2. The extent 'All things.' A believer receiveth all truths which are of divine revelation, whether precepts, promises, threatenings, doctrines, or histories. But then we must distinguish of an implicit or explicit faith. With the latter we can only believe those things which we know ; what we know not we cannot believe with an explicit faith. Some christians know not all things which are contained in the prophets and apostles, and yet in a sense they do believe by an implicit faith ; as Agrippa believed the prophets : Acts xxvi. 27, ' King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets ? I know that thou believest.' Yet he was ignorant of some things revealed by them. So all christians own the writings of the apostles and prophets as the rule and warrant of faith, yet they do not discern every truth therein contained ; they do believe that whatever the prophets and apostles say and have written is true, and so are ready to believe all things which shall be demonstrated to them to be written or said by them. But by an explicit faith they believe all fundamental truths, such as are absolutely necessary to sal- vation, and usually most other truths which are next to fundamentals. The fundamentals are set down, John xvii. 3, ' This is life eternal, to
422 SERMONS UPON ACTS XXIV. 14-16.
know tliee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.' That God ii? to he known, loved, obeyed, worshipped, and enjoyed, and that the Lord Jesus is our Redeemer and Saviour, to bring us home to God, with his gifts of pardon and life, to be begun by the Spirit here, and perfected in heaven.
3. The act, ' Believing." It is not enough not to deny or not to con- tradict, but we must actually and positively believe. The reason why the generality of people living in the christian world feel so little force of their faith is from their inadvertency ; they leap into the christian faith by the advantage of their birth, but do not consider what they believe, nor why they should believe it, and how they are concerned in it ; and so may be rather said not to contradict than to believe. But true faith is a positive, firm assent, excited in us by the Spirit of God. As the apostle saith of some that were zealous for the law, ' Understand- ing neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm,' 1 Tim. i, 7, so the rabble of common christians may be zealous for the gospel, yet are not instructed in the nature and grounds of it, what and why they should believe. A sound belief requireth a thorough understanding of what we believe, and a deep consideration of the grounds and reasons why we are to believe it. And then it is such a fixed assent as is not perplexed and haunted with doubts about the truth of it, and such a close adherence as is not discouraged with difficulties and oppositions. It would be much better with the christian world if every one that carrieth the name of a christian could say, ' I believe all that is written in the prophets and the apostles.' In short —
To a sound belief there is necessary —
[1.] A knowledge or full instruction in the things which we believe; for it is said, 1 John iv. 16, ' We have known and believed the love that God hath to us ; ' first known and then believed.
[2.] A due conviction of the certainty of them : Luke i. 4, ' That thou mayest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed ; ' and John vi. 69> ' We believe and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God ; ' and John xvii. 8, ' They have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.'
[3.] This faith doth not only imply a bare intellectual assent, but a practical trust and affiance ; for the nature of the object requireth so much. Christianity doth not only propound bare truths to be assented unto, but joyful, comfortable truths suitable to our necessity and desires ; and therefore we must depend upon them, seek our happiness in them in the way appointed by God, which is nothing but practical trust and affiance. Therefore it is not a bare opinion, but a reliance upon God, that he will make good his word to us, whilst we continue with patience in well-doing. Therefore we are said to belong to Christ, * If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end,' Heb. iii. 6.
[4.] Those truths which are contained in the word are to be consi- dered with application, that we may know them for our good : Job v. 27, ' Hear it, and know thou it for thy good.' Every doctrine, which upon search we find to be sound and good, we must make application of it to ourselves, that it may affect our own hearts ; if threatenings, that we
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may escape the curse ; it" comforts or promises, Eom. viii, 32, * "What shall we say to these things ? ' The promise of pardon to all believers is so miiversal, that it includeth you as well as others. Christ is offered to every creature, that he may be yours as well as another's ; and the offer of heaven and eternal life is so propounded that you should engage your hearts to seek after it, and closely to adhere to it till you obtain it. But to apply it so as to be persuaded that your own sins are already pardoned, that you are an heir of glory, that you are Christ's as to actual interest, you must have good evidence for that from a spiritual sense of your own qualifications : but it belongeth not to faith simply taken. Thus we have set forth a christian in his first part, as a believer.