Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_500.lzh/D_530.TXT

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53o                                      OF FAITH IN GOD AND IN CHRIST.                                                        Book I.

in Jude 3, 20. so called, because it contains things to
be believed upon the credit and testimony of God; and
because it directs to the great ob.'lect of faith in salva-
tion, the Lord Jesus Christ; and because it is the means
of ingenerating and increasing faith in men, for .faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, Rom.
x. 8, 17.    3. There is a divine and an human faith;
a divine faith proceeds upon a divine testimony, upon
the authority and veracity of God the testifier; an
human faith proceeds upon the testimony of man, and
upon the authenticity and truth of the witness bore by
him; concerning both which the apostle John says,
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God .is
greater, by how much the greater is his veracity and
faithfulness;for this is the witness of God, which he
hath testified of his Son, 1 John v. 9. namely, that life
and salvation are in him and by him; and to believe
this witness, and to receive it within a man's self, is
what is commonly called saving faith.--4. There is
a faith of miracles which proceeds upon a revelation
some way or other made by God to a man, which he
believes; either that a miracle should be wrought by
him, or should be wrought for him, for his benefit and
advantage; of the former sort, and which is called
faith in God, Mark xi. 22, 23. the apostle is to be un-
derstood, when he says, Though I have all faith, so
that I could remove mountains, 1 Cor. xiii. s. see Matt.
xvii. 20. Luke xvii. 6. of the latter sort was the faith
of the centurion, of the woman having an issue, of
Jairus, and of the Canaanitish woman, Matt. viii. 8, 10.
and ix. 18, 20, 22. and xv. 28. and of the lame man at
Lystra, Acts xiv. 9, 10. The one is called active, the
other passive faith; and this faith of miracles, in the
first times of the gospel, was common to good and bad
men, to the true disciples of Christ, Matt. x. 1. Mark
xvi. 17--20. and to Judas, and to false teachers, Matt.
x. 1,4. and vii. 22, 23. . 5. There is what is called
an historical faith, not because it is only giving credit
to the historical part of the scripture, which is to be
believed as well as other parts; nor because the scrip-
ture is read, and attention paid to it only as a common
history or human testimony; for men, with this faith,
believe it to be a divine testimony, and regard it as
such; it may rather be called a theoretic faith, a specu-
lative one, receiving all things in the theory but re-
ducing nothing to practice; or a bare naked assent to
the truth of what is contained in the word concerning
God and Christ, and divine things; it is a faith com-
mon to good men and bad men; it must be and is
where true faith is, and there can be no true faith with-
out it; but if a man stops here and goes no further,
it falls short of spiritual, special faith, or the faith of
God's elect, and is no other than the faith of devils,
and of bad men.--6. There is also atemporary faith,
which continues only for a time, in some persons, as
in the stony ground-hearers, Who for a while believe,
and in time of temptation .fall away, Luke viii. 13. this
sort of faith differs from the former, in that it is not a
mere assent to truth, but is attended with affection,

joy, and gladness, as in Herod, who heard John gladly,
and did many outward things, Mark vi. 20. and in those

the apostle speaks of, who tasted the good word of God,
and the powers of the world to come, Heb. vi. & all of
a natural and superficial kind, arising from a principle
of self-love, and from the novelty, harmony, and con-
nection of truths, and from a false presumptuous hope
of future happiness in consequence of their assent unto
them; and so is different likewise from the faith of
devils, who believe and tremble, but have no joy; and
it differs also from true faith, beause it is without the
root of grace iu the heart, and is loseable, is only for
a time, for when trouble and persecution arise because
of the word, such who have it, drop their profession
of it; whereas where there is true faith, such do not
draw back, but continue to believe to the saving of the
soul, Heb. x. 39.... 7. There is a special fitith, which
is peculiar to God's elect, and is by some called saving
faith, though strictly speaking salvation is not in faith {},
nor in any other grace, nor in any duty, only in Christ;
there is no other name but his under heaven whereby
we must be saved; he only is the author of eternal
salvation; and yet there are some things in scriptnre
which seem to countenance such a phrase; as when
Christ said to the woman who repented of her sins,
and had the forgiveness of them, loved Christ, and be-
lieved in him, Thyfaith hath saved thee, go in peace,
Luke vii. 50. unless the object of faith should be meant;
and certain it is that salvation is promised to faith, and
connected with it, He that believes shall be saved, and
is what faith issues in; true believers receive the end
of their faith, even the salvation of their souls, Mark xvi.
16.1 Pet. i. 9. and this is the faith that is to be treated
of; and next will be considered,
II. The objects of it, and acts of it on those objects.
The objects of it are not bare axioms or propositions;
for, as Dr. Ames {2} observes, the act of the believer
does not terminate at an axiom but at the thing; for
axioms are not formed, but that by them knowledge
may be had of things; the principal term to which the
act of a believer tends is the thing itself, which is
chiefly regarded in the axiom; and so promises are
not to be considered as objects unless in a tropical and
metonymical sense, being put for the things promised;
so the Old Testament-saints, not having received the
promises, the things promised, but having seen them
afar off, that is, by faith, were persuaded of them, and
embraced them, Heb. xi. 12. nor even the benefits of
Christ, or the blessings of his grace, no otherwise than
as they are the end faith has in view in receiving him;
he is viewed and dealt with as the object of faith in
order tp enjoy the good things which come by hitn:
or they may be considered as motives encouraging to
acts of faith on him, and are the fruits and effects of it
received thereby from him. The proper and formal
object of faith is twofold, God and Christ; God as the
first primary and ultimate object of faith, and Christ
as mediator is the mediate object of it, Ye believe in
God, believe also in me, John xiv. 1.

t Salus nostra proprio non nititur fide nostra, sed eo uno potins quem apprchcndimus per fidem nempe Jesu Christo~ Bezae Confessio Fidei,
~t. 4. art. 20. p. 51.
~ Mcdt~ila Theolog. i. ~2. c. 5. s. ~4.