To clear it a little further. There be fom- degrees of assent that the soul hath to anything.
1. The first is a slight assent, that we call opinion, that is, with some fear that it may be otherwise. That is a weak, a pendulous * assent. It is a wavering assent, it yields not a certain assent. Opinion is a weak thing : it may be so : aye, but it may not be so. It is with a fear of the contrary.
2. The second degree of assent is that that hath a better ground, that is the assent to (jronnds of reason. A man hath reason to yield and assent to, and those reasons satisfy the soul, and rest the soul something f thereafter as the strength of them is. And that assent we call knowledge, science. | This is founded upon grounds of reason.
3. There is a third kind of assent and yielding that the soul hath, that we call believinrf, which is merely upon the credit of him that speaks, though we know no reason why the thing should be so ; but only the person, it may
* That is, ' swaying.' — G. t That is, ' somewhat.' — G.
X Cf. Dan. i. 4, and 1 Tim. vi. 20.— G.
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be, is a person of crctlit, and wisdom, and knowledge ; and thereafter as we conceive well of him, thereafter we fasten our faith and assent to his autho- rity ; so that assent to the authority of the sp(!aker, we call belief.
■1. The fourtli degree of assent is, when we do not only assent to the thing because we have reason so to do, and arguments, or because we have some man to confirm it by authority ; but because we feel it to be so by (•.rperienee ami hij taste. As a man assents that fire is hot, and that sweet things are so, not from reason altogether, or from the speech or rehearsing of another man, but because ho feels it so indeed ; he assents to it from experience.
Now you will say, How come we then to stand by faith ? As faith especially relies upon the authority of God, upon God's word, so we stand by faith, because it assents to an authority. 15ut God's word gives reasons too ; therefore faith assents to the authority of God's word first ; and then we see divine reason enough too, when we once believe God. And then experience in divine things too. After we believe there is an incredible sweetness in divine things, there is a knowledge with a parti- cular taste. There is never a divine truth but it hath an evidence in it, when a man believes it once, that a man may say, ' I know wiiom I have believed,' 2 Tim. i. 12, from experience. Let the speakers of the things be what they will, let them apostatize from that that they have spoken ; after a man believes, he will see the things themselves have divine reason in them, as well as divine authority stablishing of them.
Some di\dne truths are altogether upon divine authority. We see no other reason but that God hath said it ; but some truths are both credible and intelligible. Credible, because God hath said it, and there is reason to prove it ; as a man may prove by divine reason, that ' all shall work for the best,' Eom. viii. 28. Why ? The apostle saith, ' We love God, and God hath called us according to his purpose,' Kom. viii. 28. Therefore all things shall work for them that God hath called, to them that answer his divine call. There is both reason and comfort. So it is credible as it hath divine truth, and intelligible as it hath comfort. There are homo- geneal reasons with divine authority. God doth not only press us with authority, but he gives us reasons.
Besides this, there is experience ; for the doctrine of divine providence, and of the corruption of nature, and the doctrine of comfort in the Media- tor Christ altogether, the doctrine of faith, the doctrine of the issue of all troubles for good, we find these by experience. However the teacher that teacheth them, perhaps, may have no sense of them himself, let him apostatize and do what he will, our faith stands upon them, partly because God saith so, that is the chief ; and because there is reason for them ; and because we find it so by experience. In many divine things, these three, both reason, authority, and experience, concur in faith. But to come a little further.
Quest. What doth faith itself stand most on, by which we stand ? That which we stand on must stand itself. Let us examine a httle what faith itself stands on, by which we stand.
Ans. I shewed you before partly : by divine authority and experience, which gives some light to it ; but we will follow it a little further. That faith by which we stand must stand itself; therefore it cannot be opinion, it must be faith. It must not be bare science neither, it must be science that hath faith ; faith must come in. Now faith looks to divine revelation especially, it looks to truth revealed from God. Now faith looking to the