348 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. III.
not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in ns ;' that is, I reason thus. And it is said of Abraham, Heb. xi. 19, ' He accounted that God was able to raise him ; ' he reasoned the case thus within himself, There is nothing impossible to God. This is the great advantage of a believer when he can draw out particular discourses and arguments, and fortify himself by such conclusions as are opposite to his particular distrust and trouble, when he can reason from his liappiness to come, his interest in Christ. By this means faith doth set on either the promise or the threatening ; as suppose, if the heart be backward, and loath to come to the work of mortification. If it be given to carnal pleasure, faith comes and reasons tlius, Rom. viii. 13, 'If 3"0u live after the flesh, you shall die,' but you do live after the flesh, therefore you shall die ; but if you through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live — if you will take pains in the exercise of religion, thougli severe for the present, yet it shall be sweet for the time to come, you shall live. That is the reason why the word is full of syllogisms and discourses ; they are but copies of wliat faith doth in the heart.
2. Faith is a convictive light, that findeth us corrupt and ill-princi- pled, and full of prejudices against the doctrine of the gospel ; and it is the work of faith to root out of the soul those carnal prejudices, carnal counsels, carnal reasonings, and carnal excuses which rise up, and exclude and shut out that doctrine which the gospel oflfereth to us.
[1.] Against the truth of the gospel. The heart of man is naturally full of malice and atheism. Man is not white paper, he is prepossessed with thoughts ' that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus,' 2 Cor. x. 6. The truths of religion are opposite to corrupt desires, and these desires have leavened the soul with carnal prejudices, and this begets j ealousies and suspicious reluctations. Now it is the work of faith to captivate and subdue those thoughts, to batter down those prejudices that lift up themselves against the knowledge of God and obedience of Christ. And therefore one great work of the Spirit is, to reprove and convince the world not only of sin, but of righteous- ness and judgment, John xvi. 8 ; the Spirit doth it as the author, and faith as the instrument. We are leavened with these evil maxims, that sin is not so dangerous as it is represented to be ; that holiness is not so necessary ; that the doctrines of Christ are but fables ; and therefore the apostle saith, 2 Peter i. 16. 'We have not followed cunningly devised flxbles, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ ; ' implying that there is such a thought in the heart of man. Man hath a great many sottish conceits of all these things, but especially of the gospel ; for conscience will sooner yield to moral truths than truths evangelical, and the doctrine which concerns the happiness of another world. We are by nature sooner convinced of sin than of righteousness, our thoughts being more presagious of evil than of good, because of the guilt ; conscience seeing nothing but sin, can infer nothing but punishment ; but we had need be convinced of all three, sin, righteousness, and judgment. It is not- able that there is no figure so common in scripture as a prolepsis, or
VeR. 1.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 349
anticipation of objections. Divine doctrine findeth us full of prejudices, and there is an aversion, or bearing off in the intellective facult3% as well as a dissent. Now faith never leaveth till it bringeth in other principles.
[2.] Great prejudices there are against the worth of the gospel : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he knoAv them, because they are spiritually discerned.' If we be convinced that there are such things as the scripture sets forth, we are not convinced of their worth, when we do acknowledge their being ; we think it a folly to be troubled about things that are to come ; that a man may be saved without so much ado ; and why should he venture himself upon the displeasure of the world, and the consequences of it on things tliat will fall out we know not when ? These conceits we are leavened with : but faith is a convincing light that will disprove those corrupt and carnal principles we drink in.
3. It is an overpowering and certain conviction, that is, such as dispossesseth us of our corrupt principles and grounds, and argueth us into a contrary opinion and contrary belief. Men may have some knowledge of the gospel, and yet not have faith ; they may have some smitings of heart, and disapprove of the principles wherewith they are led, and practices wherein they walk, and yet have not faith, but only a loose and wavering opinion of tlie things of God. Then is the soul convinced, when it is rationally, and above all cavil and contradiction, constrained to consent to the truth and worth of the things propounded in the covenant ; when there is a subduing and silencing of all those carnal principles and reasonings which were wont to prevail against the truth. What the apostle saith of the great truth of the gospel, the grand article of the christian faith, Christ's dying for sinners, is true of the whole frame : 1 Tim. i. 15, ' This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.' These things are propounded by faith, so as to beget a firm assent to them as true, and a consent to embrace and pursue them as good. In these two expressions, ' faithful and worthy of all accepta- tion,' the apostle showeth what faith aims at ; it represents the whole frame of religion as true ; and it representeth religion as worthy of all axjceptation, and then the sanctified will doth embrace it. So that the first part of the conviction of faith is a subscription to the truth. The conviction of faith bringeth the soul to a 'certain assent, how contrary soever it seem to sense or reason ; though it seeth nothing in sense, yet it seeth a clear certainty in the word. For though there can no reason be given of the things believed, yet faith seeth reason enough why we should believe them, and so close with them upon the authority of God speaking in the word. Faith, as the substance of things hoped for, resteth upon the power of God : but as it is the evidence of things not seen, so it resteth upon the truth of God. By this firm assent the soul doth so close with truth, that it can never be divorced : 1 Thes. i. 5, 'Ye received the word with much assurance, and with much afHiction,' ver. 6. Though it be contrary to inward dispositions, and though it expose to outward troubles, yet they had much assurance and evidence within themselves. Alas ! men may talk of Christ and