demonstrate it in disputation. The sum of the whole is this: that Christ, when he illuminates us with faith by the power of his Spirit, at the same time ingrafts us into his body, that we may become partakers of all his benefits. XXXVI. It next remains, that what the mind has imbibed, be transfused into the heart. For the word of God is not received by faith, if it floats on the surface of the brain; but when it has taken deep root in the heart, so as to become an impregnable fortress to sustain and repel all the assaults of temptation. But if it be true that the right apprehension of the mind proceeds from the illumination of the Spirit, his energy is far more conspicuous in such a confirmation of the heart; the diffidence of the heart being greater than the blindness of the mind; and the furnishing of the heart with assurance, being more difficult than the communication of knowledge to the understanding. Therefore the Spirit acts as a seal, to seal on our hearts those very promises, the certainty of which he hath previously impressed on our minds, and serves as an earnest to confirm and establish them. "After that ye believed," says the apostle, “ 'ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance." (q) Do you see how he shews that the hearts of the believers are impressed by the Spirit, as by a seal? How, for this reason, he calls him "the Spirit of promise," because he ratifies the Gospel to us? So, to the Corinthians, he says, "He which hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." (r) And in another place, where he speaks of the confidence and boldness of hope, he makes "the earnest of the Spirit" (s) the foundation of it. XXXVII. I have not forgotten what I have already observed, and the remembrance of which experience incessantly renews, that faith is agitated with various doubts; so that the minds of the pious are seldom at ease, or at best enjoy not a state of perpetual tranquillity. But whatever assaults they may sustain, they either emerge from the very gulf of temptation, or remain firm in their station. This assurance alone nourishes and supports faith, while we are satisfied of what is declared by the Psalmist, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present (s) 1 Cor. v. 5. (9) Eph. i. 13. (r) 2 Cor. i. 21. help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the "(t) This most delightful repose is celebrated also in another Psalm, "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me." (u) Not that David enjoyed a happy cheerfulness of soul perpetually flowing on in one even tenour; but having tasted the grace of God according to the proportion of his faith, he glories in intrepidly despising whatever could disquiet the peace of his mind. Therefore the Scripture, intending to exhort us to faith, commands us to "be quiet." In Isaiah, "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." (w) In the Psalms, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” (x) With which corresponds the observation of the apostle to the Hebrews, "Ye have need of patience." (y) XXXVIII. Hence we may judge, how pernicious that dogma of the schoolmen is, that it is impossible to decide concerning the favour of God towards us, any otherwise than from moral conjecture, as every individual may deem himself not unworthy of it. If it must be determined by our works how the Lord is affected towards us, I admit we may attain this object by a very slight conjecture; but as faith ought to correspond to the simple and gratuitous promise, there remains no room for doubting. For with what confidence, pray, shall we be armed, if we reason that God is propitious to us on this condition, provided the purity of our life deserve it? But having determined on a separate discussion of these points, I shall pursue them no farther at present; especially since it is manifest that nothing is more opposite to faith than either conjecture or any thing else approaching to doubt. And they very mischievously pervert to this purpose the observation of the Preacher, which is frequently in their mouths, "No man knoweth whether he is worthy of hatred or of love." (2) For not to observe that this passage is falsely rendered in the Vulgate translation, yet the meaning of Solomon, in such expressions, must be clear even to children; it is, that if any one wishes, from the present state (1) Psalm xlvi. 1, 2. (u) Ibid. iii. 5. (w) Isaiah xxx. 16. of things, to judge who are the objects of divine love or hatred, he labours in vain and distresses himself to no good purpose; since "there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not." (a) Whence it follows that God neither testifies his love to those whom he prospers with success, nor invariably discovers his hatred against those whom he plunges into affliction. And this observation is designed to reprove the vanity of the human understanding; since it is so extremely stupid respecting things most necessary to be known. He had just before said, "that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast." (b) If any one would infer from this, that the opinion which we hold of the immortality of the soul rests upon mere conjecture, would he not be deservedly deemed insane? Are those persons, then, in a state of sanity, who conclude that there is no certainty of the favour of God, because it cannot be attained from the carnal contemplation of present things? XXXIX. But they plead that it is rash presumption in men to arrogate to themselves an undoubted knowledge of the divine will. This indeed I would concede to them, if we pretended to subject the incomprehensible counsel of God to the slenderness of our understanding. But when we simply assert with Paul, that "we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God:" (c) what opposition can they make to us, without at the same time insulting the Spirit of God? But if it be a horrible sacrilege to accuse the revelation which proceeds from him either of falsehood, or of uncertainty, or of ambiguity, wherein do we err in affirming its certainty? But they exclaim, that we betray great temerity, in thus presuming to boast of the Spirit of Christ. Who could believe the stupidity of men desirous of being esteemed teachers of the world, to be so extreme as to stumble in this shameful manner at the first elements of religion? It would certainly be incredible to me, if it were not proved by the writings which they have (a) Eccl. ix. 2. VOL. II. (6) Eccl. iii. 19. (c) 1 Cor. ii. 12. published. Paul pronounces them alone to be the sons of God, who are led by his Spirit: (d) these men will have those who are the sons of God to be led by their own spirit, but to be destitute of the Spirit of God. He teaches, that we call God our Father at the suggestion of the Spirit, who "beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:" (e) these men, though they forbid not all invocation of God, yet deprive us of the Spirit, by whose influence alone he can be rightly invoked. He denies them to be the servants of Christ, who are not led by the Spirit of Christ: (ƒ) these men invent a sort of Christianity, to which the Spirit of Christ is not necessary. He admits no hope of a happy resurrection, unless we experience the Spirit dwelling in us: (g) these men fabricate a hope unattended by such experience. But perhaps they will answer, that they deny not the necessity of our being endued with the Spirit; but that it is the part of modesty and humility not to acknowledge our possession of him. What then is the meaning of the apostle in this exhortation to the Corinthians, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your ownselves; know ye not yourselves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (h) But, says John, "we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." (¿) And do we not call in question the promises of Christ, when we wish to be accounted the servants of God without the possession of his Spirit, whom he hath announced that he will pour out upon all his people? (k) Do we not injure the Holy Spirit, if we separate faith from him, which is his peculiar work? These being the first rudiments of piety, it is a proof of most miserable blindness, that Christians are censured as arroga t for presuming to glory in the presence of the Holy Spirit, without which glorying Christianity itself cannot exist. But they exemplify the truth of Christ's assertion, "the world knoweth not the Spirit of truth; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (!) XL. Not satisfied with one attempt to destroy the stability (d) Rom. viii. 14. (c) Ibid. viii. 16. (h) 2 Cor. xiii. 5. () John xiv. 7. (ƒ) Rom. viii. 9. of faith, they assail it again from another quarter; by arguing, that although we may form a judgment concerning the favour of God from the present state of our righteousness, yet the knowledge of final perseverance remains in suspense. Truly we are left in possession of an admirable confidence of salvation, if we can only conclude from mere conjecture that we are in the favour of God at the present instant, but are utterly ignorant what may be our fate to-morrow. The apostle expresses a very different opinion: "I am persuaded (says he) that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (m) They attempt to evade the force of this, by a frivolous pretence that the apostle had it from a particular revelation; but they are too closely pressed to avail themselves of this evasion. For he is there treating of the benefits resulting from faith to all believers in common, not of any which were peculiar to his own experience. But the same apostle, they say, in another place, excites fear in us, by the mention of our imbecility and inconstancy. "Let him (says he) that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." (n) It is true; but not a fear by which we may be thrown into consternation, but from which we may learn to "humble ourselves," as Peter expresses it, "under the mighty hand of God." Besides, how preposterous is it to limit to a moment of time the assurance of faith, whose nature it is to go beyond the bounds of the present life, and reach forward to a future immortality? Since believers, then, ascribe it to the grace of God that they are illuminated by his Spirit, and enjoy through faith a contemplation of the heavenly life; such a glorying is so remote from arrogance, that, if any one be ashamed to confess it, he rather betrays extreme ingratitude by a criminal suppression of the divine goodness, than gives an evidence of modesty or humility. XLI. Because we thought that the nature of faith could not be better or more clearly expressed, than by the substance f the promise, which is the proper foundation on which it rests, (m) Rom. viii. 38. (n) 1 Cor. x. 12. |