[3.] Faith, it is the mother of obedience, therefore there is good reason to exalt it. Now holiness is eft'ectually promoted by no grace so much as by faith ; partly, because faith receives all supplies fi'om hea- ven. Faith that receiveth Christ, receiveth all his benefits and graces : Gal. iii. 14, ' That the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus Christ : that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith ; ' that is, the Spirit of God, by whose assistance the holy life is managed and carried on : Gal. ii. 20, ' I live by the faith of the Son of God.' Faith looks up to Christ as distributing grace ; and so the strength and power of the inward man is much increased, and a man is enabled for all the offices of holiness. Partly by its own eflective influence. There are two powerful affections by which the spiritual life is acted and improved : they are fear and love. Now faith is the mother of both : no faith, no love nor fear. Fear, by which we are fenced against the delights of the world ; and love, by which we are steeled against the difficulties of the world ; for fear puts on the spectacles of faith, and so seeth him that is invisible. We fear God because we believe that he is. A carnal man looks upon God as an idol and fancy, therefore doth not stand in any awe. So love is strengthened by faith. The apostle saith, ' We love him because he loved us first,' 1 John iv. 19. Our love to God riseth according to the proportion of the assurance we have of God's love to us ; then our love is carried out with a greater height and fervour after him. Now there is nothing adds such constraint and force to love as faith : 2 Cor. v. 14, 15, ' The love of Christ constrains us ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead : and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again.' When we have apprehended the love of God in Christ, and what great things God hath done for us, then it puts the soul upon answerable returns. The more certainty we have of the love of God, the stronger impulses of love shall we feel in our souls to God again. Shall not I love him much that hath done so much for me ? that hath forgiven me much ? that hath been so gracious to me in Christ, and provided such ample recompenses in heaven ? We find it in outward matters : jealousy and suspicion is the bane of love. So in divine matters it is true, the more we doubt of God's love, the more faint, and cold, and weak will our love be to God. There are no such motives and incentives to duty as the apprehension of God's love to us in Christ.
106 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XXVIII.
SERMON XXVIII.
But without faith it is impossible to please him. — Heb. xi. 6.
Let ui3 now inquire what this faith is. There are three acts of it : knowledge, assent, and affiance. The two former do respect the word, and the last respects Christ offered in the word. The former acts respect id quod verum est, that which is true ; the last, id quod bonum est, that which is good. All are necessary ; there is a receiving of the word, and a receiving of Christ in the word. Sometimes we read of receiving of the word : Acts ii. 41, ' They received the word gladly ; ' that notes only knowledge and assent. But at other times we read of receiving of Christ : John i. 12, ' To as many as received him,' the act of faith is directed to Christ's person.
1. There must be knowledge, for this is a necessary part of faith : we must see the stay and prop before we rest on it ; there is an impression of truth upon the understanding. See the expression of the prophet, Isa. liii. 11, ' By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.' The first and radical act of faitli is there put for the essence of it ; now without this we can neither please God nor be satis- fied in ourselves. We cannot please God : Prov. xix. 2, ' Also that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good : ' or, as in the original — ' The heart without knowledge can never be good.' All that we do in an ignorant state is but superstitious formality, not an act of religion. Look, as the fruit that hath but little of the sun is never concocted, and comes not to full maturity and ripeness ; so those acts that are done in a state of ignorance are outward formalities that God will not accept. Nor can we be satisfied in ourselves. How shall we be able to plead with Satan, and answer the doubts of our own consciences, unless we have a distinct knowledge of the mysteries of salvation, and of the contrivance of the gospel P He that is impleaded in a court, and doth not know the law, how shall he be able to stand in his own defence ? So how shall we be able to answer Satan and our own fears without knowledge ? Look, as we fear usually in the dark, so ignorant souls are always full of doubts and surmises ; and it is a long time ere the Lord comes and .settles the conscience.