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distinct from reliance on Christ for salvation: but even here faith had the same general nature; it cordially received the testimony of God, and in his prescribed way expected the performance of his promises, from his divine mercy, power, and faithfulness; and had reference to the predicted Messiah, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed. The same faith, which interested these ancient servants of God in Christ for justification, influenced them to render the promptest obedience in the most difficult circumstances: and it is observable, that the same actions, which the apostle ascribes to faith as their principle, are elsewhere spoken of as the result and evidence of other holy dispositions. "By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac." "By this I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." Heb. xi. 17. Gen. xxii. 12. The words of the Lord Jesus to the apostle of the Gentiles shows the holy nature, as well as the sanctifying efficacy, of true faith. "I send thee to them, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me.' This commission the apostle executed, by "showing that men should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance:" Acts xxvi. 16—20. and certainly it implies that sinners are illuminated, and converted unto God, in order to their forgiveness, and not in consequence of it. And as sanctification is here ascribed to the efficacy of faith in Christ, so our Lord elsewhere says, "Sanctify them by thy truth; thy word is truth." John xvii. 17. Holy truth alone can be the seed of holiness in the soul: "the good seed is the word of the kingdom :" but tares produce tares: and an honest and good heart is the only ground in which that seed takes root, springs up, and brings forth fruit; or a holy faith alone can so receive the holy truth, as to use it in progressive sanctification. Dropping the metaphor, Christ had before said to the eleven, "Now ye are clean, through the word which I have spoken unto you:" John xv. 3. Thus our Lord, while Judas was present, said to the apostles, "Ye are clean, but not all:" yet after the traitor was gone, he said to the eleven, "Now ye are clean through the word I have spoken to you."-It is however evident, not only that Judas had heard the same word; but that his faith differed from that of the other apostles, more in the manner of his believing, than in the doctrines he believed.

Indeed every thing holy in the hearts and lives of sinners, (except regeneration) is ascribed in the Scriptures to the energy of faith in its varied exercises; whereas many seem almost entirely to confine this influence to justification, except as they, without the least warrant from Scripture, speak of its regenerating the soul! Christians live by faith, stand by faith, walk by faith, obey by faith, fight the good fight of faith, overcome the world by faith, and are kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation." The shield of faith is one principle part of our spiritual armour; and as every other part of this panoply of God denotes things of a holy nature, why should faith alone be deemed an exception? Or are we justified by one kind of faith, and do we fight our enemies by another? We read of "the work of faith, the labour of love, and the patience of hope:" but who can imagine, that the apostle meant a holy love, a holy hope, and an unholy faith?" As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him," (that is, by the same kind of faith ;) "rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught." Col. ii. 6, 7.

It has been repeatedly observed, that true faith, by receiving the sure testimony of God, appropriates the information he bestows on those most important subjects, concerning which unbelief must remain in ignorance, or be left to uncertain reasonings and conjectures. It is therefore a real act of faith to believe on this sure testimony, that "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God:" that "we cannot serve God and Mammon:" and that "no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and

of God; let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." If then a person be actually living in the practice of any of these iniquities, and yet think himself a justified person because of his creed and experience; his confidence is the result of direct unbelief, and expressly treats the plain testimony of God as a lie:

It is indeed a distinct act of faith to believe that "Jesus is the Son of God;" that " he died for our sins, and rose again for our justification:" and that "he is able to save to the uttermost all them that come to God by him; seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." But it would be very absurd to suppose, that these divine testimonies contradict those before mentioned; or that any man truly believed the one, while he directly disbelieved the other! When therefore a sinner is brought truly to believe those declarations of Scripture, which show his real state and character, he is prepared to believe also those truths which relate to Christ and his salvation, and will certainly apply to him for deliverance from sin as well as from condemnation. This is properly faith in Christ, and it is immediately connected with justification; but it implies the belief of all other truths contained in the sacred oracles, as far as they are understood and seen to be there revealed. Such of these as relate to the perfections, authority, and glory of God, with our relations and accountableness to him, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, a future judgment, and eternal happiness or misery; when set before the soul by that "faith, which is the evidence of things not seen," are suited to call forth awful reverential fear of God, and of his holy heart-searching presence, dread of his wrath, regard to his will, sorrow for sin, humiliation, and abhorrence of evil. The realizing belief of those truths, which more especially relate to the gospel, is equally calculated to excite a lively hope of mercy; a purifying, establishing, yea triumphant expectation of heavenly felicity; ardent longings after spiritual blessings, counterbalanced with jealous fears of coming short of them; admiring, adoring, grateful love; zeal for the honour of God, and the success of true religion; proportional disregard to temporal interests or losses, pains or pleasures, honour or dishonour; unfeigned and fervent love of our brethren and neighbours and even of our most embittered enemies; and still deeper self-abasement and hatred of all sin.

These affections, when vigorous and permanent, being connected with a firm dependence on the promises of the new covenant, and maintained in exercise by "communion with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ," through the sacred influences of the Holy Spirit, sre fully adequate to the ends for which they were intended; and cannot but impel and constrain the lively believer to the most self-denying and devoted obedience, and the most persevering patience in suffering for the sake of Christ and the gospel. Hence originated all those extraordinary actions of zealous obedience, courageous firmness, and unwearied endurance which the Scriptures record, and which have appeared in the character and conduct of saints and martyrs in every age of the church. And upon diligent and patient investigation it will be found, that this view of faith consolidates, as it were, and harmonizes the whole of what the oracles of God teach us on these subjects; so that precepts, doctrines, promises, threatenings, exhortations, invitations, cautions, and delineations of character, all here meet in full agreement.

Man is justly condemned for breaking the holy and good law of his Creator, and for being an enemy to him in his heart. The way of reconciliation and recovery is provided in Emmanuel's person and redemption, to the praise of the glory of God. All who truly believe are fully pardoned and justified, and shall be eternally saved: this faith is the effect of regeneration, and results from spiritual life; it implies true repentance in its very essence; it works by love of God and man; it purifies the heart and overcomes the world; it gradually forms the character, regulates the temper and passions, influences the words and actions, and thus, through the continued agency of the Holy Spirit, renders the believer fruitful and zealous in all good works.

"In Christ Jesus nothing availeth, but faith that worketh by love ;""nothing availeth but a new creature."-" Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1 Cor. vii. 19. Gal. v. 6; vi. 15. According to the view given above, these several propositions perfectly coincide. The new creature exercises faith that worketh by love; and "this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous." "He," says the divine Saviour, "that hath my commandments and keepeth them; he it is that loveth me." "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." And St. John says, "And this is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you." " This commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God loveth his brother also."

If St. James says, "Faith without works is dead;" St. Paul plainly teaches that no faith availeth, except that which worketh by love. And when the former inquires, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" he answers his own question, by adding, "Seest thou how faith wrought by his works, and by works was faith made perfect: and the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God." James ii. 14-26.

The question' to be resolved in the decision of every man's doom at the day of judgment, according to numerous Scriptures, must be this, "Was he a believer in Christ or not?"-If any one profess faith in Christ, it will be inquired, "Whether his faith were living or dead?" Whether or not it wrought by love of Christ, and of his brethren for Christ's sake?" As a man's actions when the whole shall be disclosed, determine this point, so will his sentence be: while the degree of the unbeliever's guilt will fix the measure of his punishment; and the believer will be graciously recompensed in proportion to his fruitfulness. This seems to elucidate and harmonize all the representations given us of this infinitely momentous concern. The holy judge himself hath solemnly warned his professed disciples on this all-important subject, when, with unspeakable dignity, he declares, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.-Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto you, I never knew you, Depart from me ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." The wise man doubtless is the true Christian: his faith is living and obedient: thus he builds aright on the only sure foundation, and raises a permanent structure, which all the storms of life and death shall assail in vain. But many foolish men, professing to build on the tried foundation which God hath laid, are either misled by erring guides, or mistake the instructions and slight the warnings of wise master-builders: thus they deceive themselves with notions, and with a dead faith; their presumptuous confidence and disobedient profession will make way for the awful fall of their fair but baseless edifice, in the great decisive day; and unutterable astonishment, anguish, and despair, will seize upan them, when the frowning Judge shall leave them speechless, while, with an awful frown, he will say, "I never knew you, Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity."

Whether, therefore, we consider the author and origin of saving faith, its invariable attendants, its essential nature, or its distinguishing effects, we

find unanswerable proof that it is a holy exercise of the rational soul; that it has its especial seat in the heart; that it receives the light of heavenly truth in holy love; and it employs that light to invigorate and call forth into action all spiritual affections, and to render the believer "holy in all manner of conversation." But if each view of saving faith, considered separately, demonstrate its holy nature: how powerful and overbearing is the evidence, when we collect all these converging rays into one focus, and estimate the force of these several arguments united together! If this do not convince the reader; but he will yet contend that justifying faith is the mere assent of the understanding partially enlightened, and the reluctant consent of an unhumbled unholy heart, as terrified by the report of vengeance, to sue for mercy of which it feels no real need; and yet that this selfish unholy faith sanctifies the soul, and produces most excellent fruit in the life! Or that true faith is neither the one nor the other of these, but something between that can neither be defined nor described; he must retain his opinion, and be left as inaccessible to argument. Some may indeed question whether he do not verge to the honest but absurd exclamation of an ancient zealot," Credo quia impossibile est :"(I believe, because it is impossible :) and, whatever favourable opinion we may form of his heart, we must again affirm that it is impossible for him to " give a reason of the hope that is in him." But if any one, allowing in general the truth of those things that have been stated concerning saving faith, should yet feel some hesitation about the use of the word holy in this connexion: the author will hold no controversy with him on this point. Provided the essential and unspeakably important distinction between living and dead faith were unreservedly allowed, and given its due prominence in the views and discourses of Christians and ministers; the rest would be in great measure a verbal controversy, from which every wise man would turn to more pleasant and profitable employ

ments.

SECTION VI.

Some Reasons assigned for insisting on the Holy Nature of Saving Faith.

Ir may probably be inquired by the reader, why we bestow so much pains to prove the holy nature of saving faith; seeing we allow that the sinner makes no use of this holiness as an encouragement, and indeed seldom notices it, in his first applications to Christ for salvation? To this question I would

answer.

I. It is in order to induce Christians, and especially ministers, to use the scriptural method of preventing men from deceiving themselves. It will be found at the great decisive day, that nothing has more conduced to quiet nominal Christians in impenitence and unbelief, than a groundless persuasion that they do indeed repent and believe. The laboured arguments, therefore, of the preceding pages are not so much intended for the use of newly awakened persons, as for more established Christians; and especially for those who, by office or in charity, instruct and converse frequently with persons thus circumstanced. Indeed discussions on such topics cannot be fully understood, except by those "who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil" and of course they are generally improper for the new-born babe. But the instructions publicly or privately given to inquirers, will accord to the sentiments and judgment of real Christians, and especially those of the pastors of the Lord's flock: whatever therefore tends to a sound understanding of Scripture, among those who already believe the gospel, will conduce to prevent self-deception in others, when first entering on a religious

profession. And prevention is almost our only hope: for the most able and experienced ministers have agreed, that the undeceiving of one, whom Satan has soothed into a false peace by an unsound profession of the gospel, is a thing which very seldom occurs.

It is commonly indeed answered, that "many will deceive themselves, however we may state and explain the doctrine of faith:" but surely we should dread, as the most awful calamity, being in any degree accessory to the destructive delusion! And if we do not dread it on their account, we have proportionable need to be alarmed on our own, lest "their blood should be required at our hands." Even when the good seed, unmingled with tares, is sown; the deceitfulness and wickedness of the heart, the wiles of the tempter, and the fascinations of the world, will influence many to "speak peace to themselves, when there is no peace:" but "while the servants slept the enemy sowed the tares," and all their subsequent vigilance could not eradicate them; for these "children of the wicked one" must be left intermixed with true believers till the harvest. Some good men indeed, in their earnestness to gather up the tares, have endangered the wheat, and "offended against the generation of God's children :" but may not vigilance and caution be used by way of prevention, without the least danger of that kind?

If we do not, in the most careful and explicit manner, explain what we mean by salvation and by faith, Satan will prevail with men to catch at peace and comfort prematurely, and to use our words for this purpose: and thus we shall incur the charge of "healing their hurt deceitfully," by "speaking peace when there is no peace." Men are exceedingly apt to conclude, even when the utmost caution is used in stating the doctrines of the gospel, that exemption from punishment and a title to future happiness constitute the whole of salvation, and that confidence in Christ to save them from wrath and bring them to heaven, though they do not concur in other respects with the design of his incarnation and mediation, is faith in him. And if they once get so thoroughly possessed of these notions, through our inaccuracy and incautious language, as to quiet their consciences by them; whenever we afterwards insist on the fruits of faith, and its sanctifying effects in holy tempers and good works, they will (not altogether without reason) charge us with inconsistency; and meet with numbers to encourage them in exclaiming against all these exhortations, as legal, as tending to bring them into bondage. So that while it is allowed that many, who give a very different description of faith from that which is here maintained, bestow much pains to guard their doctrine from abuse, and clearly show that true faith always produces holiness: it is also asserted that in these attempts they deviate from their own previous definition of faith, and substitute another idea in its place. True believers are doubtless holy in proportion to the degree of their faith: and if their hope be scriptural, the more assured it is, the more steadfast, unmoveable, and earnestly abounding in the work of the Lord," they will certainly be found. But we inquire, whether many do not "think themselves something when they are nothing, and so deceive themselves?" Whether many, who disclaim good works, do not satisfy their minds with visionary impulses, enthusiastical raptures, and a change of creed, though strangers to that holy calling of which the apostle spoke? 2 Tim. i. 9. Whether there be not a dead faith as well as a living faith? Whether the former be not often more confident than the latter? Whether there be not a groundless presumption, as well as "a hope that maketh not ashamed?" And whether an unholy faith and confidence can be sanctifying? It is true that several of the persons to whom these questions are proposed, are completely exculpated from all intention to loosen the believer's obligation to obedience : but good men may endorse and give currency to bad bills, and thus incautiously aid the dishonest to defraud their unsuspecting neighbours. Nor let it be forgotten, that we can only judge of the tendency of the doctrine, and are not at all required to decide on the intention of the teacher.

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Shrewd men of corrupt minds, such "as privily bring in damnable here

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