Their sole concern was to state the truth and its evidence; it does not appear that any one ever inquired of them what they meant by "faith:" every body knew their meaning, for they used it in the simplest sense, the sense in which it was used in common life. But is there not an essential difference between saving faith and other kinds of faith; or between the belief of gospel facts and other facts? Yes, but the difference relates to the things believed, rather than to the mode of believing them, and to the different degrees in which they affect our eternal interests.* Such, my Lord, is the Scripture view of the Christian faith. What think you of it? Do you see any thing absurd, preposterous in it? I am not unacquainted with your lordship's judgments in chancery, which I have often read with unmixed satisfaction; and I shall cheerfully leave the point to your lordship's decision. The next subject on which I beg leave to speak, is the duty of believing the gospel; and here again I shall appeal to the Scriptures. From them it is clear as words can can make it, that belief is the duty of all to whom the truth is addressed; every soul who hears it is invited, exhorted, commanded to believe it! The gospel comes invested with all the authority of a law, demanding the obedience of faith from all who hear it. Here it is that your lordship is fearfully at issue with the apostles! They represent unbelief as a heinous offence against God, ascribing it to the depravity of the human heart, to culpable ignorance, to pride, and to * James ii. 19; Luke xxiv. 41. Acts xvi. 31; 1 John iii. 33; Mark i. 15; v. 36; Luke viii. 50; John vi. 29; xii. 36. 2 Cor. v. 20; Rom. i. 5; vi. 17; x. 16. aversion from God!* Nor is this all: God has threat ened the infliction of the most awful judgments on those who believe not in the Lord Jesus Christ! These are the true sayings of God, and it behoves both small and great to take heed how they permit the voice of a vain philosophy, to seduce them from the path marked out by the apostles. Observe, my Lord, the consequences which flow from the doctrines laid down in these Scriptures. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Now, these passages declare that the sin of unbelief will be visited with eternal perdition! But, if unbelief be thus punishable, must it not be culpable? If culpable, must it not be voluntary? Therefore, let the "Great Truth" go forth, and sound through all the halls of learning, all the seats of science, all the academic bowers of our land, that MAN SHALL HENCEFORTH REMEMBER THAT HE MUST RENDER AN ACCOUNT TO GOD FOR HIS BELIEF, OVER WHICH HE HAS ALL NEEDFUL CONTROL. Henceforward nothing shall prevail upon us to excuse or pity that which he may as promptly change as his position or his garment. There are professed adherents of the Christian faith who take your lordship's view of man's moral impotence; but with them I have no sympathy. I appeal to the apostles! Man's inability, according to them, is his crime, not his misfortune. He cannot, because he will not! The source of unbelief is man's natural aversion to * Rom. x. 3; 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4; Matt. xiii. 19; Luke viii. 12; Psa. x. 4; John v. 44; xii. 43; v. 40. † Mark xvi. 15, 16; John iii. 18; Luke xix. 27; 2 Thess. ii. 10-12. * God, which alone renders Divine influence necessary in order to faith. Such influence, however, is necessary in order to faith, only as it is necessary to induce attention to evidence. Man believes the gospel upon evidence, not from a Divine, irresistible impulse. The Divine influence which the Scriptures represent as exerted upon him, mainly consists in removing aversion of heart, the source of ignorance, the source of infidelity. This aversion the Spirit of God removes, by quickening and illumining the soul, and imparting a spiritual taste, by which the truth of the gospel is discerned, and relished, and believed on evidence. But let it be distinctly understood, that the gift or influence of the Spirit of God is not the ground or condition of men's obligation to believe the gospel. It is nothing more than the exciting cause of compliance with a previous obligation. The influences, therefore, of the Holy Spirit are to be viewed, not as matter of debt due to sinful man, but simply of pure mercy and favour-the gift of God's mercy through the work and mediation of Christ. The change, or thing, called conversion, therefore, is entirely and exclusively the work of the Holy Spirit, in the fullest sense, without any reserve, exception, or qualification whatever, since "no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit." It has been long the practice of mere literary men to represent faith as a thing which had nothing practical about it—nothing affecting the heart or life. On no point have their folly and ignorance been more lamentably exemplified. But let such men know, that, in addition to its effects on the heart and the life, the *Rom. viii. 7. belief of the Gospel serves an all-important purpose in respect to the justification of the sinner before God. The term Justification, in connexion with the Gospel of Christ, refers to courts of justice, and stands opposed to condemnation. Justification, however, in the Gospel sense, consists not in acquittal, but of pardon, and of righteousness.* Pardon removes the curse due to sin; but righteousness is connected with the blessing of eternal life; the first is the remission of sin; the second, the imputation of righteousness.† But when does justification take place? When the sinner believes the Divine testimony. He remains under condemnation, from which nothing can deliver him, till he repent and believe; and from that moment he is justified. This great blessing is obtained solely through believing the Gospel. He who believes in Christ is said to be united to him; and thus united, he is treated by God as one with him: Christ's obedience unto death is imputed to the believer, or reckoned as his; and he, for Christ's sake, is delivered from condemnation. The believer is considered and treated as innocent, and entitled to eternal life, as much as if, from first to last, he had been perfectly obedient to the law of God, in thought, word, and deed. This is one of the important ends served by faith: but it is only one. Faith exerts an all-powerful influence on the heart in sanctification. Justification is a change concerning a sinner; sanctification is a change within him: in justification, he obtains pardon of sin, and a title to heaven; in sanctification, purification from the pollution of sin, and a meetness for heaven. Rom. v. 16. + Rom. vi. 23; John iii. 15, 16; vi. 54. If philosophers would read the Scriptures, my Lord, they would find, that so far from faith exerting no influence on the heart, its exertion of such influence is the principal proof of its existence. Sanctification always follows justification. The same faith which removes guilt, cleanses from pollution. The larger the measure of sanctification, the greater is the proof of justification.* In strict speech, it is not mere belief that sanctifies, but the TRUTH which is believed. How, then, is faith necessary? Because truth- and error also can operate upon the soul only through belief.† The prayer of Christ demonstrates that gospel truth is the grand element of sanctification; that prayer runs thus: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." That truth is applied to the soul through faith; hence the declaration of the apostle, concerning the first family of Gentile converts; "God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Thus, while, in the work of renovation, the Spirit of God is the proper agent, the word of God is the proper means. The man in whom this work is fairly begun, is, in Scripture, said to be "a new creature,-old things are passed away, and all things are become new." This renovation consists, not in superadding to his soul new powers or faculties, but in his deliverance from ignorance, unrighteousness, and depravity; and in his restoration to the image of God "in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness."§ By * Isa. lxii. 12; 1 Pet. i. 2. † 2 Thess. ii. 13; Heb. xi. 7, 17, 23—29, 33—38. Acts xv. 8, 9. § Col. iii. 9, 10; Eph. iv. 23, 24. |
