an inward persuasion of the mind, this an outward obedience. Next, between _faith_ and _opinion_; for this depends on our own reason, that on the good esteem we have of another. Lastly, between _faith_ and _knowledge_; for this deliberately takes a proposition broken and chewed; that swallows it down whole and entire. The explication of words, whereby the matter enquired after is propounded, is conducible to knowledge; nay, the only way _to know_, is by _definition_. But this is prejudicial to _faith_; for those things which exceed human capacity, and are propounded to be believed, are never more evident by explication, but, on the contrary, more obscure and harder to be credited. And the same thing befalls a man, who endeavours to demonstrate _the mysteries of faith_ by natural reason, which happens to a sick man, who will needs chew before he will swallow his wholesome but bitter pills; whence it comes to pass, that he presently brings them up again; which perhaps would otherwise, if he had taken them well down, have proved his remedy. [Sidenote: What it is to believe in Christ.] 5. We have seen therefore what it is _to believe_. But what is it _to believe in Christ_? Or what proposition is that, which is the object of our faith in Christ? For when we say, _I believe in Christ_, we signify indeed whom, but not what we believe. Now, _to believe in Christ_ is nothing else but to believe that Jesus is the Christ, namely, he who according to the prophecies of Moses and the prophets of Israel, was to come into this world _to institute the kingdom of God_. And this sufficiently appears out of the words of Christ himself to Martha (John xi. 25-27): _I am_, saith he, _the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ the Son of God, which should come into the world._ In which words, we see that the question, _believest thou in me_, is expounded by the answer, _thou art the Christ_. To believe in Christ therefore is nothing else but to believe Jesus himself, saying that he is the Christ. [Sidenote: That that article alone, that Jesus is the Christ, is necessary to salvation, is proved out of the scope of the evangelists.]