Now every kind of knowledge will not serve the turn. There is a form of knowledge as well as a form of godliness : Rom. ii. 20, ' Which hast the form of knowledge, and of the truth in the law.' The apostle means a naked model of truth, to be able to teach others: but they want a new light put into their hearts by the Spirit of God. It must not only be a formal apprehension, but a serious and considerate know- ledge. For faith is a spiritual prudence ; it is opposed to folly as well as to ignorance : Luke xxiv. 2.5, ' 0 ye fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ! ' — avorjToc, ye mindless men. When men never mind, they do not consider the use and fruit of know- ledge ; when they do not draw out the principle of knowledge for their private advantage, they are fools. Everything in faith draws to prac- tice ; it is not a speculative knowledge, but a knowledge with consider- ation, a wise light : Eph. i. 17, he calls it ' A spirit of wisdom and
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revelatioa in the knowledge of liim/ It differs from a traditional and disciplinary knowledge, a literal instruction which we convey from one to another. By this men may be made knowing, but they are not pru- dent for the advantage of the spiritual life.
2. Next to knowledge there must be assent. Believing is somewhat more than knowledge ; we may know more than we do believe, and therefore there must be an assent to the truth of the word : 1 Thes. i. 5, ■ For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and.in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.' There is some assur- ance that doth not concern the state of a believer but the word of God, receiving it above the cavils and contradiction of the privy atheism that is in our own mind. Now, concerning this assent, I shall speak to two things : it must be to the vvhole word of God and with the whole heart.
[1.] It must be to the whole word ; it must be a receiving of the word indefinitely, all that God hath revealed. God prescribeth the condi- tions which he requireth. and offereth promises ; we must consent to the whole. In the word of God there are doctrines, promises, threateniugs, precepts — :ill these must be entertained by faith before we come to the act of affiance. The doctrines of faith concerning God and Chi-ist, the union of the two natures, the mystery of redemption, we must receive them as ' faithful sayings," 1 Tim. i. 1 5. Usually there is some priv}'' atheism : we look upon the gospel as a golden dream, and a well-dev^ised fable. Saith Luther, ' Carnal men hear these things as if the mystery of the gospel were but like a dream or shower of rubies fallen out of the clouds ; ' therefore there must be a chief care to settle the heart in the belief of these things as faithful and true sayings. Christians would not find the work of their particular faith so irksome if they had but ' the assurance of understanding/ Col. ii. 2 ; if their hearts were rooted in the truths of the gospel. Then there are threatenings of the word, to show how abominable the creature is to God in a natural condition, and to what punishments we are subject and liable. Now these must be applied with reverence and fear, that we may be roused out of our carnal estate, and chased like the hart to the refreshing .<rtreams of grace. There must be a firm belief of all the threatenings and curses of God. Then the promises of the word, these are principally calculated for faith, and these must be applied to the soul : John iii. 33, ' He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.' We must come and set to our seal, and say, Lord, thou wilt never fail thy creatures, if they should venture their souls upon the warrant of such as these are. Then there is believing of the commands, not only that they come from the Lord, that they are laws established and enacted by the supreme ruler of heaven and earth ; but we must believe they are just, good, holy and true. So David, P.s. cxix. 66, ' Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments.' When we believe the commandments are of divine original, and that they are holy, and good, and fit to be obeyed, this is that wliich the apostle calls a ' con- senting to the law, that it is good,' Eom. vii. 16. Such an assent must there be to the whole word.
[2.] It must be with the whole heart. For this the intellectual assent ifi not enough, unless it be accompanied with some motion of the heart ; there is somewhat besides understanding, not only knowledge and
108 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XXVIII.
acknowledgment, but there must be consent of the will. We must not only reflect upon the things that are propounded as true, but as good and worthy of all acceptation : Acts viii. 37, ' If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest be bai)tized.' We must assent to the threatenings of the word with trembling and reverence, to the promises of the word with delight and esteem : Acts ii. 41, ' They received the word gladly,' to the commandments of the word with some anxious care of strictness and obedience, to the doctrines of the word with consideration.