Obs. VI. There is a failing, temporary faith with respect to the promises of God, which will not advantage them in whom it is.
It is known how often the people of old professed that they did believe, and that they would obey accordingly; but, saith the apostle, notwithstanding all their pretensions and professions, notwithstand- ing all the convictions they had of the truth of the word, and the resolutions they had of yielding obedience, wherein their temporary faith did consist, yet they perished in their sins, because “the word was not mixed with faith in them;” that is, truly and really be- lieved.
Obs. VII. The great mystery of useful and profitable believing con- sists in the mixing or incorporating of truth and faith in the souls or minds of believers.
This being a truth of much importance, I shall a little insist on
VER. 1, 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 247
the explanation and improvement of it, and that in the ensuing ob- servations: —
1. There is a great respect, relation, and union, between the facul- ties of the soul and their proper objects, as they act themselves, Thus truth, as truth, is the proper object of the understanding. Hence, as it can assent unto nothing but under the notion and ap- prehension of truth, so what is so indeed, being duly proposed unto it, it embraceth and cleaveth unto necessarily and unavoidably. For truth and the understanding are, as it were, of the same nature, and being orderly brought together do absolutely incorporate. Truth being received into the understanding doth no way affect it nor alter it, but only strengthen, improve, enlarge, direct, and confirm it, in its proper actings. Only it implants a type and figure of itself upon the mind; and hence those things or adjuncts that belong unto one of these are often ascribed unto the other. So we say such a doc- trine or proposition is certain, from that certainty which is an affec- tion of the mind; and our apprehension of any thing to be true, from the truth of that which we do apprehend. This is that which we call knowledge; which is the relation, or rather the union, that is between the mind and truth, or the things that the mind apprehends as true. And where this is not, when men have only fluctuating conceptions about things, their minds are filled with opinions, they have no true knowledge of any thing.
2. The truth of the gospel, of the promise now under especial consideration, is peculiar, divine, supernatural; and therefore for the receiving of it God requireth in us, and bestoweth upon us, a pecu- liar, divine, supernatural habit, by which our minds may be enabled to receive it. This is faith, which is “not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.” As the mind acts naturally by its reason to receive truths that are natural and suited to its capacity, so it acts spiritually and supernaturally by faith to receive truths spiritual and supernatural. Herewith are these truths to be mixed and incorporated. Believing doth not consist in a mere assent to the truth of the things proposed to be believed, but in such a reception of them as gives them a real subsistence and inbeing in the soul by faith. We shall make things more fully to appear, and the better explain them, if we show,—(1.) How this is expressed in the Scripture, with respect to the nature, acts, and effects of faith; (2.) By what means it comes to pass that faith and the promise do so incorporate.
(1.) [1.] For faith itself; it is by our apostle said to be 2rm{o- pivav beboracic, Heb, xi. 1,—“the substance of things hoped for.” Now the #amZéweve here, “the things hoped for,” are so termed with respect unto their goodness and their futwrition, in which re- spects they are the objects of hope. But they are proposed unto faith, and respected by it, as true and real. And as such it is the
248 ‘AN EXPOSITION OF THE ~ [CHAP. Iv.
ixéoraoig, or “substance” of them; not absolutely and physically, but morally and in respect of use. It brings them into, makes them present with, and gives them a subsistence, as to their use, efficacy, and comfort, in the soul, This effect of faith is so far of the nature of it, that the apostle makes use of it principally in that description which he gives us of it. Now, this giving a subsistence in the mind unto the things believed, that they shall really operate and produce their immediate effects therein, of love, joy, and obe- dience, is that spiritual mixture and incorporation whereof we speak. And here lies the main difference between saving faith and the temporary persuasion of convinced persons. This latter gives no such subsistence unto the things believed in the minds of men, as that they should produce their proper effects therein. Those in whom it is believe the promise, yet not so as that thereby the things promised should have such an existence in their minds as to produce in them and upon them their proper effects It may be said of them, as it is of the law in another sense, “They have the shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things.” There is not a real reflection of the things they profess to believe made upon their minds. For instance, the death of Christ, or “Christ crucified,” is proposed unto our faith in the gospel. The genuine proper effect hereof is to destroy, to crucify, or mortify sin inus. But where this is apprehended by a temporary faith only, this effect will not at all be produced in the soul. Sin will not be mor- tified, but rather secretly encouraged; for it is natural unto men of corrupt minds to conclude that they may continue im sin, because grace doth abound. On the other side, where faith gives the sub- sistence mentioned unto the death of Christ in the soul, it will undoubtedly be the death of sin, Rom. vi. 3-14.