The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 440

;

FAITH

400

becomes like a fire in his bones until opposition is made imposand he confesses that God is true and His testimony genuine. However, this is not all. He still lacks the second faith whether He begins with denying it. " It this applies to him personally. it

sible,

:

mean me," he says; "Jesus does not save a man like myBut here the Holy Spirit meets him again. He brings him back to the Word. He holds the image of the saved sinner before him until he recognizes himself in that image. And tho he still objects, "It can not be so; I only deceive myself," yet the Holy Spirit persists in persuading him until, wholly convinced, he appropriates Christ to himself and acknowledges " Blessed be God, that saved sinner «;«/." Wherefore it is not first knou>ledge and then confidence, but both are an inward persuasion by the Holy Ghost. K.n^\h.QXi\axi'C!yiXS persuaded believes. He that is persuaded of the truth of the divine testimony concerning the Guide of souls believes all that is revealed in the Scripture. And being also persuaded that the saved sinner described in Scripture is himself, he does not self."

:

believes in Christ as his Surety.

Hence the peculiar Saving

persuaded.

feature of faith in both

faith

is

its

stages

is

to be

a persuasion, wrought by the Holy

Spirit, that the Scripture is a true

testimony concerning the salva-

and that this salvation includes my soul. Is the Heidelberg Catechism wrong, then, in speaking of knowledge and of confidence? No; but it should be noticed that it speaks, not of faith's origin, but of its fruit and exercise, it being already established. Being persuaded that the Scripture is true, and believing the divine testimony concerning Christ, we at once possess certain and undoubted knowledge regarding these things. And being persuaded that that salvation includes my soul, I possess by virtue of this persuasion a firm and assured confidence that the treasure of Christ's redemption is also my own. tion of souls,

Hence

faith

has three stages:

(i)

kno^vkdge of the testimony

of the things revealed ; and (3) persuasion that this conThese used to be called knowledge, assent, and cerns me personally. confidence; and we are willing to adopt them, but they must be used carefully. By the first must be understood nothing more than the (2) certainty

obtaining of knowledge independently of faith.

Hence the Hei-

delberg Catechism omits this as not belonging to faith proper, and

mentions only assent and confidence. For that certain knowledge of which it speaks is not what the scholastics put in the foreground

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