s, that great oracle, _the just shall live by faith_, sounded
loudly in his ears, which put him on a new search of the scriptures, in
which he went on till Mr. Culverwal's treatise of faith came out; which
being the same with what is since published by the Westminster assembly,
he was thereby much satisfied and comforted.

"By this study of the nature of faith, and especially of the text before
mentioned; (says he) I learned, _1st_, That nominal Christians or common
professors were much deluded in their way of believing; and that not
only do Papists err who place faith in an implicit assent to the truth
which they know not, and that it is better defined by ignorance than
knowledge, (a way of believing very suitable to Antichrist's slaves, who
are led by the nose they know not whither); but also secure Protestants,
who, abusing the description of old given of faith, say that it implies
an assured knowledge in the person who believes of the love of God in
Christ to him in particular: this assurance is no doubt attainable, and
many believers do comfortably enjoy the same, as our divines prove
unanswerably against the Popish doctors who maintain the necessity of
perpetual doubting, and miscall comfortable assurance the Protestant's
presumption. But notwithstanding that comfortable assurance doth
ordinarily accompany a high degree of faith, yet that assurance is not
to be found in all the degrees of saving faith: so that by not adverting
to that distinction many gracious souls and sound believers, who have
received Jesus Christ and rested upon him, as he is offered to them in
the word, have been much puzzled, as if they were not believers at all:
on the other hand, many secure and impenitent sinners, who have not yet
believed the Lord's holiness, nor abhorrence of sin, nor their own
ruined state and condition, do from self-love imagine, without any
warrant of the word, that they are beloved of God, and that the foresaid
description of faith agrees well to them.

"_2dly_, I perceived, that many that make a right use of faith, in order
to attain to the knowledge of their justification, make no direct use of
it in order to sanctification, and that the living of _the just by
faith_, reacheth further than I formerly conceived, and that the heart
is purified by faith. If any say, Why did I not know, that precious
faith, being a grace, is not only a part of our holiness, but does
promote other parts of holiness, I answer, that I di