency of it's Rays and Colours, but some visible Lineaments still remain. There are some Bodies so fine the Eye of man cannot discern, the Atoms of Air, the Particles of Light when diffused in the Air, and not conglanerate in a flamme: But the Mind of man sees the smallest particle, capable of Infinite parts and divisions; the fine ideas in the common sensorium, are the Object of the Mind, as the Corporeal world is the Object of Senses; the world is in the heart of man, and it Purifies and Refines them as much as the gross bodies are by the Senses; this Reason abstracts from bodies, it unbodies bodies; and hen●e are all the Sciences, physics, mathematics, a method of abstracting Length from Breadth, and Breadth from Thickness in the same body. It concludes quiter other thoughts from them by the connection of Cause and Effect, than is in them; as it sees a God by viewing of the World, a Creator in the Creature, it seeing things that no sense can perceive, from distance: 1. By Spiritualness of Nature, God, Angels Souls, Virtues, Vices, Relations; it can take Delight in, or be in Pain, with what cannot affect the Sense, a virtuous, or Vicious Action. Or, 2. By distance of Time, or Place; It can one hour Meditate on Death, and the other on Birth; nay, one minute on the Creation, and the next on the Day of judgement; one minute on Heaven, and the other on Earth; it can look over the Mountains; the Eye can neither Climb nor Pierce: Nay further, It can pile them together in one Thought; when we see one thing, we cannot see another; hence a small thing before the Eye may be long looked after before it can be seen; because, says the Optists, it must be drawn to a Pyramidal form in optic Rays; but this Eye can have the whole Creation for the Object of one Thought; and which is yet more inconsistent with sense, it can see itself; we know our Bodies by Anatomizing others, but our mind by reflecting on ourselves. But  
4thly. Reason is to be considered Two ways; either with, or without the help and assistance of Scripture; there is a great difference between the thoughts of it, as assisted with this Telescope, and without it; and here I do not understand by reason Ratiocination, a faculty of inferring one Truth out of another, which accompanies the Mind in all its advancements, and may be in Heaven, tho with more ease, certainty, and nimbleness; but the Knowledge of man, which is the field of apprehension, judgement, and reason; and in this sense the Eye of the mind, assisted by the Instrument of Scripture, or Historical Faith, knows a great deal more than without it; relation is a great addition to natural Light: This may be evin●'d  
1. From the manner of acquiring Knowledge, viz. Sensation and Reflection.  
2. From the matter Revealed, History, prophesy, and Mysterious Doctrines.  
3. From the Origin of most of Philosophy among the best cultivated Nations, viz. Tradition.  
4. From the Errors and Ignorance they lay under, notwithstanding that advantage.  
5. From the effect it issued in, viz. Idolatry, Atheism, and Scepticism, which supposes uncertainty.  
6. From the Ignorance and Stupidity among Pagans, where the Tradition is lost.  
7. From the Scripture-Testimony of the Two, compared together.  
But it's Saving Faith the Text recommends as an Evidence of discovering and demonstrating things to sense, to reason, with, or without Scripture unseen. I shall first evince this. 2dly. Explain wherein the difference consists.  
1. From matter of Fact. We find the Jews, to whom the Oracles of God were committed, yea, the Pharisees that were Teachers among them, without this Light of Faith, they were blind leaders of the blind, Rom. 2.19. Teachers that taught not themselves, John 8.48. Have any of the Pharisees believed on him? and 9.40. Are we blind also? Regeneration was Mysterious nonsense to Nicodemus; and Christ's Humiliation was an offence to the bulk of them; they were counted the wise and prudent, from whom these things were hide, when God revealed them to Babes, mat. 11.25. to Babes was it given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom, Mat. 13 not many wise nor mighty were called, 1 Cor. 1.  
2. Devils have Knowledge, have Reason, have an Historical Faith, James 2.19, they believe and tremble, but have no Saving Faith; he can quote Scripture, dispute from Scripture, yea, enter the Lists with our Lord Jesus Christ in dispute for Forry days; and yet his kingdom is a kingdom of darkness, he sees not the evil of Sin, or beauty of Holiness; he cannot hate what appears lovely to him; his will and understanding are as much united as ours.  
3. The necessity of a Regeneration of Mind for attaining this Light, shows that no external Revelation can be a sufficient remedy to man's blinded Mind, John 3.3. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of Heaven. John 6.46. not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God. Saving Faith is not antecedent to Regeneration, but a part of it.  
4thly. From the necessary connection between it and Holiness. Many a reasonable man enjoys the Scripture● and Studies them constantly, that is not Holy; but none having Faith, want Holiness in answerable measure, Ephes. 4.14. Men are alienate from this life of God, through the ignorance that is in them; the Jews received not the Peacemaker, because they knew not what belonged unto their Peace; had they known him, they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory.  
5thly. From the Prophetical Office of Christ. If external Teaching would have served our turn, other Prophets could have done the business, Acts 13.41. I work a work in your day, that you shall not believe though, a man declare it unto you; there is need of an Immanuel to conquer the god of this world that blinds the minds of them who believe not, to throw out of the house the rulers of darkness, Ephes. 1. as great a power wrought on a Believer, as Raising Christ from the Dead; there is need of a Spiritual unction, a Spirit that immediately suggests Thoughts, raises ideas, forms Images in the mind, suitable to the things themselves; that the Apostle calls forming Christ in them, and causing us to behold as in a Glass his Glorious Image, in such an attractive way, that transforms us into his Likeness; this teaching is that which he promises, John 16. to be performed by his Spirit, which would convince of sin, righteousness, and judgement; and John 14.17. The Spirit, whom they should know by his dwelling in them; and by reason of the want of it, the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2.14. Such are sensual, not having the Spirit.  
6thly. This may be evinced from the darkness and ignorance that the Scripture asserts the Soul of man to be in without Faith. His face is veiled, his eyes have films and scales upon them, his mind is filled with darkness, Ephes. 4.17. yea, is darkness itself, 5.8. the Wisdom and knowledge that it hath in it, is called Fleshly, because it can apprehended no Spiritual thing, but under some Carnal umbrage and earthly shadow; John 3.21. If I have  told you earthly things, and ye believe not: How shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things? If Nicodemus could not apprehended that Spiritual change wrought in the Soul of man under the Metaphor of a carnal Birth, How much less would he have apprehended it if expressed in terms proper to the thing itself in an Angelical dialect? These more pure Spirits, must have more proper and proportioned Terms to express these things by, than we who wholly converse with Earth, and have our Spirits so imprisoned, that they can conceive of nothing but what peeps through the gates of sense, except what comes in by immediate and Divine Inspiration, and then we cannot express it, but in borrowed words: Hence comes it, that men may be great Disputants in Divinity, and yet destitute of the Truth, They dote about questions and strife of words, 1 Tim. 6.4. but never apprehended the thing: Nay farther, this Ignorance is calle● the w●nt of an Understanding. 1 John 5.20. We know that the son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we might know him; he did not so to those Israelites in the Wilderness, of whom it is said, The Lord had not given a heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear, Deut. 29.4. the Eye of the Unbeliev●r is a Blood shot Eye, his Heart Sin-shot, and both Devil shot, as Dr Goodwin phrases it. But some Object, That these are only Hyperbolical Phrases, since it is owned to be Orthodox Doctrine, That Regeneration gives no new Faculty to the Soul of man; but we may best apprehended this case by light of another kind in the case of Colours, We call a Brick read, and a Marble White, or Black, and that the Light of the Sun, or Candle, lets us see them; but these Colours are indeed the proper fruits of the Light, the ston contributes nothing to it; but by reason of its Temperature and Disposition causes various Reflections and Refractions of the Light, which is the colour. So there is no understanding in the Soul Actu●lly, but a capacity dark as a dungeon, until ideas shine upon it: It was thought of old, that the Eye was Active in its Vision, and pierced into things; but Experience has taught us, that it is but a living Looking-Gl●ss, and as Passive in Vision; and so is the Soul in understanding, especially in things Spiritual.  
7thly. From the disproportion of the Object, 1 Cor. 2.11. the things of God are above the thoughts of man; the things of man are above the thoughts or sensations of a beast; the mind of a man is only capable to apprehended the things of a man; a God is more superior to man, than man is to a Beast; How should this humble us in the sight of God, stop the curiosity of our inquiring minds about particulur accounts of God's Affairs, or reasons of his Purposes! What implicit Obedience to his Will should this bring forth! Will we Indent, or Article it, with our Beast, how far they shall Ride, what Provision by the way, when they should Rest? And will he that flies on the wings of Cherubims Indent, or enter into Conditions with them? He charges Angels with folly, And will he put trust in his Saints? The Excellency of Christ, Phil. 3. nay, the extent of Sin, and the evil of it, the beauty and loveliness of Holiness, were things of a man when Sanctified, and could not be discerned by Paul until the scales fell from his Eyes.  
5thly. The next thing is to explain wherein the difference between Faith and Reason consists, and show what things are discovered by the Instrumentality of Saving Faith, that cannot be seen by Reason. To which I sh●ll only premise the acceptation of the Terms; and 1. by Reason, I mean not the Cause of a thing, as when we say, why, or for what reason did you this? but all discovery of Truth which the mind arrives at from sense or reflection on its own Operations. 2dly. Faith, I mean not Historical Faith, that is, assent to Truth on the credit of the proposer of it, because it is of nigh kindred to Reason; for instance, as to the Revealed Truths of the Scripture, 1. They who have not Saving Faith, receive them on Reason, viz. They believe it to be God's word, because of the many Reasons that prove it's Divinity, the Churches Testimony, the many Miracles, the wonderful Prophecies, the great Effects and Success, the Agreement of the Truths in them, with the Truths of Reason; and it were a Mercy if all that receive them, did so; but alas! on no better grounds than custom, and Parents or N●ighbours said so, do many own them. 2dly. We search out the sense of them by Reason, Grammar, logic, and rhetoric; Reasons Tools. 3. We admit nothing contrary to Reason, Plurality of Gods, Transubstantiation, we reject on this ground; they are repugnant to Reason; to be more bests, and more greatests, is nonsense; and so for one Body to be in many places, and a great Body in a little place. 4thly. It can bring no new Perception, or Idae●, into our Mind that we had not by Reason; for though we receive Truths compounded, or composition of Idaea's, that we could not tie together by Reason, and so above Reason, as that the Dead shall Rise; we cannot form a true idea of a Risen or Glorified Body, notwithstanding the many Characters, but by comparison what that is now; it may have 7 Senses, but what the 2 other will be, we know not; Paul was in the Third Heaven, but could not instruct us of the things that are there; if he used words, they must be new coined ones; and then unintelligible, or the old used ones, and then our Idae●'s would have been of the things they are accustomend to signify; and so we should have our Minds stuffed with Error worse than Ignoronce, an idea of Heaven like a Mahometan Paradise; the Scripture informs us, That what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, has not entered into the mind of man to consider.  
But I mean saving Faith, which is like a kind of Original Revelation; because by the gift of it, God inspires the mind with new Ideas and Perceptions, as the thoughts of Reason comes from Sense inw●rd, or outward, the thoughts of Faith come from God, he suggests th m, creates them in the Soul: by traditional revelation we have only words of Divine things conveyed; by Faith we have the perception and knowledge of th●se things; in the Word we hear of Christ, in Faith we have him formed in us, the true Form and Idea of him: there may be Original Revelation, and only the arbitrary thoughts of God painted on the mind by it, not the Image of himself, and so not be a saving knowledge; and this makes a vast difference between Faith and Reason, as great as between Heaven and forth. Which I shall fu ther enlarge in these five Heads; End, Object, subject, Effect, and Original.  
1. They differ with respect to their Pattern and Original, to represent which is their End; as God is the Author and End of all things, so he is the Pattern; there was nothing else to take the model of the Creatures from, in the mind of the Creator, but himself; somewhat or other in God the meanest Creature doth resemble; their Activity, as second Causes, his Power; their Usefulness his Goodness, their harmonious Beauty, his Glory; their Duration( since nothing is to be amnihilated) his Eternity; for God could not deny himself in Words or Actions, he could make nothing but what something of God might be seen in it; The heavens declare his glory, and the earth sheweth his handy work: But these things are prints of his Footsteps, ma●ks of his Hand; their representation wants the essentials of an Image, which are 1. Likeness; 2. dependence; 3. A Specification. One Egg is not the image of another, though like; nor a Worm the image of a Man, though it depend of him, and is like to him, as a Creature, and as living; but Children are Images of the Parents because of the same kind; the Imagination, that image of Creative Power, draws the Child in the Womb in the likeness of the Parent. Hence we may conclude, that Angels are in God's image, bearing the name of Sons; but man alone, of sublunary Creatures, bears this honourable Title of the Image of God, Gen. 1.16,17. 1 Cor. 11.7. Jam. 3.9. But that I may come to the purpose, it is the Law of Images and Pictures, among whom man is to be reckoned one, that nothing be essential in the Picture but what represents something in the Original; Faith and Reason being the two most excellent and comprehensive things in the Soul of man, and so distinct from one another, that they are separable, they must represent distinct things in God: And I lay this down as the basis of the distinction, that Faith represents God as related to himself; Reason rep●esents him as related to the Creatures; Faith represents God in his Essential Attributes, and Blessed Fellowship; Reason represents him as drawing his own Picture in Arbitrary Creatures. I shall illustrate and confirm these apart.  
1. Faith is the Image of the Divine Nature, as subsisting in that blessed Fellowship of the Trinity. For 1. Faith is that by which the Creature only is happy, and enjoys communion with God, and therefore is fittest to represent the Happiness of God; and Happiness without Fellowship is inconceivable, and the more perfect the Creature is, the more delightful is suitable Company. God said it was not good for man to be alone; and the common Epithet of man among philosophers, is a Soci●ble Animal; therefore it s●ems reasonable, as well as credible, that there is a Fellowship in God; whence should it have become our blessedness, if there was not a blessedness in himself thereby to be represented? J●hn 17. That they all may be one, as I in thee, and thou in me, th●t they also may be one in us. The Gospel reveals to us that this Fellowship consists in a Trinity. There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, Word and Spirit; and that there is a mutual knowledge, love and delight among them; therefore in Faith must this Blessedness be represented, since our Happiness is a shadow of his, and ours consists in the exercise of Faith; in Reason our Nature and Essence consists, we cannot be without it, which re●resents the being of Creatures to be imagery painting; all C●e●tures are nothing in comparison of God, as the Prophet Isai●h says, Nothing, and l●ss than nothing; but it pleased the Divine Being to draw his own Picture on it. So it is suitable, that his Life, who bears the title of Image as his greatest honour, should consist in representing God as he drew, and is drawn and represented by this Picture, and in Reason doth this Nature and Life consist.  
2. I find the Scripture giving account of this Image, Gen. 1.26. under two names, Image and Likeness; Zelem and Damuth, which the Fathers interpret as distinct Representations, though later Interpreters say it is only an Image very like; but the Text itself points at a two-fold Relation, one toward God, made in his Image; the other toward the Creatures, a likeness to God in dominion over them; this agrees well with the two things that make man, Reason a man; and Faith a happy one; Faith makes him God's Image, and Reason fits him for government of the Creatures, and to represent God therein, not deserving the name of Image, but likeness only.  
3. I find a Trinity of Images, or in this Image distinctly mentioned in Scripture. 1. A subjective and essential Image that sin cannot wear out, and remains after the Fall, though not without hurt and defilement, Gen. 9.6. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be  shed; for in the image of God made he man; this Law is after the Fall, and holds good to them that are in a fallen condition, Jam. 3.9. thenceforth curse we men that are made in the likeness of God. 2. There is an objective Image which doth not inhere, but by way of object is enjoyed, Psal. 17. last, 2 Cor. 3.18. 3. There is an Image in qualitis, and inherent likeness, Eph. 4. Col. 3.10. Knowledge, Righteousness and Holiness. Now there being a Trinity in God, and a Trinity in this Image; and this being the Image of God, why shall we not think the one Trinity is the Image of the other; and since Faith fills all three, that it consists in Faith?  
4. There are three ways of apprehending this mysterious Truth. Some by a bare acting of a person, or by different Relations, as one man may be Uncle, Father and Son; but there are two Absurdities follow it; one, that it makes six persons in the Trinity for there must be Correlatives. 2. Here is not an Hypothesis to explain the Gospel by: Some make three Attributes only, which is liable to the same Exceptions, why not four, five, or six? nor can the Gospel be explained by it; the Son of God is Wisdom, Power and Goodness. Some by three United Spirits, in a mutual or self-consciousness; but why not in one Spirit, since the Scripture tells us one Spirit is the Image of God, and there is a Trinity in one Image, therefore this is the most conformable way to the Scripture; Trinity is essential to the Godhead, God made man an Image of this Godhead, and there is a Trinity in this Image when the Soul is endowed with Faith, not else; therefore in Faith doth this Image consist, for some essentials of Faith fills every Faculty; which I shall explain, by showing the resemblance between these Images and the respective Persons of the Blessed Trinity; and secondly, by showing what of Faith consists in that similitude.  
1. There is the Subjective Image which remains essential to the Soul after the Fall, Gen. 9.6. 1 Cor. 11.7. Jam. 3. this is the hypothesis and foundation to the rest; for neither objective nor qualitative Image, neither form nor fruit of Faith could be without a suitable Capacity; God can make out of Stones a Seed to Abraham, but he must make them men first; you cannot put more in a Vessel than it is capable to hold, and cannot be Vessels of Grace, Mercy, Honour and Glory, without containing, or some way possessing a God; for Christ dwells in the heart by Faith; there must be a correspondent appetite to this Bread of Life, a large Temple for this Shechinah; this Subjective Image is a vast craving Ap●etite, as giving is God's, and receiving is the Creature's; the more it can receive, the more capable it is of glorifying God; and the more spiritual, the more capacious: So this is the faculty of Faith, a longing desire, but capable of several degrees. 1. A simplo desire, and it is seldom thus. 2. A disquieted agitation, and this is the usual degree in the world; an Appetite that puts man to pains and diligence, and all the labour under the Sun arises from it. 3. A sensible and lively pain; herein Conviction consists, a discovery, that there is a vanity in all former labour for this end with the remaining desire; there is an intolerable pain to the Soul, or a discovery of a more suitable good. 4. When it advances, the Soul is fired by it into an Internal Despair, or Heavenly flamme. These things are the Reasons why all Souls are not in one of these two last Conditions. 1. The Soul's immaturity; at its first going forth into this world it is pleased, and fancies satisfaction is to be had in it; but as Solomon did after long experience, it finds all is vanity, no rest is to be had in them; and it is a desperate sign of a Soul's ill progress in Wisdom and Goodness, when the older they grow, they become the more covetous. 2. Original Corruption which is of a darkening and stupefying nature. 3. The confinement to the Body, it can only peep through the Grates of Sense. 4. The Suggestions of Satan; Security is the strong-hold of his Kingdom. 5. Divine Providence, which keeps it in a due temperature for government in this World; yet we see evident demonstrations of its power and vigour; whence are all the Studies, Arts, Sciences, Trades, Undertakings, Labour and Pain in this World, but from this Appetite, Who will show us any good? how shall I be pleased, satisfied? when shall I get gain? whence are all the boiling Passions, disorderly Motions, tumultuous Sturs, Wars and Fightings in the World, but from this desire? Appetite is a more radical Attribute of the Soul than Thinking, for thoughts arise from desire, that is the quickening and enlivening principle of the Soul; Will is as essential to the Soul as Understanding. Now as the Father is the Hypostasis and Principal to all the rest, Heb. 1.3. The Son is the express Character of his person, or Hypostasis, as it is in the Original; so is this Appetite, but with that difference that is necessary between a Creator and Creature; this by capacity, that by communicating; All-sufficiency is the first order of being in an Infinite Spirit; but emptiness, vacuity, want, or need, is first in order among the Creatures; All-sufficiency is the radical fitness for communicating, as emptiness is for receiving; this Image is by contraposition as the Seal is to the Wax; what is protuberant and swelling forth in the Seal, is hollowness in the Wax. 2. In that likeness that is between the essential properties of the Soul and Divine Attributes; for the Divine Attributes are originally the Fathers; here the similitude between their Spiritual, Immortal Natures are to be traced. 3. As the Soul can be separate from the Body, its little World, so God from his great one.  
2. There is the Objective Image, Psal. 17. last, 2 Cor. 3.18. an Objective Image is the form and idea that we perceive a thing under; I cannot understand Christ's being otherwise formed in us, than by the Spirit's forming a suitable Idea of Christ's Nature, Offices, and our need of him in our minds, Eph. 3.17. Thus Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, the capacity of our Soul fits us for so great goodness as this view and amiable aspect of him is. And 2 His forming this Idea in us, is the gift of Faith, it is his effectual calling; no Soul can see him without trusting him, and loving him above all things; it's very observable, that Souls are fed by their Objects, strengthened and comforted as much as Bodies by Food; hence Christ is called the Bread of Life, and there is a Sacrament of purpose to represent this truth. 3. The perceiving and receiving this Object is the formal act of Faith, and the habitual continuation of it is the habit of Faith, and this is done by the Physical operation of the Spirit; for 2 Cor. 3.18. that lovely and glorious Image is formed in the Soul by the Spirit: Hence we learn how we receive the Spirit by Faith, viz. by the faculty or capacity of Faith; the Soul is not active but passive; in this reception the Act is attributed to it from its fitness as a V●ssel is said to receive: And 2. How Faith is wrought by the Spirit: And 3. how Christ and the Soul is united by Faith, we may learn the nature of the Cement. But the principal thing here is, wherein this represents the Son of God. 1. Consider that the Father is represented as a Self-subsistent, Self-sufficient Person. 2. The Son, as the Image of this Person in his own mind; hence Joh. 1.1. he is called Word; Col. 1. Image; Heb. 1. Character and Truth, Light, &c. all this informs us, that the Generation and begetting of the Son is not after our Carnal manner, or any thing like it, but in a pure, spiritual, refined manner, as our mind brings forth thoughts; and some fancy that Angelical Spirits multiply their Nature that way: So that the Personality of the Son is the Image of God the Father in his own mind, and Faith is the Image of it; for it consists in our having the Image of God truly drawn in our mind: So this doth not, like the former, consist in a correspondent Counterposition, but in a similitude, and in some sense a sameness, because the Object is the same, tho not the same way, but a like way enjoyed: God's image of himself is himself, all is substance, all is oneness, all sameness, that is in that Nature; not so is it with us. Now if we suppose it possible, which cannot be denied, that God could take the thought of a Soul, its Idea of itself, and make another Soul of it, and then incorporate it, it represents the matter clearly, how the Son of God, the Image of God in his own mind, might be incorporated, and not the Father. Now since Faith is a having God, or Christ the Son of God, dwell in our mind, and the Personality of the Son of God consists in God's having his own Image objective dwell in this mind, Faith in its form●l nature fitly represents the Son.  
Here I would not be understood to make the Idea of Christ or God to be the Object of our Faith only, but themselves in their Nature and Person considered without us. I may represent the Case by the Sun, the Object of our Sight; the Sun itself is the Object, but by forming its own Image and Picture in our Eye, fitted for that purpose; yet they are true and real Particles of the same Sun that are darted in our Eyes; and I think in this sense it may be said, we partake of the Divine Nature, viz. Objective; while we behold, as in a Glass, his glorious Image, and shall more fully, when we are even satisfied with his likeness.  
3. There is the qualitative Image, a likeness in property, Col. 3.10. Eph. 4.24. Knowledge, Righteousness and Holiness; herein consists the fruit of Faith, or native results from the union between God and the Soul; we live by Faith, and Faith works by love; this and the former bear the same relation to the Soul, that eating and working do to the Body; for by eating by Faith we receive strength, by working we spend it. Now this represents the Spirit: 1. In his proceeding and emanation from the Father and Son; for Holiness proceeds from the Soul and Christ united, 2 Cor. 3.18. we are transformed into the same likeness, Psal. 17. we are satisfied, Eph. 3.18. it can never flow from the Soul alone. 2. The Spirit is the perfecting Person; the completing of every work is ascribed to him; the Contrivance and first Motions of our Salvation to the Father, the Redemption to the Son, the completing Application to the Spirit; so this is the Cape-stone, the last perfection of the Divine Image, and the Soul's Blessedness; Holiness is not the Condition of Union with Christ, but the fruit of it. The mysteriousness of the Trinity consists in the simplicity and oneness of that Nature, and yet distinctness for such distinct Offices. Now there is no Creature more one than a Soul, a Spirit indivisible; and yet the three things that are essential to a believing Soul are so distinct, that the first and other two are separable, and the second and third as distinct as God and a Creature, if we consider the External Object; and if we consider the Internal, as distinct as Effect and Cause, our Soul is passive as to the one, and active as to the other; this may help to confirm us, as the Acute and Reverend Mr. How says of the conceivableness of a Trinity in that strictest Unity; since this is in the Image drawn by his own hand for this end to represent himself; but how it is, I am contented to admire and wonder, until I come to an higher Form, for I cannot stay long in this.  
The Second thing to be proved, is, That Reason represents God as drawing his own Picture on the Creatures. I cannot conceive a more rational original for the existence of the Creatures, than the satisfaction and delight that God did take in the contemplation and enjoyment of himself; from thence an arbitrary free thought became a purpose of making an external Image, and letting that image share of the goodness of enjoying God too.  
Now that which needs proof, is, That God in this relation to the Creatures, as having all their Ideal Forms in his mind, and contriving, ordering them, as they may best answer that end, is the Pattern of Reason; and I shall bring these five Reasons for it.  
1. There is nothing in God that Reason can Represent or be an Image of besides; which may be evinced. 1. From the nature of Reason; and 2d. in what respects any thing like it is to be found in God. 1. Reason is the Form of man, that which is common to man, and makes him differ from a Beast, Dan. 4.36. My reason returned unto me. 2 Pet. 2.12. brute beasts; the word is unreasonable beasts, {αβγδ}. When nabuchadnezzar was like a Beast, he lost his Reason. Faculties, and Habits, are known by their Acts; now the Acting of Reason, is studying, searching the knowledge of a thing by its Causes, Luke 5.21. The Pharisees began to reason, saying, who can forgive sins but God? What Cause or Author was necessary for such an Effect! How great Goodness and Authority must be in him! so 24, 25. mat. 21.25. Hence reason is taken either for the knowledge, the exercise of thought, Acts 28.29. Rom. 1.21. 2 Cor. 10.5. or the causes and object of the Reasoning, Prov. 26.16. And Causes being of Two kinds, Physical, or Moral; Physical, viz. Efficient, or Material, Psal. 88.9: My eye mourneth by reason of affliction, Job 17.7. by reason of sorrow, Psalm 90.10 2 Pet. 3.15. Eccles. 7.25. Isa. 41.21. Moral, as the end is, Rom. 12.1. Acts 25.27. hence Reasoning is Twofold; Speculative, when we inquire about the Physical Causes; Practical, when the final is under Consideration; or Speculative, when we study a thing done by another; Practical, when we study the doing of a thing ourself, and the usual name for this is Counsel. The 3d. enquiry is, how far any thing like Reasoning is to be found in God? 1. Not in the knowledge of himself, there is no Effect, nor no Cause abstracted from the Creation; an Infallible Mind will not study a Being by Causes that has none; he knows himself by Intuition. 2. With respect to Creatures, there is no place for Speculative Reasoning, for nature is God's A●t and Workmanship. 2 It implies an imperfection of Mind both in slowness and narrowness of Thought; 1st. knowing one thing and then gathering the knowledge of another from it. 2d. Narrowness, we cannot admit more things than one at once, though the Mind, like the fie, can nimbly skip from one to another; hence we find it is only Counsel, or practical Reasoning, that i● to be found in God, Isa. 1.18. Ephes. 1.11. Acts 20.27. I have declared the whole counsel of God unto you. Zech. 6.13. Jer. 32.19. Isa. 46.10. and 40.14. and therefore that is it only which our Reason is the Image of.  
2. From the nature of Pictures and Images; it is essential to Pictures ro r●present the present Figure and Posture that the Person Painted is in at that time; though it is not essential to the Person, who could be in another Posture, it is essential to the Picture; so Reason is essential to man, or Creatures a Creator, but arbitrary to him; and as far as Bodies can represent Spirits, the consulting about the world, doing all things according to the counsel of his Will, was the posture of Mind he was in when he formed the World.  
3. A part of this Image did consist in representing God as Governor, 1 Cor. 11.7. which is peculiar to the man, He is the image and glory of God; and Gen. 1.26. it is added to the Image. Now Reason and Government are of so nigh kindred, they are signified by one word, The lot is cast into the lap, but the disposal thereof( Reason in the Hebrew) is of the Lord; Reason is that man is fitted for Government by; and as God's Contriving and Creating the World is foundation and root of his Right and Government, so Reason in man; And shall not we then conclude a likeness in the Two?  
4 All in man is Image of God; it is not said Soul or Body, but Man was made in his Image; and Gen. 9.6. the Body of man, for that is capable of being killed only; beside the Parity to be found between them and Reason being essential to man, belonging to the Soul of man, it seems very reasonable that it should be some way the Image of God and his Counsel; and practical Reason, by which he contrived the World, is only that it can represent: There are Four Principal things in man, like Four Elements, of which he consists, Faith, Reason, Imagination, Sense: Faith is the Image of God in his Being and Blessedness, which consists in the Fellowship of the Blessed Trinity; Reason is the Image of God, as drawing in design his Image in the Creatures; Imagination is the Image of Creative Power, which it exerts in Generation and other unaccountable Actions, it being that the Child is often Marked by without our knowledge, shows that the Child is formed by it. Imagination is the Mother and Former of all Ingenious Arts; the Notion came like a dart of Light; this is the Picture of God's Creating Power: I have seen at Utrecht a Child's Arm broken in the Mother's Belly, and turned behind it's Back in the same posture the woman saw the person who frighted her. Sense is the Image of that approbation and pleasure that God did take in his Workmanship, and that he expressed by asserting it to be very Good, this Being an inferior Satisfaction to that infinite Satisfaction, in the Enjoyment of himself, is represented by the Satisfaction of our Senses.  
5. The convenience and use that this distinction has in Divinity; 1. It solves the great difficulty that we find in differencing the knowledge and Faith of God, that is, with and without saving Effects. Some say, it consists in degree; but this is contrary to experience, for then the more Reasonable, the more of Salvation; but it is certain many of the Wisest, best Disputants, eloquent Preachers, are farther from Salvation, than poor serious Souls that can say very little for themselves. 2dly. Some place it in Effects; but such vast distant Effects, supposes distinct Causes; therefore a distinct Knowledge; but this makes a formal distinction, the one is a knowledge of God himself, the other of a Form, Image, and Picture of him, as in the next Head. 2. It explains how man fell at first; God made man upright, but he gave up himself to Reasoning, so the word, {αβγδ} Eccl. signifieth, the same word that before is Translated Reason of things. When God made man with such vast appetites in his Soul, he could not suffer them to be empty, he could not make man hungry; if when we awake we are satisfied with his Likeness, there was a content in him; before sin there was an Union and Communion between God and Adam, 2 Cor. 3.18. The Holiness and Righteousness which makes up Uprightness, did flow from the amiable Contemplation of that ravishing Countenance, the light whereof were like the morning Beams in the Soul; but as we find sometimes Sense, sometimes Imagination, and then Reason, or Faith, so at work, as there is a cessation in the exercise of the other: So here Satan throws in suggestions, idaea's, forms, about the external Ordinance, which was a Symbol and Image of Spiritual things, through the intentness and hesitation about this, the Soul slighted and neglected the motions and conduct of that superior Light, which was a quenching and provoking of the Spirit: His being busied about this Reasoning, lost him his Uprightness; and the Spirit of God's indwelling in him, which was the cause of it. 3. It explains how a Profession of Religion is consistent with Atheism in the Heart; Reason has a Form, Image, idea of God, but no acquaintance with himself; they are without God. I have been the larger on this, because the following differences are comprehended in it, and I shall propose them for explaining this.  
2. Faith and Reason differs in Object; Reason apprehends the idea, Forms of Religion; in Faith there is a sensation and feeling of the things themselves; rhey differ as the knowledge of a country by Maps, and by travail and Sight; a Man by Picture and Converse, Flowers by Herbal draughts and walking in the Garden to see the liveliness, savour their refreshing smells, and taste the fruits; thus Job 42. I have heard, now I see. John 14.1. 17.21. and 6.46. a receiving of the Spirit, Christ dwelling in us by Faith, Ephes. 3.17. but on the other hand, Rom. 2. a form of the law, a form of sound words, a form of godliness; What is this but an empty idea and Figure in their Mind? I cannot tell how to explain this fully. 1. There is an Image of truth in their Minds who enjoy the Spirit of God; the power takes not away the form. But, 2. There is a difference in the form; there is a different Picture in my eye from the immediate Person when I converse with him, than from the liveliest Picture of him; God is the immediate Object of him, and in trusting him we consider him as a Person without us; but when there is the Faith, that, is of the operation of God, he doth so present himself to the Soul, and give it views and discoveries of him, that it entertains quiter new thoughts of him; and therefore, though Rom. 1.20. we may know the invisible Attributes of God, from things that are made, by Reason, Heb. 1.6. yet we know him afresh by Faith, and take up new thoughts of his Creation too; all the knowledge becomes new, and this knowledge of God is pleasant to him; by Faith we please God; that could concluded idea doth not please him, for they turn vain in their Imaginations; when they apply the Attributes to an individual Being, they cannot keep from Idolatry, they either form a Spinoza's God, Substance in general, or an Epicurean, a Being like themselves, not caring for little things, or that can take pleasure in carnal things, as the Poet says, In Coelo est turpis adulter, or that can be satisfied with Bribes. But by Faith a man takes pleasure in God himself, the thoughts of him is ravishing, satisfying, delightful; to be spiritually minded is life and peace; the Hypocrite has all his pleasure in Religion from something mixed with it, By-ends, Gain, Credit, Gifts, Notions, as in the Primitive times the Miraculous gifts were pleasant to a Simon Magus; the one is like a Lover smitten with the Person, the other Courts for the Portion; in Love with the Meat for the sauce; hence is he for dying the death of the Righteous, not living their life.  
3. They differ in Subjects, not only as to Persons, 2 Thes. 3.2. all have not Faith that have Reason, Tit. 1.1. it being proper to the Elect; but in Faculties, Rom. 10.10. With the heart man believes. Acts 8.37. With the whole heart; Reason is more seated in the head, Isa. 1.5. The head sick, and the heart faint, Prov. 20.27. the faculties of the Soul are compared to the chambers of the belly. Reason is the outer Court, where things are to be examined, whether to be admitted for ends, or means, or neither; which implies some secret and more intimate center in the Soul: The common distinction in use, is Will and Understanding; Reason is in the Understanding; some place Faith there, some in the Will, some in both; just as Philosophers contend, Whether the Soul flies upon the wings of the vital flamme in the Blood, or if it stretch itself at length thorough all the Nerves, and dwell upon the Spirits; others in the Corpus Cullosum of the Brain; others in the Glandula Pincalis: But I think Cartes's Notion of dividing the Soul in its active and passive respects, is here suitable; that the Soul as passive, is the subject of Faith; but as active, of Reason; or in conformity to the Scripture-stile, this vast capacious craving appetite, that nothing in the world can satisfy but God, is the subject of Faith; and the union, cement, or meeting of them two, is called Faith, forma fidei. The 3. are like Husband, Wife, and Marriage-bond, Subjectum praedicatum& copula. For proof of it; 1. The Scripture describes Faith by eating, drinking, hungering, and thirsting, panting, longing; no simile is sufficient to represent its cravings; eating and hungering are different degrees of Faith; the first view of God awakens the appetite, as the first view of a person may kindle the love of desire. 2dly. It determines it; nothing in heaven or earth but God, Psalm 73. hence a spiritual appetite is a true sign of Faith, or regeneration, as new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word. 2. Faith is that we live by; the Just live by faith. As the body lives by hunger and food, food and fitness to digest it; so the Soul; Christ is the true bread; this appetite is the stomach, eating and digestion is Faith. 3. By Faith we are satisfied; believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable; by sensation, or reflection, nothing can come in for a Soul to live or be satisfied by; but by Faith rest and satisfaction comes: There is a difference between believing God, viz. to be what he really is. 2. And believing what he says, credere Deo, that has his truth for it's Object. 3. And believing on him that has his all-sufficiency, his satisfying fullness for its Object; we rely on him because persuaded of his Ability and Perfection to supply all our Wants, cure all our Maladies, put an end to all our Miseries, and make us perfectly happy; and a suitable capacity to this must be the Subject.  
4thly. In Effects. When a man has Reason only assisted with Scripture, one fruit is an Eristical disputative, School, Lifeless Divinity, all his Divinity is about the Scheme or System, and relations of the words, parables, and similes that Spiritual things are clothed with, To you it is given to understand the things of the kingdom of God; to them that heard the Parables, it is not given; I thank thee, O Father, that thou hast hide these things from the wise and prudemt, and revealed them unto babes, 2 Tim 1.13. 1 Tim 6.4. All their Zeal is spent about some Notion or Question; it becomes a scaffold to their Pride, and a door to their Passion, a Lust of the Spirit as dangerous as a Lust of the Flesh, and more troublesone to all their Neighbours; they set it up for a God, and devote their cunning, interest, and strength to it; they worship it night and day, and count all Atheists that do not.  
But when Faith comes, a power influences the Soul to a new life, 2 Thess. 1.2. the work of Faith with power. 2. Idolatry is a fruit of Reason without Faith, Rom. 1.20,21. Reason gathered from the fabric of the world, the Author to be a God, a Being Powerful, Wise, Good, and worship to be a Duty to him; but when they came to worship, there was no real Being under perception but sensual; Sense and Faith are the two faculties we converse with, realities by Reason, and imagination with Idaea's. Senses do converse with real bodies, feels, sees, hears them; Faith with real Spirits, feels God, tastes his Graciousness, sees his Beauty, hears his Voice and knows it, receives immediate touches and impressions from him; Imagination is like a Dream, a Brain full of Pictures, but they are all bodily and pleasant, or terrible, according to the temper of the Person; Reason is a dream of Spirituals, a formation of Images and Pictures of them, more from our own Tempers; a Silver god one, and a Carnal god another, than the truth of their Natures. 3. Brutality, sensualness, the ideal faculties, subserves the real, and hence when Faith is gone, Reason becomes a slave, a cook, a cater, pimp, and more tool for sense, Rom. 6 9. Reason is one of these members; but when Faith is come, and the Soul converses really with a God, it Spiritualizes all things, it views every thing as representative of God; and this is the difference between Philosophy and Divinity, the one Contemplates the Creatures in their relations to one another, the other in relation to God; a Divine is like one in Love, whatever be the beginning of the story, his Beloved is the end; Christ is the door, the way, water, bread, the every thing to him; all that is good is like him; the other is always abstracting from God, studying the virtue and Power of Second Causes, without thinking on them as God's tools that can do nothing without his ordering 4thly. Byrronisme, a Sceptical Atheism, they want the most convincing Argument of Experience, and from Pride having more reason and knowledge of that kind, they will not admit that any other has more knowledge than himself; with open mouth they confess they never conversed with God, never saw him or heard him; but the Believer can say, I have felt his Power, tasted his Graciousness, savoured his Name as precious ointment; the effects of Faith are so many, and by so many insisted on, I shall desist. 5thly. They differ in Original. Dr. Lock has very notably observed. That Philosophy, yea all natural Idaea's or knowledge, comes from senses or reflection; the Soul sits like a Spider on the web of animal Spirits, peeping through the Eyes, feeling like a blind man with a stick by all the Nerves, harkening at the drum of the Ear, tasting with the Palate, and then studying and discoursing upon each of them. 2dly. She reflects on her self, What am I that am thus imprisoned, so much employed that can use all these senses, that can conclude and observe many things from them, red Lectures on myself, that can feel and grope after a God? Acts 17.27. But the other is of a more divine original, it's the gift of God, God is Author and Finisher of it; this is a third way of receiving knowledge by Divine impression, or infusion; it's a Beam from the Sun of Righteousness; they differ as much as a coal-fire and the day break by oriental rays, and if it were not for some common twilight, hellish darkness would obscure the other, and not leave a thought of God, if it were not in hatred and blasphemy; he is the light that enlightens every one that comes into the world. But this light of Faith is far above that.   

I come now to the second branch: viz. of Faith's being an Instrument of Evidence by way of Argument. Evidence is taken two ways, either for a Natural Evidence, as when I see the Sun through its own Light; or Logical Evidence, when a Truth is made evident by an Argument. I have hitherto insisted on Faith as the greatest Instrument of Light, and this is supposed; for an Argument supposes knowledge, Eph. 5.13. Whatever doth make manifest, is light. John 3.20. He that doth evil comes not to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Apprehension must go before judgement; but {αβγδ}, Light is rather an Argument, a term borrowed from the logic and rhetoric, where it is used so, and most Critical Interpreters translate it so; the word is but once more in the New Testament, 2 Tim. 3.15. And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,( but as properly proof) and so frequently the Verb is translated, to prove or convince, Joh. 8.46. Matth. 18.15. Tell him( but better translated, convince him) Tit. 1.19. Convince the gain-sayers; and as frequently rebuk or reprove, which supposes proof; it is very disorderly to reprove before they convince: Some think it is rather the Conclusion than Argument; the conviction and persuasion from an Argument, than the Argument itself; but the Scripture uses another word, {αβγδ} for that, more properly derived for that signification, 2 Pet. 2.16. He had, or possessed a conviction, in himself; we translate it, was rebuked; and seldom use a word of so narrow a signification, as to exclude significations so nearly connected; therefore it's an Argument with its Conclusion, a mean of Conviction that carries Conviction with it.  
The Sense and Doctrine is thus; That Faith is an Argument by which a Soul is convinced of the truth and reality of things unseen to Sense and Reason, 1 Cor. 2.9. the Scripture has revealed things that ear has not heard, nor eye seen, nor has it entered into the heart of man to consider; but it is by Faith only that a person is fully persuaded and convinced about them; some doubtful jealous Thoughts, some undistinct Dreams about these things they may have, as Pilate's Wife about Christ; but after that Faith is come, they are fully convinced of the truth of this Doctrine; that Faith is an Argument, is manifest from its being a greater degree and kind of knowledge than Reason; for Arguing is the improving and using of perception: Arguments are gathered out of our Knowledge; and to a man's self an instrument of Knowledge is an Argument. When one through a Telescope discovers the Satellitis Jovis, or other small Stars, he is thereby convinced of their being; but the principal Argument I shall prove it by, is from Faith, being an experimental knowledge of these unseen things.  mayor. Experience is a most convincing Argument of the truth and reality of things. Minor. But in spiritual or unseen things Faith is an experience. Concl. Therefore Faith is a convincing Argument of the truth and reality of unseen things. 
The first Proposition is very evident; the chemist, Anatomist, all kind of Artists or Philosophers are for Experiments, it's the Philosophy in fashion; and happy were we, if it were the Divinity in fashion; I mean not like unbelieving Thomas, John 20.25. who would not believe our Lord's Resurrection without seeing and feeling; he is a pitiful Philosopher that doth not experience a higher Faculty and Touchstone of Truth than his Senses. He that is in a Boat, and looking to the shore, says the Land moves, not he; or that putting a Stick, he knew before to be strait, into the water, says it's crooked while there; we find superior Faculties correcting these sensible ones, and therefore their Experience must be more certain than that we hear or see; the Mouth tries Meats, and the Ear sounds, but unseen Faculties are fittest to try unseen things. Conscience, experience in its horrors and torments is an undeniable proof of a day of judgement, and state of punishment after this Life, the Heathens own a Hell on this bottom where the three Furies are, the Scorpion Whips, and flaming Brands of the Dirae are there; they call it a Stigian Lake where perpetual Torment dwells, gnawing Dogs and inquisitive Erynnies inhabit there, all this is concluded from the dreadful earnests of a guilty Conscience within; and never any that felt it in any considerable measure, denied a future state; when it's experienced, it will convince the greatest Atheist of an Hell, and a Devil, though they will not believe a God. A nabuchadnezzar and Belshazzar will then own a supreme Governor; the illegible scratching of a Finger on a Wall will fright them in the midst of their Jollities; it will embitter their Cups, and disrelish all their Delights: Experience is an undeniable Argument; it will faster confirm itself, than all the sceptics of the World can invalidate it; and all that think not themselves Bruits, Swine, will own the Experience of the Soul is surer than that of the bodies; and they are heinously guilty that employ their Soul so universally in serving the Body, that it has no time for such Experiments. As the first Proposition is an universal Axiom, the second is a Definition; and it were sufficient for the Design, to say, I mean by Faith the experience of unseen things: But for further satisfaction I shall divide it in these two brances: 1. Prove that a Saving Experience in unseen and spiritual things, is a notion of Faith consistent with the Scripture: 2. To prove that the Believer has an experience of unseen things in his use of, and converse with the Word of God, and is thereby convinced of these unseen things it doth reveal.  
1. From the nature of Experience: It is a sensible evidence of a thing, as Psal. 48.8. as we have heard, so have we seen, viz. an Experience of God's establishing his Church; there may be an Experiment on the Ear, but here Tradition is opposed to Experience; Experience is a knowledge gathered from our s●nses, but inward sensation and knowledge are more united; something may be before the Eyes, or beat on the Tympanum of the Ear, and we have no knowledge of it through the intentness of the mind on something else; but there is a consciousness that accompanies inward sensation, and therefore inward Experience comprehends all the three, sensation, observation, and knowledge of it, 2 Cor. 13.3. since ye seek a proof( an experience, it's {αβγδ}, the same is rendered; so Rom. 5.4. experience hope) of Christ speaking in me, he bids them examine themselves if they he in the faith; for if they be in the faith, it was by his Ministry, and by the experience of a mighty power of God toward them, v. 5 {αβγδ}, except ye be reprobates, i.e. want this Experience. So that one thing, the efficacy of the Word experienced in their hearts, would be a proof of his Ministry, and their Christianity; the which Experience if they wanted, they were in a woeful condition. V. 6. We are not reprobates; without experience of Christ's speaking in us, I hope better things; for it will follow that you are also, if we be without Christ, so you must be too; but we trust upon examination you will find both; the Experience of Hearers are the Touchstones of the Ministers Office, and Divinity of the Doctrine.  
2. From the nature of Faith; That it is an experience of Divine Influence on the Soul, 2 Tim. 3.8. Reprobate concerning the faith, wanted the Experience that consists in Faith, v. 5. They had a form of godliness, not the power thereof. V. 7. Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth; for no improvement of Reason will beget Faith, v. 8. They resist the truth. Notwithstanding this Orthodox Form, they cannot bear this Spirit of Godliness that reigns in True Believers; here is a plain description of True Believers by experience, as distinguished from formal Professors: The like you red, Tit. 1.16. unto every good work reprobate; without the experience of God's good work on their hearts, or exercised by their hearts; for the goodness lies within the heart, and not in the external fact; Thus men profess they know God, but in truth deny him; they have no true knowledge of God, whatever they profess, since they want experience.  
I may seem to differ from Translators, but the word Reprobates signifies without proof, or cast upon trial and proof; hence Heb. 6.8. it is translated rejected; and it fully agrees with many Interpreters, 1 Cor. 9.27. should be a cast away, says Gr. this is opposed to a Part●ker of the Gospel; what is that, but to experience the Spirit's influe●ce. Calv. without proof; Par. It is not opposed to Elect, but to Sincere, Jer. 6.30. Dickson, That wants experience; and what I value most, the harmonious sense of the Scripture, Rom. 1.28. How easily is that Text of God's giving men up to a reprobate mind, explained, he withdraws his Spirit; so they want the experience of his Conduct and Power.  
I might enlarge this Argument: 1. Faith is an earnest of Heaven, and an earnest is an experiment as well as a security; a taste of that state. 2. Faith is an Argument, 1 John 5.10. He that believeth, hath the testimony in himself: Faith is a testimony to the supernatural Truths of the Gospel, because it's a receiving this influence from God; and this token of his Love in the hearing of it; Faith comes by hearing; and that Spirit usually received was the Spirit of Faith, 2 Cor. 4.8. Ephes. 1. the Spirit of wisdom and revelation; by this experience the Soul believed all delivered, especially about the Son of God: for beside the Unity of Soul and Body in one Person, it now experiences a Soul a created Spirit, living and subsisting by an uncreated; they that are joined to the Lord are one Spirit; it is so swallowed up in God, like a crystal Glass in Sun-beams, however distinct N●tures, nothing visible but reflected or refracted Rays; The life I now live, says Paul, is by faith of the son of God. I do not live, says he, but Christ lives in me, Gal. 2.23. here is experience of his Incarnation. So of his Mediatorial Office, by the returns of Prayer, assistance in, and acceptance of Worship; God doth not countenance Idolatrous Worship, where the Idolatry was but in the manner of Worship, as the Calf in the Wilderness; he rejected it when the Idols were in their hearts, he abhorred it. If any fault or guilt be in worshipping God through a Mediator, it's Idolatry, for Christ the Mediator is an object of our Worship, but we find God accepts us; why? he pours the Spirit of Faith on us, which he doth not to the Jews, who worship not in his name: Though we are at a low ebb, as to this, there remains as much experience in Believers as will evince this Truth; the boldness we find through faith in his Blood at the Throne of Grace, no Soul in the state of Sin feels, when we draw near with an heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience, this confirms his meritorious Death, Col. 2.2. By this we come to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and the Father, and of Christ; by Faith a Soul becomes an Image of the Blessed Trinity, which it is not, nor has without it; for it wants the Image of the Son, until Christ dwell in the heart by faith; and of the Spirit, until believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable; until we have an earnest of satisfaction by beholding his likeness; until Righteousness and Holiness be produced, there is only an Image of Essential Attributes, Spiritualness, Immortality, and of the Father, by Counterposition; our empty Appetite, and his All sufficient Spring of Blessedness: So what the Socinian says is contrary to Reason, the Believer feels harmoniously pictured in his Faith; but this belongs to the second Proposition, That Believers have experience of Spiritual Divine Light and Power through Faith.  
3. From the nature of Spiritual Knowledge; all of it bears the name of Faith; By his Knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, Is. 52. Joh. 17.3. This is eternal life; and this is an experimental Knowledge, Phil. 1.9. In knowledge and all judgement; but the word is {αβγδ}, in all sensation and experience; and the Faculties of our Souls are called Senses, Heb. 5. last. Senses exercised, Phil. 3.10. to know the power of his resurrection, that is, to feel it by their Senses, Col. 2.12. wherein you are also risen through the Faith of the operation of God: So that to know the power of his resurrection, is to feel that operation of God wherein Faith consists; hence this Knowledge is compared to the Senses, 1 Pet. 2.3. tasting the Lord is gracious, Matth. 16.23. savouring the things of God, 2 Cor. 2.14. Savour of his knowledge doth signify both the experimentalness of it, and the smallness, a smell as of a Nosegay; it's more than a painted Flower in an Herbal, because a sensation; but nothing to the Paradisical Garden, where are such quantities for all Senses, 1 John 1.1. it's a feeling, Heb. 10.34. This is a knowing in ourselves that we have in heaven a better and enduring substance: This Knowledge is Faith, because it's an entitling Knowledge, it gives an interest in the things known. And hence we may expound that Text, Jer. 3.34. They shall all know me, for I will forgive their iniquities; Actual pardoning is enduing with Faith, for the gift of that is the Instrument by which he authoritatively signifies to the Soul, pronounces the Sentence, and proclaims the Pardon.  
A 4th Argument is from the immediate effect of the Word of God, as impregnated with the Spirit of God, either with or without Ministerial application; the Word and Spirit are not to be separated, the one as principal, the other as instrumental Cause, Isa. 59. last. The Promise unites Word and Spirit, and conveys them together, My spirit that is upon thee, and my word that is in thy mouth; and 2 Cor. 3,& 4. it's called the ministration of the spirit. Now the general effect of this Word is called, the writing the Law in our hearts and minds, the engrafted word, Jam. 1.21. and our becoming the Epistle of Christ, wrote with the Spirit, and the Words becoming like an Incorruptible Seed, of which we are begotten; and our beholding, as in a Glass, the glorious Image of the Lord. Now all this is the Spirit's worknig faith in the Soul through the Ministry of the Word, illustrated by these several Metaphors: Hence, Heb. 4.1. the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith; the Word is the external Glass; the Spirit of the Lord forms Thoughts and Images in us, suiting these Truths; he by a powerful operation works Faith in us, and then Faith within mixes with the Word without; Faith comes by hearing, it's the general saving effect; they are convinced of the Divinity of the Scripture, a very unseen thing to many that profess it, 1 Thess. 2.13. from its effectual working, that was prop r to Believers, did they receive it as the word of God; and 1 Thess. 1.5. Our gospel came not to you in word only, but also in power, and in the holy ghost, and in much assurance: Its coming in power, made it come in assurance; the Word believed is the first fruit, the Divinity of it is the first sight, through this Faith comes the rest, Col 2.12. our Resurrection is through the Faith of the operation of God, Eph. 1.19. who believe according to the working of his mighty power; that is an evident proof, that the general Fruit of that Divine Efficacy is called Faith, and may be the very operation and efficacy itself, which doth clearly solve the difficulty of our receiving the Spirit by Faith, and Faith being the Fruit of the Spirit; because our receiving him, and he abiding in us, is by this peculiar operation: Faith is the title or term for that particular indwelling or operation, Col. 2.12. the words may be construed thus, By Faith, i.e. the powerful operation of God, Eph. 3.7,8. there is grace or favour by which he was honoured to be so great a Minister; and the gift of Grace, that was ability for the work; the acting of it, or measure, {αβγδ}, they were commensurate, his receiving, and the efficacy of Divine Power; and Rom. 1.5. there is an obedience to Faith, or Subjection, a complying with it, which supposes a commanding swaying power in Faith: So we find ground to believe, that both the general efficacy on the Spirit's part; and effect on ours, bears the name ●f Faith.  
The 2d Proposition, That the B●liever has an experimental knowledge and converse with unseen things. 1. They experience a wonderful Light, Psal. 119.18. Gal. 3.1. Job 41.5. Sights of a God, Christ, the Law, that they never saw before. 2. The● experience most terrible Bruises, Convictions, pain in Spirit, from an Invisible Hand; they complain of broken Bones, bruised Hearts, melted Spirits, terrified Consciences, Psal. 51. Rom. 3.19. 4.15. 5.20. 7.8,9. It may be objected, that Devils and damned Souls experience more of this than Believers, who have not the experimental knowledge of Faith. Resp. 1. Things unseen to man in this state of Security, they see, they believe and tremble, it's called Faith. Resp. 2. They see not the filthiness and vileness of Sin that a Believer doth, and therefore not so much of these; they see not a beauty in Holiness  
3. They experience an attractive, persuasive power to Holiness, and to act for the Honour of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is unseen, unfelt to others, John 6.44. Hos. 11.4. 2.14. Psal. 110. Cant. 2.4.& 3.10. they are in love with the Lord. This name is as Ointment poured forth. 4. A Power to make them part with right Eyes, and Arms, Lusts as dear as their Life, Jer. 23.29. John 17.17. Psal. 37.31.  
1. When they red the Word, it's Spirit and Life, John 6.63. it's sweet as Honey, precious as Gold.  
2. When they converse in Church-fellowship, their hearts are warmed, Luke 24.32.  
3. When baptized, their Conscience answers, and feels a powerful obligation from it, 1 Pet. 3.21.  
4. In the Lord's Supper, their Eye discerns the Body of Christ in all its comfortable Influence.  
5. In Preaching, the secrets of their heart are discovered, 1 Cor. 14.24.  
6. In Prayer, they experience visible assistance and boldness with suitable returns.  
7. The Law and Promises are equally delightful and useful; the one is a Law of Liberty, and the other a Charter of an unseen country, whereof they have an earnest in themselves.  
The Conclusion is, that this Experience is most convincing, 2 Tim. 1.12. I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded. 2 Cor. 4.13. I have believed, therefore have I spoken. 1 John 1.3. That which we have seen, and heard, declare we unto you. As Solomon, when his heart had great experience of Wisdom, and Knowledge, he discovered the visible World's Vanity, Eccl. 1. So when Believers have experience of the Invisible World through Faith, Rom. 5. from 1. to 6. Experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is  shed abroad in our hearts. This Experience confirmed their Hopes, which v. 1, and 2. is Faith, for by that justified, by that access, by that rejoicing in hope; so the gift of Faith was the gift by which that Love was experienced: Love was communicated by giving Faith; this Experience convinces of these Sup●rnatural Truths that are the foundations of the Gospel; the truth of the being of a Mediator, and Jesus being the person, and that Person being God-man, one of the Persons of the Trinity; and of the sweetness of that Fellowship in the Trinity, as is before observed in the first Pro. Arg. 2.   

I come now to the Fourth and Last General Head, viz. That Faith is an Instrument of Conveyance, or entitling to unseen Hopes: Which I shall 1. prove, 2. explain in what respects Faith is so. As to the first: O●der would require that I should first prove this to be the sense of the Text, and then to prove, that it is a truth in itself; but brevity puts me to put both under one. 1. There are these four words in the Text and Doctrine; Substance, Hypostasis, Earnest, and Faith; which I shall propose as four several topics, to prove this Doctrine to be a truth in itself, and the Truth contained in this Text. From,  
1. Substance: Tho. Aq. on this very Text, in his Secunda secundae, says, That Substance is such a beginning of any thing, or Principle, as contains the whole mass virtually in it; and so says he, Principles of Knowledge may be called the Substance of Knowledge; and I find the Scripture using it in this Sense, Psalm 139.15,16. My substance was not hide from thee when I was made in secret;— Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; David calls the embreo of himself in the Womb, his Substance; Isa. 6. last. As an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. The virtue of Leaves, Blossoms and Fruit in the Winter-time, when they are all gone, remaining in the three, is called their Substance; and so the Seed of Grace in a backsliding Believer, or a small Remnant in a day of general backsliding, in relation to a following revival or harvest of Conversion, is called the Substance of it, and an Earnest is of the very same nature; for it is a little part of the whole mass, that by legal connection contains the whole in it.  
2. Hypostasis, which is the word in the Original, doth properly signify, that which doth sustain, establish, or confirm a thing; it is translated, Judges 6.4. Sustenance. Job 22.20. Substance, Ezekiel 26.11. a Garrison. Psalm 39.7. Hope. So whether it be used in Nature, Art, or Morality, it signifies that which upholds; it is used Five times in the New Testament, and in four of them, 2 Cor. 9.4 11.7. H b. 3.14 and in this Text it signifies most properly a Principle or Foundation, a Foundation of boasting; the fifth place. Heb. 1.3. it is T●anslated Persons, but according to Chrysostom●'s Comment on the place, ●ot much differing from the former, {αβγδ}: The Father is Self-su●sistant, and needs nothing to a subsistence; the Son subsists by him as the Ch●racter or Image by the Person it represents; so he is of the same Essence or Nature with him. The Latin Church did long hold only one Hypostasis in their Creed. The signification of the word Faith, according to its Etymology by Clem. Alex. storm. Lib. 4. p. 513. {αβγδ}. and Theod. Therop. p. 479. {αβγδ} that which establishes and upholds the Soul; hence it's called an Anchor, Heb. 6.19. and Rom. 11.20. Because of unbeli●f they were broken off, and thou stand●st by faith; and 2 Cor. 1.24 Not for that we have dominion over your faith, for by faith we stand: Now it is by virtue of Faith being an Earnest, or of an entitling natu e, that it becomes a support or establishment to the Soul; for by our viewing of the Promises, how great, and how suitable things they contain, and who made them, his Ability and Fidelity, we come to be persuaded that they are sure; yet they had brought no comfort or establishment to our Souls, if God had not established this Law, That he who believes them hath a right to them; and that he who hath given Faith thereby, hath taken hold on us, as well as we on him; Philippians 3.12. That I may apprehended that for which also I am apprehended of Christ J●sus: So since Hypostasis is that which doth support and establish any thing, and Faith is that by which the Soul stands and is established, Faith is the Soul's Hypostasis; and since it's only established by that which gives it a right to Hope for unseen things, Faith is an earnest of them, and Hypostasis signifies it being so.  
3. An Earnest: It's a word that runs through many Languages Eastern and Western, and it's root, {αβγδ} Gharab, is of very many significations, but they are thought among Philologists to be derived from, and agreeing in this one signification, viz. To unite, or mix; hence as Gharba respects our legal Union with Christ, it's called a Surety: H●b. 7.23. Verse, for so the word in the Syriac is; and as it respects our Spiritual Union, it's called an Earnest, and is applied to the Spirit, 2 Cor. 1.22. and given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts; the word is Translated Earnest, Pawn, or Pledge, as Genes. 39.17. or Love-token, for {αβγδ} the Ring in Marriage, and all other precedent E●pous●ls have this name, and all agree in this common nature, to secure or confirm; but there are these three Particulars wherein an Earnest strictly taken differs from the former; 1. A Pawn or Pledge ought to be as much worth, or more, than that for which 'tis made a Security; but an Earnest is but a little part, {αβγδ}, says Chrys. and the Fathers argue it backward and forward; and how great is then the Possession, if all the Grace in Faith be but an Earnest? says Oecum. on Rom. 3.13. Says another, either a Believer must enjoy Heaven, or God will lose his Earnest; but that cannot be, for Luke 10.41. Mary has chosen the better part, which shall not be taken from her. John 14.16. He gives the Comforter that he may abide with you for ever. 2. An Earnest is part of payment; a Pawn is to be restored, says Isid. Lib. 5.20. Indeed Faith is to be changed for Vision; and the Scripture says, Now abideth faith; but that Change is of that kind which the Apostle speaks of, when he says, That which is in part is done away, when th●t which is perfect c●mes; for Christ dwells in, and enters the heart by faith; Christ and the heart are united by that Cement, and the Bond will never be broken; he will never leave his House he dwells in, or leave off to be worshipped in that Temple. 3. An Earnest is something of the same kind, which necessary follows from the former, and is further confirmed by the name of First-fruits, that faith so frequently bears in Scripture, Rom. 8.32. and Substance, Heb. 10.34. Knowing in yourselves that ye have a better and enduring substance; or {αβγδ}, or {αβγδ}, for Theod. defines Hypostasis by {αβγδ}, in opposition to {αβγδ}; so Faith being called a Substance, or Hypostasis, is in opposition to the things of this World, that are transitory, vanishing, accidental, Chrys. Hom. 20. ad Rom. Riches, Glory, Be●uty, Pleasures, or whatever is esteemed great in this World, are all a show, a Se●nic●l Stage-affair; but spiritual things are real Beings of a more s●lid and abiding nature. The 4th Argument is from Faith, and it is comprehensive of many: For 1. the manner of Conveyance is called Hold or tenor, Freehold, Cop●hold, Lease, &c. Faith in Scripture is called Hold. ●… m. 4.16. It is of faith that it might b● by 〈◇〉; Christ by Will has l●ft us a large Est te, but it is like Copyh●l●, i● 〈◇〉 b● taken out in the Court of the Superior Lord of the Man●or; and they that will not hold s● sh●ll never possess, Rom. 9 31,32. Have not attained th●r●f●re, b●… use th●y sought it not by faith; Justification is a part of it, and that is Rom. 3.28. by faith, without the deeds of the Law; it is very observable, that Hold or tenor in Law is called Fee, or Faith; they are the same word by a Sp●nish or French Dialect, the one says fe, the other foy, for faith, and fie, he believed; hence we call Estates Fee-simple, Fee-tale, Fee-farm, fealty or fides being the Condition, whether of Allegiance to the King, or homage when to an inferior Lord; and the Tenant is Feoffee, the Lord the Feoffer, the Rites Feoffment, and the Latin feudum is from fidem also. So the Case of Holds and tenor is a simile and metaphor of this our right to Heaven by faith, though with many dissimilitudes in the one giving faith, or fulfilling the Condition in the other; receiving faith in the one, a virtuous faith in doing in the other, a firm trusting what God has promised to do. 2. That gives right, suo modo, which has the Promises annexed to it, Rom. 10.9. Heb. 10.39. Gal. 3.7,9. 1 Cor. 1.21. Acts 13.39. 3. The spirit of Faith bears the name of earnest, 2 Cor. 4.13. So he is called, 2 Cor. 1.21. 5.5. Eph. 1.14. and that on a double account; 1. as he secures the Estate, 2. as he assures the Person; the first is in working faith, the second is in sealing faith, or bearing witness that we believe; for the truth of this red first, John 14.16,17,20. there was a Spirit dwelling in them, and yet a Spirit promised to them; a Spirit the world could not receive, because he was not in the world; it was the same Spirit they had in them that was promised to them; and because the world possessed him not after the first manner, they could not receive him after the second manner, for the world could receive him after the first kind: The two kinds of inhabitation are thus distinguished; by the first they knew Christ and his Spirit, v. 17, 19. This is faith, the evidence of things not seen; by the 2d they knew this mutual inhibition, you shall know that you are in me, and I in you. By the first, V. 6. they kept the Commands, were sanctified: By the 2d they enjoyed a peace, V. 27. that the world was not acquainted with. Compare 2dly, Acts 15.8. John 3.33. He that hath received his testimony, that is, believed, hath set to his seal, that God is true: That the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the w●rd of the gospel, and believe; and God which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost. So the Spirit, as he works fai h, secures the Inheritance, receives God's Testim●ny, knows him; as he assures the person, he gives the person the knowledge he has faith; by the one we set our Seal that God is true, by the other he seals us to be true Believers. 4. The Title of Faith, it is called, H●b. 3.14. the beginning, or principle of confidence; Phil. 1.6. H● that hath begun a good work will perfect it; so it being the beginning, becomes, through the Promise, a foundation to confidence, an Anchor of hope; Christ in us, is the earnest of God's being all in all. The Scripture asserts these things of Faith, that no Instrument of Conveyance, but an Earnest, can answer; as 1. Possession of the Estate, John 3.36. 5.24. 1 Tim. 6.12. 2. The affection of Joy that attends possessi●n, 1 Pet. 1.8. Rom 12.12. Rom. 5.2.   

This being proved, that Faith is an Instrument of entitling to Heaven by way of an Earnest, it's like the bunch of Grapes tht the Spies brought long after the Promise, and a little before the Possession. There remains one Proposition more to be explained, to wit, in what respects Faith does give right to the unseen hoped-for things; there are but these two respects, to wit, actively or passively, that all the sever●l Parties and Opinions may be reduced unto. First actively; Papists, Socinians and Arminians, though they differently explain the Hypotheses, agree in this, That Faith justifies as it is a work, though they do not say that the exercise of Faith is so noble a work above the exercise of other Graces, and therefore they commonly join Love and Repentance with it; but by virtue of Divine Promise that is of free Grace in a peculiar manner annexed to that Work; that though the Work itself is not better than others, God of his sovereign Pleasure hath pitched upon it, rather than others, partly from his own sovereignty, and partly from its fitness. The Socinians say, this gives right without respect to Christ's Merits; the others say, it doth receive its virtue from Christ's Merits; but this they agree in, that it is its work and exercise that gives the right immediately, against which I propose these Arguments. 1. That the Scripture says, if it be of Works, it's of Debt, and not of Grace; but if it be of Faith, as it is a work, it is of Works. 2. The Scripture says, we are justified without Works, To him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly. 3. If as a Work, then whatever be the Object, Faith should give right. For instance, We believe the Creation, the Deluge, and the great achievements of the Worthies of the Old Testament by a Faith depending upon the Testimonies of Divine Authority, and some Persons Faith are under as laborious an exercise in believing of this, as in believing of God's special favour toward them; why then should not this Faith justify, or give a right to the Inheritance, as well as faith in Christ? why then should not the faith of a Jew, as well as the f●ith of a Christian? 4. If faith, as a work, give right and title, then the more of faith, the more of the work there is, the larger should be the Interitance. 5. The exercise of Love is of a more noble and Divine Nature; the Apostle says, the greatest of these is charity; in Love we imitate God, but not in Faith; for he puts not trust in his saints, nor doth he receive of any. Lastly, For a great deal is already said against this before-hand; it will either exclude Infants. Fools, and distracted Persons from Heaven, or it will make an alteration in the Law of Heaven, to wit, that they are saved without Faith.  
Therefore I shall with the common bulk of Protestants assert, That Faith passiv●ly taken, gives right, which comprehends under it these four Respects: 1. As a gift; 2. with respect to its Object; 3. with respect to the Institution about it; 4. with respect to its fitness. 1. It gives right, as it is the gift of God; and this is the very letter of Scripture, Eph. 2.8. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works. Faith is partly of God, partly of us; as to the work or exercise, it is in us, and some way of us; but as to the being and gift of it, it's wholly of God: The Text says here, It saves us, not as it is of us, but as it is of God. 2. This is necessary included in its being the substance of things hoped for; for being of the same nature with them, a first fruit and earnest of them, it is the Seller and Donor's part to give the earnest, not the Receiver. 3. It gives right, as it unites us to Christ, in whom the right is; Heirs of God, and coheirs with Christ: But God's gift of faith is an uniting us to Christ, Gal. 3.24. To bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 1 John 5.12. He that hath the son, hath life; and he that hath faith, hath the Son, for Christs dwells in the heart by faith, and that indwelling is the earnest. Col. 1.27. Christ in you the hope of glory; and the giving of faith, Gal. 1.16. is a revealing his son in us, and a causing us to behold his glorious image. 2 Cor. 3.18. and 4.9. Christ shining in the heart, is the light of the glorious Gospel. And Gal. 4.19. This Gift is called a forming of Christ in us.  
4. From the very nature of the thing; Christ is the Author and Finisher of Faith, the work of it in the Soul is wholly his; it's a Faith of the operation of God, and in it is such a work of his special Grace, and such a manifestation of his peculiar Favour and Love, that must necessary carry along with it the Possessor's complete Blessedness, though dispensed by the measures of Infinite Wisdom; the Gospel saying, That whosoever hath faith shall be saved; and it likewise saying, that that God is the whole auth●r of it, it does consequentially say. They to whom he gives this Gift shall be saved.  
5. It puts a probable Sense on that Text, Rom. 4. His faith is counted, or imputed to him for righteousness: The usual Exposition is Faith objectively; that is, Christ, or his Righteousness is reckoned to us for a Righteousness; others cry shane on this Exposition is Faith Christ? Was not the Question, Are w● ju●… ified by faith or work? not by our Works, or anothers; Says not the Text, Abraham's believing was imputed? The force of such Argum●nts carries Gomarus, Tuckney and ●itcarn, all great and sound Protestants, to assert that Faith itself is here imputed, i.e. reputed, ut qu●, their sense is, that God esteems Faith by reason of his own Constitution, as that by which we lay hold on, and thereby are interested in the Righteousness of Christ; they think ( eis) denotes the final, not the formal Cause; Faith is reputed of God to h●ve Righteousness as its effect and end, to which it is an Instrumental Cause. The third Opinion, which is Armin. and Socin. Faith by gracious accepting of a Penny in the Pound, is counted our Gospel-Righteousness; or by Gospel-Constitution is our Righteousness. I think it is as capable of this fourth Sense; Faith is given of God to give right, our Righteousness by the Law gave right. Now God's gift of this Faith doth For 1. a gracious Imputation is a Donation, and this Imputation is gracious. 2. Rom. 5. There is a gift of Righteousness that is by Imputation, since it inheres in another. 3. There is a gift of Faith, I would draw this sense out of them; The gift of Faith is the g●… t of Righteousness by imputation; God reckons it so by virtue of his Constition. 2. There are several ways of giving right. 1. The Scripture, the Promises; they are the Charter, the Writings. 2. The precious Blood of Christ; that is the Price, the Money. 3. The Circumstances of Seisin and Infeofment; this is the gift of Faith; God sets down in his Book this gift, to fill that room.  
6. It agrees with what I proposed on the Romans, viz. That it is a Symbolical Instrument of our Pardon, Acts 26.18. That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance am●ng them that are sanctified through faith. Faith is an Instrument of Conveyance to both, and after the same manner. Now Instruments of Seisin bear the same relation to the Inheritance that a Symbolical Sentence doth to the Privilege of Pardon; and as harmoniously with the Gospel's being a Disposition of Grace.  
7. Ambianat. says, the difference between Faith and Works, so much insisted on by the Apostle, consists in this; in Epist. ad Rom. p. 174. Nec tam opus quam munus utpote Dei donum gratisque collatum, &c. We are said to be justified by faith, not works, because faith is the gift of God. When God gave him Faith, he called him a Friend, for that was a gift of his special Grace and Goodness. And on the 4th Verse before he opposed Work and Gift, now Worker and Believer; and when ungodly, by this Gift indues him with his own Righteousness, p. 175. To believe, is not to work, but {αβγδ}, to suffer a Divine Impression; we are Vessels, that gift is, a Divine Infusion; or we are like the Air, that gift like the light in the Air.  
2. In respect of the Object; it does not give right by virtue of its Exercises or Work, but as it is the cement, by which the Soul is united to, and interested in Christ: For first, Its Exercise is Reception, and the Beggars hand only enriches by virtue of the Gift; the Rich-man's hand only nourishes by virtue of the Food he eats. 2. Because the Scripture ascribes the Blessings to Faith only, as terminated upon such an Object as Christ, or Christ's Blood; It's worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came to save sinners: And Rom. 3.25. God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. 3. The Sacraments, which are the Visible Gospel, represents the Case so to us; for Faith is our eating and drinking, or hungering and thirsting, rather abstracting from the Object; it's the Bread and Wine that nourishes and refreshes, not the hungering and thirsting. 4. The Faith of Miracles is a distinct Representation of this Case both as to Gifts and Object, Acts 3.16. The faith which is by him, hath given him this perfect soundness. This Cure is as distinctly ascribed to Faith here, as the Remission of Sins, Righteousness or Inheritance is attributed to saving Faith; and yet we see from this very Text, that it was the Name of Christ wrought the Cure, not the faith. His Name; Through faith in his name hath made this man strong. Acts 14.9. Perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said, Stand upright. Some may wonder how any good faithful man should have ever died in the Apostles days, since they had the Gift of miraculous Cures; but this Text tells us, that Gift was limit●d, to whom God gave the Gift of miraculous Faith. None can reasonably doubt, that that Faith was the Gift of God, and the Apostle bids the lame man Sta●d u●right, because he perceived God had given him that Gift, so that the miraculous Cure representing how the blessing of the Inhe●itance is attri●uted to the mir●culous Faith, shows that it is partly in r●sp●ct to the Gift, partly in respect to the Object.  
3. Divine Institution ●ont●ibutes also to Faith's Instrumentality; Adam in his Innocency had both an Union and Communion with God, but that was no Earnest of the Perpetuity or Perfection of it; for the Constitution was conditional, but the Covenant of Grace runs thus, When God hath begun a good work, he will perfect it; and Faith is the beginning of this good work. Hence the Succession of Gospel-grace, is Rom. 11.7. said to be from Faith to Faith. 2 Cor. 3. it is said to be from Glory to Glory; so that all Grace, with respect to Heaven, is called Glory; all Grace with respect to this State, is called Faith; for the beginning is Faith, and the end is Glory: And all that lies between is a growth, and receives its name from either Extremes. Faith is the immediate work of the Spirit, for all the other works are said to be thorough it, even our Regeneration, Coloss. 2.12. and the many Invitations in the Gospel of coming to Christ, receiving Christ, and believing in Christ, are Declarations of the graciousness of his Constituti●n. We are invited to Faith, as if it were our rest and end. Hence it is called Salvation, who have saved us, and called us; that in the effectual call Salvation is begun, Eph. 2.9. By grace ye are saved: There is a great difficulty how we should be commanded to believe, since it's impossible to us, for it's wholly the gift of God. But there is this two-fold solution to it, that the prophetic style is not limited to either mode, terms or person, or such kind of circumstance of speech, as Glassius in his Philology doth illustrate by all kind of Instances; and therefore these Commands may be expounded bare Declarations of the graciousness of the Gospel Institution, That he wills all to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth: And a second Solution is, That these Declarations are Ministrations of the Spirit; so that when the Apostle bid the Lame man stand up, G d gave him strength to stand up; this Precept was but a kind of Declaration, or a proclaiming that it was the Name of Christ had cured this m●n.  
4. Its Instrumentality is founded on its fitness, Rom. 4.16. It is of faith that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure. First, It's fit to glorify Grace, because an earnest on God's part, being the Condition, all is given, and all is of Grace. Secondly, It's fit for making the Promise sure, because that which secures the Inheritance, depends on the Infallible God; and this would be much more conspicuous, if we could clearly distinguish what is ours, and what God's in his first operation of Faith. And 1. For what is ours by nature there is a vast appetite, a kind of infinite emptiness; for nothing can fill it but what is infinite. 2. From Corruption; there is a delusion upon this Appetite, the Soul being in darkness, cries, Who will show us any good? and like a blind man sinking in some dangerous place, catches hold on any thing that's next, whether helpful, or hurtful; so God being a far off, the World being near to us, though all its Pleasures are like splinting Reeds, yet we lay hold on it; and when one thing fails, we catch hold on another, until the Soul being wearied in the search, begins to despair, and cry, There is no such thing as satisfaction or rest to be had, and th●t we are born to be deluded or tormented; but now and then, he who enlightens every one that comes into the world, convinces of Sin, and makes the Soul conclude there was a rest, there might have been a satisfaction attained, but it's forfeited and lost, and this augments the despair; this is all in us; for we cannot contribute any thing to Faith. But 2. What is on God's part: 1. To pass by the sending of his Gospel, through the hearing of which Faith comes. 1. He awakens this Appetite that is either stupefied through the opium of Sense, or deluded through its corrupt Conclusions. 2. He determines this Appetite, Acts 16.14. so much is imported in the opening of the heart through the Glass of the apostles Doctrine, there was proposed a glorious Image of a Crucified Lord in their room and stead, not only externally to the Ear, but the Scheme wrote by the Spirit immediately on the mind; if there be any activity in us, it is to oppose and impede; we are made willing; God doth nor barely concur and assist in the production of Faith, he is the Author of it, it's wholly his gift, of his operation. I have been often puzzled how to form a true notion of what I have felt, when through great loss of blood I have not been able to form an orderly and serious thought, or reduce into distinct Ideas what I would beg of God; yet I have felt my Soul full of quiet, peace, mightily satisfied with my Condition, pleased with the prospect of God's love, and of being nigh a more full enjoyment of it. But in short, this is my difficulty, how I could be under so much consolation as I have been, without distinct thoughts; the truth which it confirms me in, is our passiveness with respect to Divine Influence, though there is more in it than I can reduce to proper terms. 3. It's apt from the nature of its exercise( as by the gift of it God apprehends us, so by the exercise of it we apprehended his all-sufficiency, for trusting and depending is for good and all) as a mean to the end, Christ in us the ●… pe of glory. His being in us by Faith, is fit to entitle his being in us by Vision; faith in him is a fit earnest for vision of him; eating is a fit mean for nourishing, and receiving for enriching; but this being much insisted on in most Books on this Subject, I the less enlarge upon it, not because the least of Instrumentality consists in it; for though it may satisfy us that God has appointed it, his Institutions are founded on greatest Reason and deepest Wisdom.   

I shall put an end to this Treatise with these Five Conclusions or Aphorisms.  
1. The Terms of Art being applied to Divine things, are generally metaphorical, or at least not wholly univocal; when they are used in their own element, there is a great difficulty to apply them right. For inst●n●e. If the Seeds of Corn be instrument, efficient, or material cause of Corn, St●lk and Ear. So when we call Faith an Instrument, it cannot be expected that that term should swallow up the whole use of faith as to our Salv●tion and Justification, or that every particular belonging to Instruments Natural or Artificial should be applic●ble to Faith, it is a good Rule of Interpretation, that many Metaphors are used to ●epresent the same things by reason of dissimilitude in each; and the second Rule is very useful too, That Metaphors are of a first and second rank. Christ is c●lled a King, and a lion; the latter is a Metapor, the former is more proper; and yet the common notion of a King d●th not comprehend Christ's headship.  
2. Faith may be c●lled a conditio sine qua non, with respect to our Justification and Adoption, or right to the Inheritance, because it is necessary to them; we cannot be justified nor adopted without E●ith, but since conditio sine qua non implies a denial of all causality, and all use and subserviency for the end or effect; and having only the place of a necessary and concommitant presence, it doth not comprehend all Faith's influence in this affair, nor distinguish its peculiar use from Regeneration, Repentance begun, and therefore this term is more proper to them.  
3. Of any term of Art I think an Instrument is the most proper to denote Faith's influence in this affair; for it not only partakes of the general nature of an Instrument, to wit a passive fitness to subserve the end being acted or used. A Magnifying Gl●ss or Prospective has not greater fitness to help our weak Eye, than Faith our weak Understanding; our eating is not a gre●ter fitness to subserve our Life. He●lth and Strength, than Faith has to streng●hen and establish our Hearts in the way of Holiness; for the vast Appetite of our Soul is the capacity of F●ith, and the determination of it on God is the exercise of Faith; this is our spiritual eating; Appetite before the Fall gave right to Satisfaction, else Infinite Goodness and Justice could have made a Creature miserable, yea, in a Hell, before he h●d sinned: By Sin we did forfeit this Right, and our Craving Appetite makes our just Hell; but through our great Redeem●r this Right is restored, and by his gift of Faith the due exercise of it, for that turns the desire towards him alone; the Faith of Miracles had not a greater fitness, to entitle to a Cure, and to distinguish between them who were and were not to be healed, than saving Faith doth for that end: Not only doth Faith partake of the general nature of any Instrument, but a likeness to many particular kinds, to wit, Instrument of Sight, Instrument of War; Faith is a Shield, Instrument of Life, and that under all these Metaphors; The Scripture represents a Ch●isti●n Life under: Instruments of Seizing, Infeofment, or tenor, It is of faith that it might be of grace; but I think Appetite is the most proper and comprehensi●e of any; desiring, Looking, Longing Thirsting, Hung●ring, are the common terms in Scripture; Batah signifies both to Believe, and to A●k, and hence some derive both {αβγδ} and p●… o.  
4. I do think a Legal and Federal Condition is a te●m both offensive and d●ngerous: First offensive because it is a Character and Mark of the Socinian and Arminian Doctr●ne, and doth distinguish them from sound Protestants, who in their Confessions and Catechims use the term Instrument in opposition to it; and if they use this term in an●ther sense than Arminian and Socinian, they take pleasure to offend th●… Fri nd●, and gr●tify their Foes, and give occasion to them that seek for Divisions, and look for h●… thing, to find their desire; it is dangerous, because people are apt to comp●re the Term● they hear in the Pulpit with them they use in the Market, if ●r●m thence bor●owed; and hence conclude the Covenant of Grace to be a very good Ba●gain, they can buy Heaven at a cheap rate, and have the Reward of Glory for a little Service; and Christ was our very kind Friend, when made by God Arbitrator, to make the Terms so easy for us; but I grant that Conditionality with respect to the Covenant, as well as Instrumen●… lity with respect to Justification and Adoption, are often appli●d to F●i●h; and I shall sum up the sense of it in my apprehehension in this distinction; They distinguish between Conditi●nem f●… d●… is& faderal, or between the Condition of the covenant and of the Covenantees; or thus, between a Condition in o●d●r to Right and in order to Possession; or thus, the first benefi● of the Covenants are absolute, to wit, effectual calling, Regeneration, Faith; t●e latter are condition●l: Or thu●, The being in Covenant is absolute, or rather relative, but thereby we are brought under Obligation or Condition One may easily see that all these Term● of Distinction is to one and the same purpose, and I may thus expl●in it very agree ble to their Sense. Faith in the first respect is an Instrument; in the second resp●… t, together with Repentance and sincere Obedience, it is a Condition; in the first respect Faith's peculiar use, as distinct from all other Gr●ce and Obedience, consists; in the second it is a wo●k common with others: Effectual Calling is the giving of Faith; by this Call or Gift he apprehends us, and by our exercise of Faith we apprehended him; these are but respective N●mes of the same cem●nt and union between Christ and our Soul●; and this is also by a Divine Comment a mutu●l Covenanting between God and Man; for he says this is his Covenanting, the pouring out of his Spirit, the writing of his Law in o●r hearts, the giving of F●ith; and what i● our covenanting but believing, which is a receiving of thi● Impressure, together with necessary Em●nations towards God, that it doth influence the Soul unto, and the const●nt exercise ●nd motion that is in this vital or living Cement or Bond, as it reflects and rebounds toward each extreme, is a perpetu●l Covenanting, and its initiation is the preventing Mercy of God; we were obliged to obey the whole Law of God before God's bringing us under this blessed Bond; but after this we are under a new Obligation, our duty is a Condition, as it doth respect this Covenant, and 'tis called Obedience with respect to the Law. Now covenant is comprehensive of all the gracious Relation between God and us; being justified, and being adopted, are but the two Branches of being in the Covenant of Grace; and as Faith's Relation is instrumental in order to being in Covenant; so it is instrumental to Justification and Adoption; as good Works follow Justification, so do they, being in Covenant, viz. Conditions of one, and Fruits of another, both lay obligation for it, and give ability to it; and hence we learn, that the Condition of the Covenant of Grace is but a Conditio sine qua non, and not properly a Leg●l or Federal Condition, for these Conditions are in order to right those in order to possession: Faith's Instrumental with respect to Right, but Faith's a Condition with respect to our Possession. I once heard the Reverend Mr. How excellently illustrate it by the Redemption of a Slave in Agiers; The Friend that paid the Randsome-money has performed the Federal Condition, but the poor Slave's pains in returning by Sea and Land is the Conditio sine qua non, in order to the enjoyment of this purchased Redemption; and more lately all right to the Blessing is in Christ, all fitness for the Blessing is from the Spirit. And hence, tho the Covenant of Redemption and Grace b● distinct Covenants in an abstract and contemplative Consideration, and have the distinct Conditions, Christ's Righteousness the one, and ours the other, yet the one is but the manner of the application of the other, as all the Protestant Systems and Schemes commonly represent the Case under the three-fold Grace of God, the Grace of Election, Redemption, and Application, and a serious Soul feels it so in its practise, when in the exercise of Prayer, Faith and Repentance, it doth eye the precious Blood of Christ, as the rich Price for the plentiful Redemption; it never reflects upon any thing in itself as a Plea, all its work is conce●ned in applying, and bringing home as much of that which is already agreed upon, and paid for, as ever it can. So though these two Conditions of the Covenant of Grace, and the Covenant of Redemption, bear the same name, both are Conditions, both are Righteousness; yet they are not of the same kind, the one is in order to purchase, the other is in order to possession; the one is a Legal Condition, the other is a Condition sine qua non. I will propose this one Distinction more on this Head, said sub Censura, with respect to the different Subjects, to wit, the Elect, and others; it is with respect to the one properly Conditional, to the other more of a Relative Nature; or shall I say it is offered Conditionally, and performed Relatively. We preach to the Wicked, If they believe and repent, they shall be saved: And as the great Mr. Durham says, Though the Spirit gives them not ability, the Offer gives them right; but when the Spirit enables any Elect person to perform this Condition, or rather perform it in them, it puts off the nature of a Condition, and puts on the dress of a mean, or medium, because it is performed more by the Spirit than by them: At the General judgement the Trumpet of God sounds an Alarm to all the Dead, but the Righteous in the first order only receive ability.  
5. I shall conclude with this safe Advice to thee who art a more weak and ignorant Christian. 1. Use all means to attain Faith, working in and about thy Salvation; faith comes by hearing, exercise Faith, try Faith, and keep from these two extremes of Legallism and Libertism, and thou art safe; the one is so vile, a man that hath true Grace can hardly be guilty of it, and that makes me less fear Antinomians; the other is more dangerous, a good man may be more liable to that, which may mar his Comfort, and keep him in fear and danger all his days, than to turn profane, and pluck up the Roots of both virtue and Grace: Thus far, even so far as my present light serves me, I have given thee this Essay on the Subject; the occasion was because I know none designedly treating of it. An Ingenuous Reader will not expect perfection in an Essay; and the Writer is very sensible of not only capacity, but need of amendment: A very neat Poet could say,  Cum relego scripsisse pudet—  
THE END.