Matt.14.31.

Rom.14.23.

SERM. faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" and to all His Disciples, XXXIV. "If ye have faith, and doubt not." And, "if he shall not ch. 21. 21. doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which Mark 11.23. he saith shall come to pass." "He that doubteth," saith St. Paul," is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith." James 1. 6. To the same purpose is that of St. James, " But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering," or nothing doubting, as the word diangivóuevos signifies. From all which places, it appears, that according to the Scripture, as well as common use of the word, doubting is directly contrary to faith, or believing; and that a man can be properly said to believe a thing only so far as he doth not doubt, but is fully persuaded of it in his own mind.

Thus St. Paul expresseth the greatness of Abraham's faith, Rom. 4.21. by his "being fully persuaded, that what God had promised, He was able also to perform." And his own, by saying, ch. 8. 38. "I am persuaded." The word in the original is Tétouan, from whence comes the Greek word #iors, which we all along translate 'faith,' and from thence rów, to believe;' which words therefore, according to their etymology, as well as common use, must needs signify such a faith, or such believing a thing, whereby we are fully persuaded of the truth and certainty of it.

ver. 8.

Now there are several ways whereby we come to be thus persuaded of a thing, or to believe it some things we are persuaded of from the testimony of our senses; as we see a thing to be white or black, we taste it to be sweet or bitter, and therefore do not doubt, but are persuaded it is so; and so may be truly said to believe it: as it is said of St. Peter in this chapter, that " he saw and believed," and of St. Thomas in my text, "Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed." For in such cases, although our senses move, or induce us to think, or be persuaded a thing is so as they represent it, yet the thought or persuasion itself is an act, not of the senses, but of the soul, and as such may properly be called faith or believing, as it is here.

Other things we are persuaded of by our reason, either immediately upon the first proposal of them to our consideration, or else by necessary consequences of one thing upon another, till we come at last to that which fixed our thoughts,

so that our minds rest satisfied in it, as a necessary result from such premises; and therefore we are said to be persuaded of it. But such kind of rational persuasions also, take their first rise very often from our senses: as in the case before us, St. Thomas saw Christ after He had been dead, of the same visage and stature, and in all respects just so as he used to see Him before; and he put his finger into the holes which the nails had made in His hands, and the spear in His side, and so felt them to be really such as the nails and spear had made; and from thence concluded, that this must be the same person that he knew before, and saw thus pierced upon the cross, and dead; and by consequence, was persuaded, or believed, that He was indeed risen from the dead. But this he could not but now believe in a manner whether he would or no, having so plain and sensible a demonstration of it. And that is the reason that his faith is here reproved, as not comparable to that whereby a man believes what he never saw.

But there are other things which we are persuaded of, or believe, upon the testimony, not of our own senses or reason, but that of other men's; who telling us of any thing which they have seen, or heard, or know, we, without consulting our own senses or reason, usually take their word for it, and believe it to be so as they say, only because they say it; which kind of belief, or persuasion, is as common among mankind as any of the other before-mentioned: and it is that indeed, without which we could have no satisfaction in conversing with one another.

These are the several ways whereby we usually come to believe, or be persuaded of one thing rather than another; but they are all liable to very great mistakes, so that we cannot certainly depend upon any of them singly, nor upon all together. But whatsoever we are thus persuaded of, we have still cause to doubt whether it be so or no, and therefore cannot in reason be fully and certainly persuaded of it: for we find by experience, that our senses often deceive us, that our reason frequently fails in its deductions of one thing from another, and that all the rest of mankind are apt to be mistaken as well as we; or if they be not mistaken themselves, we, not knowing their thoughts, can never be sure but

XXXIV.

SERM. that they may have a mind to impose upon us, by telling us that for true, which they themselves know to be false: and by consequence, whatsoever thoughts come into our heads any of these ways, we can never form them into a firm belief, or full persuasion, that what we think is really true, and such as we think it to be. So that if we had no other grounds but such as these are, whereupon to build our faith, we should be always wavering and doubtful, and never fix upon any thing as a sure and certain truth, how much soever we are concerned to believe it to be so and all by reason of our fall in Adam, whereby our senses and reaŝon, and all mankind are so corrupted, that whatsoever knowledge we have by their means, is at the best no more than mere guess and conjecture.

But behold now, and admire the infinite goodness and mercy of God to fallen man, who knowing what uncertainties we are put to, even in things of the greatest moment, and such as belong to our everlasting peace, hath found out another way whereby we may come to know them, and such a way as can never fail. For He being willing that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth, He Himself hath revealed and declared all such truths as are necessary to our Salvation: so that we have His Word for them, which is more, infinitely more, than the concurrent testimony of our senses, our reason, and all mankind would have been, if they had all continued in their best and first estate; yea, so much, that it is impossible that any thing more could be ever done, whereby to assure and certify us of them: "For God being truth itself," as the Apostle Heb. 6. 18. saith, "He cannot lie." "Yea, it is impossible for Him to lie," every lie, or falsehood, being a contradiction to His very nature. And therefore what God saith must needs be true, and therefore to be believed because He saith it: for when He hath once said it, there is no room left for hesitancy, or doubting whether it be so or no; for it cannot but be just so as He saith it is or shall be. And how much soever any truths may seem above our understanding and comprehension, yet if they come attested by His Divine infallible authority, we have infinitely more ground to be persuaded of them, than we are of any thing that we ourselves may seem

Tit. 1. 2.

to comprehend or understand. And if our minds be right set to receive any truth at all, they must needs receive such in the highest manner, and with the strongest faith that they are capable of.

And yet this is the course which Almighty God hath taken, whereby to inform and persuade mankind of all necessary truths, all along from the beginning of the world: Adam was no sooner fallen by the instigation of the old serpent, but God Himself said, "The seed of the woman shall Gen. 3. 15. bruise the serpent's head," and so passed His own word for it, that Adam himself and his posterity might have the firmest ground that could be, to believe that one should be born of a woman, which should destroy the works of the Devil, and so restore mankind to their first estate. But seeing this word was not to be actually fulfilled till about four thousand years after (therefore called, "the fulness of Gal. 4. 4. time,") when about half that time was passed, God was pleased to renew, and repeat it again to Abraham, who living two thousand years after Adam, was just the middle person between him and Christ: for it was God Himself also that said to Abraham, “In thee, and in thy seed, shall Gen. 12.3; all the nations of the earth be blessed." Whereby He plainly is. signified, that what He had before said, concerning the seed of the woman in general, should be fulfilled in the seed of Abraham; but that all nations and families upon earth, as well as his, should be blessed by it, and therefore ought to believe so.

18. 18; 22.

After this, God in all ages raised up Prophets, by whom He spake His mind, and revealed His Will all along, till at length He did it by His Only-begotten Son too; as the Apostle observes, saying, “God who at sundry times, and in Heb.1. 1, 2. divers manners, spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son." It was God therefore, who spoke by the Prophets as well as by His Son, the Prophets being no more concerned, but only as His heralds to proclaim His Divine Will and pleasure they uttered the words, but the words they uttered were put into their mouths by God Himself; as our Saviour said to His Apostles, "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit Matt.10.20. of your Father which speaketh in you." So it was with the

XXXIV.

2 Pet. 1. 21.

13.

SERM. Prophets; "For the prophecy came not in old time, by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." They spake not of their own heads, nor what they themselves would, but what God would have them say; so that it was His Word they spake, His Will they declared: and therefore cried out, "Thus saith the Lord," that people might take notice, that what they were now to say, was not their own words, but God's; and therefore should accordingly hearken to it, and receive it as such; as we find the Thessalonians did: for St. Paul writing to 1 Thess. 2. them saith, "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the Word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God." The word which St. Paul preached, though they heard it of him, yet it was not his word, nor the word of any man, but it was in deed and in truth the Word of God Himself; and they received it as spoken to them from God: and so all ought to receive whatsoever was spoken by Moses and the Prophets, or by Christ and His Apostles, and is now written in the Books of the Old and New Testament; for it is all equally the 2 Tim. 3.16. Word of God: all Scripture, as the Apostle saith, "being given by inspiration of God." And therefore whosoever spoke or wrote it, it was still God's Word they spoke or wrote; and all men are bound to look upon it, and receive it with the same respect and reverence as if God had spoken it to them with His own mouth, or had written it with His own finger, as He did the ten Commandments.

Now in this His most Holy Word, as it hath pleased Almighty God to command many things, all which we are bound to do therefore, because He commands them; and to forbid many things, all which we are therefore bound to avoid, because He forbids them: so there are many other things which He is pleased to say, all which we are bound to believe therefore because He saith them: As for example, some things He affirms concerning Himself, His wisdom, His power, His omnipresence, His goodness, His justice, His mercy, and all His other perfections and works that He hath done; concerning His Son, His divinity, His incarnation, His life, His passion, His resurrection, His ascension,