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thing to object against the thing proposed to be believed. The certainty of adherence is the certainty of faith. The certainty of evidence is the certainty of assurance.

This certainty of assurance and evidence is of excellent use, for it makes the Christian fruitful in good works, and does fill him full of joy and comfort: therefore it must by all means be sought after, yet it is not of itself so strong, nor so constant, nor so infallible as the certainty of faith and adherence is, 2 Peter i. 8, 10. For sense and reason since the fall even in the regenerate, are weak, variable, and their conclusions are not so certain, as those of pure faith; because faith builds only upon divine testimony, concluding without reasoning or disputing, yea, many times against reasoning, Rom. iv. 18, 19; Heb. xi. 11.

So that notwithstanding the excellent and needful use of assurance, it is faith and adherence to Christ and his promises, which, even in fears and doubts, must be the cable we must hold by, lest we make shipwreck of all, when we are assaulted with our greatest temptations; for then many times our assurance leaves us to the mercy of the winds and seas, as mariners speak. If you have faith, though you have little or no feeling, your salvation is yet sure in truth, though not in your own apprehension. When both can be had, it is best, for then you gain most strength and most comfort, giving you cheerfulness in all your troubles; but the power and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and faith in his naked word and promise, is that to which you must trust.

See this in the examples of most faithful men; for when they have been put to it, it was this that upheld them, and in this was their faith commended. Abraham against all present sense and reason, even against hope, believed in hope, both in the matter of receiving a son, and in going about to offer him again unto God in sacrifice. He denied sense and reason, he considered not the unlikelihoods, and seeming impossibilities in the judgment of reason, that ever he should have a seed, he being old, and Sarah being old and barren;